We gave up a formal dining room two moves ago. However, my beloved Pier One dining table has made the move with us those two moves.  In our most recent house, as much as I loved my dining table, it just wasn’t working in the space. It’s lack of intentionality really showed. To navigate between our new oversized island and the chairs of the table your hips would end up in a swaying motion to no music playing. After the addition of our puppy I realized the furniture was actually living in the space more than we were.  It does not hurt my feelings or concern me at all to not have a formal dining room. When we host and entertain,  people have always gravitated to the kitchen and around our kitchen island. For this reason when we renovated our kitchen we maximized the island top to accommodate five seated.  Therefore, eliminating a formal large dining table was a natural decision and repurposing the space with intention in a breakfast nook has changed the entire use and livability of the space! As always, I am simply sharing our process with an emphasis on the decision making behind the design. My husband and I should not be your source for a DIY tutorial but more of inspiration as you look at the opportunities of your own home.  We claim no responsibility for DIY gone wrong ;).