It seems the days of elaborate dinner parties and formal meal times with the children are gone, as more of us knock through the dining room. Yes, the dining room is dead according to the Halifax, who recently reported that more than half a million dining rooms in British homes are likely to be demolished over the next 12 months as homeowners knock down walls to create bigger living space.

There was a time when life revolved around dining: the perk of getting ahead on the corporate ladder meant an expense account lunch every other day, followed by afternoon tea brought to your office by a tea lady trained in silver service, and then home for a few gin and tonics by the fire before sitting down in the dining room with the wife and children. Gastronomic delights were served from the hostess trolley and the meal was spent discussing the day’s events, giving little Johnny a ticking off if he didn’t use his napkin.

Now, our busy lifestyles mean we have no room for the trolley and the dining room gathers dust until Christmas. We steam through 12-hour days with a pit stop at Starbucks or a tuna sandwich from a service station on the M25, getting home on the wrong side of 7pm to the kids fighting over the Wii, and just enough time to eat a quick-fix dinner. So where is the time to interact and teach those table manners, if we don’t sit around a dining room table?

This is where the open plan kitchen comes in handy; new homes developers are creating a space which includes breakfast bar, dining area and comfy seating section so the family congregates in one room, allowing us that brief moment of communication with the partner, the 2.4 children and the dog. We can eat, talk and check the homework has been done, before collapsing on the sofa to watch the repeat of EastEnders on a 50in plasma screen.

So, losing the dining room shouldn’t necessarily mean our kids become socially-inept beings, unable to hold a knife and fork properly. The blurred lines of cooking, eating and socialising allow us to involve the children in meal times, and dine less formally. We might not be sitting at a dining room table, but we are still spending time together, albeit in a slightly disjointed way!

Paul Hogarth is partner and head of new homes sales and marketing for Knight Frank in the South East.

To contact his residential development team call 01483 564660.