While dining rooms have lost their traditional formality, they are still an important space in your home that you should be taking full advantage of. From gathering for family dinners to spend some undistracted time together to entertaining guests, your dining room can be both functional and comfortable with the right decor.
To take full advantage of your dining room, you have to figure out how to style
it, starting with these tips:
Determine the Primary Use
The use of your dining room will significantly impact the style you go with.
- If your dining room will be mostly used for entertaining friends and colleagues, you will want to go with a more formal style.
- If your dining room is going to be exclusively used for family sit-down dinners, you can find a good balance between formality and comfortability.
- If your dining room is going to be used for daily for meals, homework, crafts, and more, you will likely want to make it a more comfortable space for you and your family to use.
While these are the more conventional uses for dining rooms, you can also get more creative with how you use this space. Dining room spaces can also be repurposed as a:
- Playroom
- Library
- Home office
- Adult game room
- Sitting room
How you choose to use your dining room is up to you, but it should add value to your home—whatever that may mean to you and your family. With enough space, you could even have a dual-purpose dining room.
Brainstorm Your Decor
Now that you know what your dining room will be used for, you can move forward with the fun part—choosing your decor. Here are a few questions you will need to ask yourself when planning your decor:
- What furniture pieces do you want to include? Do you have a specific piece you want to include, like an Olhausen pool table? Or, do you need to purchase new decor? (We recommend Lexington Furniture for high-quality and stylish dining room tables and chairs.)
- Do you want this room to have its own distinct style or the same as the rest of your home? (For example, if this room is for after-hours entertainment, you might want to go with a brighter, more lively decor style. Or, if it’s a kid’s playroom, you might want to make the decor more child friendly.)
- Do you want your dining room to be a formal space or more casual space?
- What colors do you want to use?
- What are the most important design aspects for this space?
- Do you want design elements to serve more aesthetic purposes or do comfort and functionality take priority?
- Are there any safety concerns in regard to decor placement or layout?
Keep in mind that since dining room areas are usually smaller spaces, less is generally more when it comes to your decor. Here are a few considerations for avoiding too much clutter in your dining room:
- If you’re going to paint, you may want to choose colors in lighter hues to avoid making the room feel even smaller. And, you want to make sure you use high-quality paint, like Benjamin Moore, that will provide that nice finish.
- Use smaller furniture pieces. Sofas, end tables, and other pieces that are overpowering can not only make the room feel way smaller than it is, but they can throw off the balance and style of your dining room.
- Limit that amount of wall decor and accents that you use within the room. Too many pieces will make the room feel cluttered and overwhelming, which will likely deter you from making use of the space.
Decide on a Layout
As with any room, you want to maximize the space you have available in your dining room. Whether you’re keeping it simple with a statement table and chairs topped off with an extravagant chandelier, or you need to fit several pieces of furniture into the room, planning is key.
For a simplistic dining room, you can feature the table and chairs in the center of the room. However, for a more functional space, such as the playroom or game room examples, you will want to set up the majority of the furniture on the outskirts of the room.
When establishing your dining room layout, you’ll need to take measurements to make sure the space is functional as you’ve designed it. Special considerations are the spaces between the dining room chairs and walls and the ability to navigate the room easily with ample walking space around the furniture. The last thing you want is to have everyone have to awkwardly shuffle around the room or even worse, avoid using the room altogether.
Make the Most of Your Dining Room
Don’t let a perfectly good dining room space go to waste just because you’re not sure what to do with it. Whether your dining room is outdated or simply unused, these design tips will help you make the most of your dining room.