SO - Do you use your living room?

Why do you need walls to do that? Make your space whatever you want it to be. Our house is open concept and we turned the formal dining room into the music room.

(To answer your question, no, we’ve rarely used formal anything and have been repurposing those rooms in our houses for years. The formal living room in our first home - open floor plan - became the kids’ playroom. We live in our house. We don’t worry about making sure it displays in a certain way to others.)

Yes we do. There is enough seating for all of us (6) and the TV is in there so it gets used daily.

My in-laws have a formal living room, with fancy uncomfortable white furniture and never use it...

not really.  we live in the den because that's where the tv is. i already told DH that we will have no living room at our next house.  i've seen homes without one with just large open kitchen/dining/den and that's what i want.  

Our living room is also a music room. I'll have to consider whether that makes sense now that the kids are away at college. My husband does play the piano, but not nearly as often.

We don't use ours daily, but I like to read in there and I tend to go in there when I'm talking on the phone to get away from the noise of the kitchen/family room. We jokingly refer to it as "the bird's bedroom" because we put his cage in there at night so he can sleep peacefully while we're watching TV in the family room.

We have a ranch house, open concept. The area upstairs is the Great Room. We use it all the time. That is our main space. Our family room is in the basement. It used to be the kid area. Now the kids are gone. We watch sports and movies down there because it has the biggest tv, plus the bar is in the basement.

Yes, we use the living room and hardly ever use the family room. It's just dh and I. We have TV's in both spaces and comfortable furniture in both spaces, but like I said in the other post, it's a tri level house, so the living room is on the same floor as the kitchen, so it's just more convenient to hang out there. We also like to be able to see out the front windows. The family room is in the basement and although it's a walkout basement, all you can see is the backyard and the fence separating our yard from the neighbors yard. It's more interesting on the main level.

We use both our living room and our family room.  The living room is right inside the front door, and is connected to the dining area... we don't have it set up to be a 'formal' space.  The living room has the TV, and is where we eat every night and watch television.  The family room is open to the kitchen-- it has a fireplace and a comfortable chair and loveseat-- but NO television.  During the winter we use the family room more often, because we will have fires, but I use the family room all year long when I want to read undistracted or work on my cross-stitching project right next to the window for more light.

eta:  the living room also has French doors that go out to the patio, so when it's nice outside, we can sit out on the screened patio with the doors open and still watch tv inside the room, lol.  

to the OP:  You could put up some bookshelves back-to-back, maybe, and use them that way?  if they weren't so tall they would be a safety hazard, that is... or use the large Ikea shelves, since they are 'wide' and look less prone to tipping.  You could make your living room feel  kind of like a 'library' with open bookcases.  

Something like this, maybe:  Apartment Therapy Bookcase Room Dividers

In 2008 my ex and I downsized and of upmost importance to me was not to have rooms we don't use. We had a larger home and the living room was used, but more often we were in the large family room with it' huge sectional, large computer area, and with an adjacent room with a pool table and other fun stuff in it. We also had a formal dining room that really only got used when we had guests as we had a good-sized, comfortable eating area in the kitchen. When we sold, we ended up in a home half that size.

I've lived in 3 places since then, and I use each room in my place at least once daily. I spend time in my living room every morning as I drink coffee and go online on my phone. I also spend time curled up on the sofa most evenings. 

My current house doesn't but the previous did and like the OP I always wished it had enclosed walls so we could've used the space differently. I probably would have used it as an office, but it was the first thing you saw when you walked into the house so wouldn't have worked without being enclosed. I ended up having an office in what was supposed to be the informal dining room in the kitchen. I hated that visitors could see the mess of my office, but it did let me work while still being involved with my family (the kitchen was open to the family room, my desk actually faced the TV). My current set up is my office is in an upstairs loft and it can feel isolating.

My mother had a separate living room. It was only used when I was dating. It was a beautiful room but just a showplace. The new owner of the house told me she plans to make it her dining room. I think that is a good use of the space as the kitchen's eat in area is small.

Our rectangular living area is divided into two small seating areas. The one closest to the front door and the kitchen is where guests will sit with us or where we might sit and read or talk. The adjacent area has the TV and is the area we use in the evening.

old house - living room was the main family spot - had couches, bookcases, TV - and the family room was the playroom/craftspace/kids' bookcases.

new house - living room is my craft room and family room is our living room now - no couches yet (sigh, very big sigh) but TV is in there, stereo will be going in there. Bookcases are now upstairs. Right now only DH uses the living room because he's the only one willing to be on the floor to watch TV.