Brilliant thinking. We did something similar because we never used our formal dining room either. We had this formal dining/living room combo that was so haughty that we never used it. :) So we took our family room furniture, threw it into the living/dining area and now we use those 2 rooms as our great room. We love it because we went wild with oranges, reds, yellows to make it fun and inviting. Then we took our family room and turned it into the sewing studio. Lots of room in there. We don't even miss the formal dining area. Mary