POLL: Lounge, living room, sitting room or front room?

8 years ago

As people merge their kitchens with their lounges and dining spaces, will the way we refer to our living rooms change? Do you refer to this space differently depending on whether it's in the basement, as part of an extension or in the front room?

There are so many names to describe this area of the home, but which term do you use? Let us know below!

Victorian Living Room · More Info

Living room

Lounge

Sitting room

Front room

Other - share below!

Featured Answer

maggieandrichard

8 years ago

Drawing room is very elegant but is only acceptable if you have a very large house (should be withdrawing room). It would sound a bit pretentious in a two-bed semi!

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Comments (50)

hounoc
8 years ago
Drawing Room :) (or sitting room)
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Antony Gibbon
8 years ago
Living Room seems more versatile..
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Rob
8 years ago
Only airports and hotels have lounges I have been told ;-)
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Stella Michael
8 years ago
From experience it depends more what country you're from, and in the UK what class you belong to/grew up in, partly how old you are and I suspect London v other areas. In Australia we tend to have lounge rooms, here in the UK people have living rooms (or front rooms) ... makes me smile, the words say a bit about the cultures too. That's my very general observation having lived in both countries for 20+ years. I prefer a lounge room myself ... you can take the girl out of Oz but ...
maggieandrichard
8 years ago
Living room or sitting room. Lounges are only for ships or pubs.
anieta007
8 years ago
I think it depends how many rooms you have downstairs
163 hrd
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Oh dear, I am never saying lounge again! I always said living room when I lived in the US, but I adopted the word used by my English husband's family. Obviously they have dragged me down...
163 hrd
8 years ago
How strange I have never heard of a lounge in a pub, and goodness knows I have been in a very large number!
PRO
Stella Michael
8 years ago
Hey, what's all the disparaging about the word 'lounge', sounds a bit snobbish. I don't like the sound of 'front room' but understand that it's common here in the UK. I thought the question might elicit some open-minded and interesting responses, across cultures, not an attempt to create a hierarchy of which is 'better'.
Sam Hill
8 years ago
Front room is from Victorian 2-up 2-downs. The front room was at the front (obviously), and the kitchen (dining too) and scullery were behind. Lavatory outside.
Sam Hill
8 years ago
Ours is the 'sitting room'. I dislike 'lounge' and 'living room', and find 'front room' strangely warming.
Suzanne Burnell
8 years ago
Lounge is a room (where you'd have a couch instead of a sofa) and should only be used in an airport or pub. Drawing room is fine if you have more than one and is usually the smart room. Front room, again, was the term used in a small (terraced) house for visitors and the family did their everyday living in the kitchen or back room. These back rooms are now knocked through to the front room to make one big room.
163 hrd
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Stellahome, I think this happened because you mentioned the dreaded "class" word. I don't find anyone's remarks offensive. I find them interesting and enlightening.
163 hrd
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Now I have to stop saying couch as well! Maybe it would be just be easier to hang a sign over our bar area saying Duty Free. LOL
hounoc
8 years ago
It doesn't matter a damn what people call it. It's just a room! I was just jokingly throwing 'drawing room' into the mix because drawing room wasn't an option on the list. I think it's just fallen out of use. My parents used it and so did both sets of grandparents. They didn't have particularly grand houses but the 'drawing room' was just the 'good room' where the piano was and the kids weren't allowed to make a mess/ play. It was the room for entertaining visitors in our house and was kept tidy always. No TV in it either so in practice, we did use it for 'withdrawing to' to play the piano or sometimes to read, study or maybe play a board game or listen to music in peace. (BTW I have never heard or even read about anyone referring to a 'withdrawing-room' in practice, even in 19th century novels. They only time I've ever heard people use that phrase is when they're describing where the name 'Drawing Room' cam from originally).

In my own house, I say sitting room as we have our TV in it and we generally use it for sitting/ relaxing! :) In my parents and grandparents' houses the sitting and relaxing and tv watching was done in a different room.

I don't see what's wrong with 'lounge' but it's not commonly used here (Ireland) to my knowledge. I would just consider that a regional variation. 'Living Room' has always sounded strange to me though. I live in all of the rooms in my house. In our (at the moment, notional) new house we hope to have more of an open-plan arrangement containing kitchen/ dining and sitting/ snug area which I think we will probably refer to the 'family room'. I think that's a good name for that kind of room as it's where the family will be together most of the time.
Emmeline Westin
Original Author
8 years ago
@163hrd - You're giving me ideas for another poll :)
163 hrd
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
I am intrigued!
gravel41
8 years ago
(Just going to add my little piece). We have a living room and a sitting room.
The living room is used informally, the children play in it, the family sits around the stove in the winter in it and it is used for informal visits. The sitting room is more formal, in purpose and decor, and used for hosting larger gatherings or formal visitors. (yes, the piano is there too). It all depends on whether one is eating in the kitchen or dining room, because everything revolves around food.
jomoir
8 years ago
I have always thought a lounge is in a hotel, then depending on the size of a house the smaller reception room would be a sitting room and the more formal would be a drawing room.
fincahouse
8 years ago
Who cares if you call it lounge, living room, sitting room etc
Everyone knows what you mean. Different parts of the world call it different things.
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Amber Jeavons Ltd
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Hello Emmeline,

Well I do definitely use the terms living room and drawing room but they are vastly different.. In a larger house a drawing room is formal. Larger estates and homes would have more rooms with specific functions.... We tend to live less formally now and so the uses of the house will have changed accordingly. A large house may have so many rooms that each one has a function and specific purpose.. In a flat or smaller house there simply isn't the luxury, with rooms having multi functions and open plan for example is very much of the time.. So too, manners and etiquette, play a large part in how we receive guests and how we refer to the rooms in our homes..

It's also to do with where and how you were educated, taught by parents and influenced by your peers, and where you grew up, social standing and all that..

Personally I would never say lounge, quite simply... it would "sound" odd.. and the same goes for couch, toilet and so forth.. In summary how you speak and sound is a direct result of outside influence, our parents first and surroundings (where you come from or spend time in formative years, second and most importantly education..

Not.. that sounding like a cockney or very well spoken, for that matter determines intelligence or lack thereof! In the end it comes down to a matter of choice how we speak and the words we use to express ourselves and what comes naturally! What is fashionable or cool within the evolution of language... ... : ))
User
8 years ago
Living room all the way :)
User
8 years ago
They are "parlors" in the South of the US.
163 hrd
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
I grew up in Alabama where all of my extended family refer to it as the living room. It seems to be family custom rather than regional difference.
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Griffin Design & Build
8 years ago
It,s a living room, a live in room a room you live in ?
163 hrd
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Interesting that lounge received the second highest number of votes yet the most negative comments. C' mon all you loungers and stick up for yourselves!
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Wendy Cushing
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
I choose to say the Lounge, why? its for lounging in, not living in, not drawing in......simply to relax, no?
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Starbuilders.co.uk
8 years ago
I have always thought a lounge is in a hotel or bar, a house the smaller room would be a sitting room and the more formal would be a drawing room. The living room is used informally, the children play in it, the family sits around watching the TV
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MK Photography
8 years ago
Living room is more homely - not corporate area
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Rose Hill Interiors
8 years ago
Calling it a living room, depicts an area where the family come together. Front room may not be geographically correct, and lounge sounds a little formal. Most of our clients also prefer this term.
drpepe101
8 years ago
We have a front room and a back room (which also has the kitchen & diner in it).
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SuzanneGoodwin
8 years ago
Living rooms rule
nicolakwai
8 years ago
we have front room/living room as it gets called both. We are mid build on a single storey extension and part of that will be a family room.
My mum lives in a two up two down and they refer to the front room as the parlour (a room kept for best!)
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Ana Zenic Design
8 years ago
Living Room is best
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Malcolm Lewis Designs
8 years ago
I'd call it a living room.
lesley henderson
8 years ago
North east of England, working class people generally say sitting room.

Speaking of pubs, any one remember little rooms in pubs called "snugs"?
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Annabel Smith Interiors
7 years ago
I voted sitting room
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Love Shutters UK
7 years ago
Lounge sounds more relaxing to me.
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M J Painters & Decorators
7 years ago
Living room
User
7 years ago
Living Room
moiraford
7 years ago
We call ours the "gracious lounge" as a laugh. It stuck after we noticed that all photo shoots of those z listers we don't admit to ever looking at, are done in their gracious lounges. ( which are not in any way hotel suites!!!)
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Ergonomic Office Solutions
7 years ago
Any area can be made to work for you particularly if you are working from home and need a productive space efficient area that can be created for multi function use
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Ergonomic Office Solutions
7 years ago
Living room is more descriptive as it could combine a home office to suit your needs. The days of a telly with everything pointed towards it? Now people are making their spaces multi functional
More Storage, designed around you · More Info
Hakkaa The Greedy Fox
7 years ago
Fireplace room :))))
PRO
Form Architecture and Planning
7 years ago
looks great
PRO
Craft and Confetti Boutique
7 years ago
Front room for me! we have three rooms opened into one large living space, this is great when you have a large family. I still say front room, but mainly to describe the location of say my book or glasses if I'm am asking somebody to fetch them for me. It makes for a quicker find :)
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DMLphotography
7 years ago
wow
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KLLangton Decorative Plasterwork
7 years ago
Lounge
lisa77226
7 years ago
I'm a Canadian living in England. It's a living room to my fellow Canadians, and a lounge if I'm talking to someone in the UK.

POLL: Lounge, living room, sitting room or front room?

Comments (50)

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