DIL posh family - advice needed

kittylester

A salon just sounds like a better class of saloon but much less fun.

I think I'd prefer a saloon myself, kittylester

Maybe I could spice the salon up a bit for you?
Forget the discussions.

M0nica

Drawing room is just one of the many names for a room where people mainly relax and sit. Lounge, living room, drawing room, sitting room, salon, reception room, parlour, front room. All have different origins, that deep in the annals of time may have had social connotations, but nowadays, who cares?

Call it anything you like, personally I say living room or sitting room.

I dont think you would if you have both a living room and sitting room already. I haven't come across a house where a "drawing room" was the name of the only reception room.

We had a house with a Drawing Room and three other main reception rooms. There are always some names you aren't comfortable with and it really was a beautiful Victorian addition to a very old house. It suited Drawing Room and was used mainly when we were entertaining. It worked for us and really, in the end what others think is of little consequence if you are comfortable. I still can't think what else we could or would have called it.

I haven't come across a house where a "drawing room" was the name of the only reception room
Well that's your experience but not necessarily that of other people.
Like mine.
Proves nothing.
This is getting so tedious.

My grandmother, an Irish immigrant, born into poverty and making her own way in the world, always referred to the living room as the 'drawing room'

I hadn't come across that Monica. All in all it doesn't seem to have been such a "weird" word.

Joseann - my morning room has become part of my kitchen

One of our reception rooms is called The Playroom - no idea what that says about us. Except, maybe, that we had a lot of children and needed somewhere to put them out of the way.

NotSpaghetti

Joseann - my morning room has become part of my kitchen

Aha, so is it your breakfast room then?! ☕️ 🥞

No, it's just my kitchen now as the wall was removed.

I suppose names hang on and their use changes.
Our "Dining Room" became a second sitting room as we now eat in the kitchen. We still call it the dining room though - out of habit.

Yes, and names evolve too which fit the purpose of each room, like snuggery and den, or even man cave which is nothing like its prehistoric meaning! I'm sure the OP could have great fun researching the topic with her DGD without turning it into any big issue!

Joseann

Yes, and names evolve too which fit the purpose of each room, like snuggery and den, or even man cave which is nothing like its prehistoric meaning! I'm sure the OP could have great fun researching the topic with her DGD without turning it into any big issue!

There's also "pod" these days although I think I would end up calling it something more friendly.

M0nica

My grandmother, an Irish immigrant, born into poverty and making her own way in the world, always referred to the living room as the 'drawing room'

I was more brought up by my working class Grandparents. They had a normal 3 bed semi detached house with a veranda on the back. They had a porch and front room which was never used and kept impeccably clean and tidy with all their best furniture and art on the walls. The back room was a sort of sitting room/dining room just off a small kitchen. Everyone they 'knew' called to the back door, was let into the kitchen and then went into the sitting room.

If anyone called to the front porch which led to the front room a whole manner of panic set in, which me and my Mum still joke about to this day I have often wondered if this happened in other people's houses!

That said....I live in a dual aspect house, which basically means a small house with a hall in the middle and a lounge/sitting room to one side and a kitchen diner to the other. If you have guessed right, my tidy room is the sitting room which I suppose I show people I don;t know very well into and the kitchen/ diner is where we spend most of our time and where I'd most probably take anyone I knew well. So I have basically carried on a tradition

My grandmother rarely used her 'Drawing room', except in the summer. She only had enough money to heat one room, so that, inevitably, was the smaller back room, which had the dining table and chairs as well as a couple of easy chairs, the radio and bookcase.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202401/medium-127247-medium-822778-20220630-192545.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202401/medium-41313-e31cdbd4-0213-4946-8a34-1e9917459d52-0.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202401/medium-623783-7d32d06e-8caa-46f2-9c00-189803f156dc-7.png

Spurred on by the discussions on here, (and because I am inquisitive), I unearthed a photo of my grandparents' London townhouse today to try and remember all the rooms. My search took me to rightmove where I found an identical property in the same road, and yes, there it is the drawing room on the first floor, with a balcony, in all its splendour!

I live in a dual aspect house, which basically means a small house with a hall in the middle and a lounge/sitting room to one side and a kitchen diner to the other.
This sounds like the layout of my MIL's house. She always refers to what I would call the sitting room as 'the Room', pronounced with a capital R . MIL is nearly 100 now, so isn't bustling about in the kitchen like she used to, but for many years the Room was where guests were shown, and where the family sat in the evenings. The rest of the time everyone used the kitchen/diner.

What do people call the currently fashionable open plan areas? They aren't 'rooms', but zones, really. Maybe the idea of a sitting room, a dining room and a kitchen will die out altogether if the trend continues, and the terminology with it? I'm told that open plan is on the way out because of the cost of heating though.

Joseann, I m hopeless at links but spurred on by yours, I googled house sales on the street my grandparents lived. The terraces were demolished and new terraces built, it’s now xxx Court, rather than xxxx Street. The lavatories are in the house now, not in the yard, well the yards are now gardens. They’re selling at £125,00
Luxury 😀

I find the interesting bit Iam64 is to look at the floorplans of past houses and find how the rooms are configured these days, and what they are named.
Court does sound a bit more upmarket than Street, I agree!

I took my children to see my grandparents' house and, as they say in Wales, there it was - gone!
It had become part of a park.

I remember there being a sitting room where Grandad sat in a leather armchair, then down two steps to a kitchen and dining area. The lavatory was down the garden, backing on to the park.

Joseann

Spurred on by the discussions on here, (and because I am inquisitive), I unearthed a photo of my grandparents' London townhouse today to try and remember all the rooms. My search took me to rightmove where I found an identical property in the same road, and yes, there it is the drawing room on the first floor, with a balcony, in all its splendour!

That looks very posh, Joseann!

That is my dream house, Joseann. Beautiful.

Yes, Callistemon, I think it's the most expensive property on the Monopoly board! The dark blue one!

Most of the properties are flats or hotels these days because who needs such posh big houses?!

Joseann

Spurred on by the discussions on here, (and because I am inquisitive), I unearthed a photo of my grandparents' London townhouse today to try and remember all the rooms. My search took me to rightmove where I found an identical property in the same road, and yes, there it is the drawing room on the first floor, with a balcony, in all its splendour!

What a beautiful room with such lovely paneling.

What a beautiful room with such lovely paneling.
The lighting makes it just so!