The Dining Room in the NC Mountain Lake House has a unique feature.  It does Double Duty, but in a different way than I've ever done before.  Those who are familiar with my books will know that I question the need for multiple dining areas in our houses. In most homes, the formal dining room sits vacant 99% of the time, waiting for those one or two occasions per year when there's a need for a larger, or more formal dining area. I've advocated for a dining area that does double duty, designed primarily for everyday meals for the household, but with the ability to transform on those occasions when a more formal setting is required.

NC Mountain Lake House floor plan (dining room is on the left)

The NC Mountain Lake House sports a new twist on the Double Duty Dining idea. It has a "transformer" dining room table composed of two separate tables, which actually creates three tables in one:

a breakfast table,

an everyday dining table,

and a formal dining table capable of seating ten.

This multi-functional table allows the dining room, with its amazing view of the lake, to be used every day (see first diagram below), but also to transform into a formal space when needed (see second diagram below).