With fewer families eating together at home, some trend watchers have cast the formal dining room as a stuffy relic from the past that sits empty 360 days out of the year.

But according to the National Association of Realtors’ 2023 Profile of Home Staging, 62% of buyers say a staged dining room is important.

Laura Sanders, a top real estate agent in Coral Springs, Florida, with more than two decades of experience echoes: “I had a listing that took me a long time to sell, and the biggest complaint was that it has no formal dining room. I also have other listings without dining rooms in these new build areas, and a lot of people are having a really hard time reselling them.”

So rather than try to showcase versatility with a makeshift game room or den, follow these dining room staging tips that embrace and accentuate the original purpose of the space: eating, entertaining, and bringing family together.