Do you strictly reserve the sacred table for holidays and entertaining guests? Although the name dining room is distinctive, this space can serve other purposes in a home, from kids’ homework to holiday wrapping to an occasional puzzle.

According to interior designer Meghann Landry of McMillin Interiors, these rooms should be a comfortable area for your family to gather on all occasions. She says that “formal” dining spaces aren’t necessarily making a comeback; “dining spaces that feel more usable and livable are, though.”

Landry notes that the best way to ensure a successful space is to consider your lifestyle, keeping in mind the way you’ll be using the dining room on a daily basis.

“These spaces aren’t just about finding a table and chairs,” she says, “but can instead be a thoughtful representation on how you like to entertain or gather.”

Landry and the team at McMillin Interiors designed the LSU Lakes-set home pictured above. In the home’s dining space, the goal was not just accommodating the homeowners’ large extended family, but also creating a room everyone wanted to gather in.

“The room was specifically designed around the table, which is a family heirloom,” Landry notes. “Dining rooms hold wallpaper so well, and this Gracie paper completely set the stage for comfortable entertaining while blending old and new. It’s beautiful while being a completely livable space you want to use.”

And that’s the value of including a formal space in your home, according to Landry. Fancy dinners aren’t the only way a dining room can come alive, and they shouldn’t be. From simple breakfasts to makeshift tea parties with grandkids to after-dinner drinks, when you invest in making a space you love, it’ll become a special place you want to be all the time.

See the rest of this home in this story from the inRegister archives.