The dining room is your home's temple of elegance -- in theory, anyway. In fact, it's usually the place where you pay the bills, do your taxes and banish the kids to color in silence before you go quietly insane. Where did all those dreams of hosting charming dinner parties (with the good china and crystal) go? If that gleaming wood dining table -- the one that requires so much care and caution -- sometimes seems like an inconvenient relic of a bygone era, we've got a few clever ideas to transform your dining room into the convenient haven it ought to be.
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