Dining rooms can be a challenge to decorate, as they need to be both elegant and practical for everyday meals in the family.
Designing a dining room at home should take into account the atmosphere you wish to create; light and airy for casual meals or dark and dramatic for entertaining guests.
Dining Tables
The dining table is the focal point of any home dining and entertaining room, serving as a hub where families, friends, and guests gather. To ensure its strength and beauty while remaining stylishly integrated into your furnishings and decor, it should be made from quality materials.
Finding the ideal dining table can transform a space into an inviting hub where friends and family can converse for hours on end. But finding one that perfectly complements your decor can prove tricky!
Prior to choosing a dining table, you’ll want to take into account the shape and size of your space. Circular tables can fit nicely in small dining rooms while rectangular or oval tables are perfect for larger families or dinner party connoisseurs.
Dining Chairs
Dining chairs are an integral element in home dining and entertaining rooms. Not only do they provide comfortable seating for family and guests, but they can be rearranged to blend in with other furniture pieces in the space.
Chairs come in a range of materials that will complement many decorating styles. Wooden chairs tend to be the most popular, but metal and upholstered seats can also be an excellent option.
Matching sets are ideal for core traditional and modern designs, while mixing-and-matching works best when it comes to styles such as boho or rustic-traditional. Leather upholstery is another versatile material that can complement a range of aesthetics.
Sideboards
Sideboards (also referred to as buffet tables, hutches and cadenzas) are essential pieces of furniture in home dining and entertaining rooms. Not only do they provide plenty of storage for serving dishes, table linens and holiday decorations – but they can also double up as decorative elements themselves.
Sideboards are not only functional furniture, but they’re also great decorative elements in a dining room. They offer the perfect place to showcase collectible plates, photos and other decorations.
A suitable sideboard should be proportioned to the room it’s placed in and elevated slightly off the floor. This provides a more open feel and prevents the room from appearing too formal or closed off.
Buffets
Buffets are the ideal place to showcase your precious china, crystal, silver and more. Not only that, but they can also serve as a focal point in your dining room.
When styling your buffet, take into account what items are used the most in the space. Do you have a large stack of cooking books or magazines that need to be stored away?
Utilizing the bottom of your buffet as a storage solution is an excellent idea. You can store extra shoes, pet toys, reusable shopping totes and more there.
Buffet Lamps
Buffet lamps are an ideal way to provide accent lighting in dining rooms. They make for a nice alternative to wall sconces and can easily blend in with existing fixtures like modern chandeliers or multi-light pendants.
Classic styling advice suggests adding two elegant buffet lamps, purposefully tall and thin, for low lighting to showcase food items. These timeless fixtures also work well when paired with other design elements in the space, like a large-scale mirror or piece of artwork on a wall.
For a casual aesthetic, buffet lamps could be flanked by eye-catching serving pieces such as an English footbath or hurricane. These would make great backdrops for seasonal decor like seashells in the summer and gourds during the fall.
Lighting
Home dining and entertaining rooms are often the focus of the house, so it’s essential to get lighting just right. A combination of general, task and accent lights can help set the atmosphere for different functions in this space.
Pendant lighting is an effective way to add light and drama to any space. Centering it over your dining table helps draw the eye and give the illusion of depth.
Mirrors are an ideal way to diffuse the light in a room. You could opt for a large mirror opposite your main source of illumination or opt for two smaller, more subdued mirrors placed between two sconces.