What can you use a formal living room for if you have a nice den?

BIG party…

So many homes in the 50’s and 60’s were built with formal living rooms. Usually they were built in the front of the house where you can’t really make it into anything else. A dining room, craft room, workout room?

Play space for your Virtual Reality setup

I don’t know. We had one for several years before we moved. Never could figure out what to do with it except invite salesmen and LDS missionaries into it to be polite while keeping them out of the living area. My wife did use it to put up a second Christmas tree, the one the neighbors could see through the windows. All the gifts etc. were in main living area.

When we moved we purposely looked for a house without one. Same goes with the formal dining room. We lived there for about 13 years and I bet we used it less than sixty times in that whole period.

Just more to clean and more to heat/cool. The space would have been better used as library but I already had one or storage space which, I guess, technically it was.

Where we now live had a breakfast room on one end of the kitchen and a dining room on the other. Now it has a breakfast/dining room on one end and a Library on the other with a huge winter storage closet attached where we store seldom used items.

I’m going to agree with @ragingloli. Or a home theater, gaming room quilting room (arts & crafts), puzzle room? Stripper pole? haha

My auntie always had a formal room with the nice furniture, crystal candy dishes and everything kids couldn’t touch. It was beautiful, cold and annoying, made me so uncomfortable.

Home theater with Surround Sound. Unless you have this setup in the den, you could always equip the extra space with another TV in case your mate doesn’t want to watch what you’re watching. A place to for the SO to entertain their guests, should you not wish to engage.
As a single adult, I might set up a large table with chairs for games, what-have-you.

I think I will just leave it as it is to display my Majolica collection and our Remington bronzes. A tv is out of the question. It’s too close to the den which has a big tv. Thanks so much for your suggestions.