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[denisemb]

See below.

[denisemb]

On 4/9/2014 BlueCollarBabe said:

On 4/9/2014 happy housewife said:

On 4/8/2014 BlueCollarBabe said:

It sounds a bit pretentious to me these days. Smacks of the early 2000's "let them eat cake" arrogance.

You seem to be the only one who feels this way.

As I stated previously I meant that the term "great room" sounded a bit pretentious not the actual room. But as often happens here people misunderstood. Oh, well.

Don't know why the last post went missing, but here goes again:

BCB, in essence, you are correct in that "great room" sounds pretentious (per Wikipedia):

The concept of a great room hearkens back to the romanticized ideal of great halls and great chambers in medieval castles, which contained one large central room where everything happened.

[BonnieBelle]

I can see calling it a great room if you lived in a mansion and had huge rooms.

[jubilant]

On 4/8/2014 Marienkaefer2 said:

I've been hearing this term for years. It is for a house with an open floor plan that does not have separate living and family rooms. Instead, there is just one large, or great, room.

That's a good explanation of it!

[Silkeej]

On 4/9/2014 faeriemoon said:

On 4/8/2014 Craftie said:

When we purchased our new home about five years ago, I think they had changed the name from great room to bonus room, it is a separate room from the family room. It's a room large enough for the family to gather in and have fun. I have both downstairs I have a family room with a fireplace, it's off the kitchen and we use it daily like a living room and upstairs I have a bonus room with a fireplace, bumper pool table, game table, and large curved sectional for a few people to gather on. We love it, kids use it for having friends over and they are not disturbing those of us say watching a movie in the family room.

I've always thought a bonus room was the room over the garage.

Not now a days its a big room that is part of the house, we have a double garage with a exercise room above it.

[mousiegirl]

Out here, a great room is a family room/kitchen open to each other. A family room is a separate room, as is the kitchen.

[goodstuff]

It's a very common term in our area and has been for the last couple of decades, at least. A great room is the main family room in a home that usually has no formal living room. I think great rooms became popular as a move to get away from the stiff, formal living rooms that took up space in homes in the past and were seldom used except for company occasions. A great room is a living room designed and intended for everyday family living.

In my parents' home, the living room and formal dining room adjoined each other in the front part of the house. They had spotless, formal furniture that none of us were allowed to sit on on "regular days". The doors to those rooms were kept closed except for holidays and when we were entertaining company, and the rooms were off limits to children. We lived in the family room at the back of the house, which had a fireplace and comfortable furniture, and on the screened porch.