With over half of all homeowners in 2021 planning to renovate their homes, there is no time like the present to join them and create a new space. With so many options, though, it can be hard to know what to choose to make it special. So, what are some of the best dining room design ideas out there and how can they help you create something iconic?
Below we list ten of the best options for you to update your dining room design for the 21st Century. With this dining room design guide, you should be able to choose something that matches your aesthetic. You can also make sure that you meet the needs you have to use that space to its full potential.
1. Choose a Unique Palette
There are many ways that you can color an indoor space to make something inviting to people who live in or visit your home. The dining room can be one of the most important rooms in your house – a place for your family to catch up after a long day with no distractions. You have many different options available to make this space appealing before you go about buying specific furniture.
Here are some examples of the ways that you can theme the room:
Earthy Tones
People often describe these colors as “neutral”, but unlike greys, they are far from boring. Warm, cozy colors such as deep browns can start to make a place feel cozy and give it that Gemütlichkeit that all such spaces strive for.
To help with this, make use of colors that you might find in nature. Wicker, wood, and creams are all bold ways to define this area. You can even delve into some more pastel-like reds to add a splash of color.
Moody
With deep blues, dark greys, and cream or pastel highlights, you can create a whole aesthetic that allows your mind to focus on the people in the room. With dark surroundings, your eyes will go to the most important things that “pop” in the room, which are most likely to be your kin or guests.
Addams Family
If moody is not quite dark enough for you, you can always go full goth. Blacks, whites, and other dark colors can allow the entire place a real sense of history.
This style can be hard to pull off, so be careful. It is best if you lean in, and create an aesthetic through your furniture that matches the rest of the room. Style the area around the darker palettes of Halloween, and you cannot go wrong.
2. Include Your Home’s Visual History
There are two ways that you can go about this to make your dining room design really stand out. Each one is as valid as the other.
The first method is to match the inside of your home to the outside. If you live in a Tudor-style home, for example, then bring that same aesthetic inside. Use the sharp contrast of bright walls with wooden beams to create a dining room that feels like you exist in a period drama.
You can even add furnishings that match this time in history and allow your whole experience to pull back to that mood. You might find it to be a nice escape from the busy and modern experiences you have outside your home.
3. Added Comfort and a Relaxing Spot
One of the stranger pieces of dining room design advice many have adhered to over the years is to make use of asymmetry in the furnishing of the dining table. You can think about whether a comfortable wall bench would work well for one side of the dining table, while the other side uses traditional chairs.
This may look strange at first, but it adds to the idea that the dining room can exist not only as an eating area but as a relaxing space too. When you are not using it for meals, do other things in the dining room. This might be relaxing, using arts or crafts, or hunkering down to read.
If the bench is comfortable, you can even move the table elsewhere and use it as a place to perch during parties. Replace the large table with a small place to put drinks and it becomes a social gathering spot instead.
4. Take Inspiration from King Arthur
Many dining rooms in the United States use long dining tables, reminiscent of the meal scenes in Beauty and the Beast. Parents sit at each end of the table, while others seat themselves along the wider side. Your mealtimes do not need to be this lopsided if you instead take a page out of the planning of Camelot and think about equal placement for all.
A different option would be to install a circular table in the dining room instead. As this does not have a “head of the table”, it forgoes any type of hierarchy in seating and allows everyone to socialize in a more casual fashion.
A circular table also works better in the center of any room. It disguises itself well as a display table rather than a place to eat, and you can add decorations to it at a moment’s notice.
5. Separate the Room into Sections
Sometimes, the dining room is simply too big for only one purpose. In this case, you can try to make several internal spaces by using decorations to mark out where one space ends and another begins.
If you have a natural arch between sections of your home, this can work to press that idea harder. This way you do not “waste” sections of the room that you can turn into other spaces instead.
One of the easiest ways to decorate to create this partition is to use different flooring in each area. Moving from different linoleums, or from hardwood to carpet, can act as a stark reminder of a changing mood.
On top of this, by opening up the whole area you increase the amount of light that can spread around the room. This makes the whole place brighter and friendlier, making it more welcoming to guests who might want to use the space that you provide.
6. Use a Skylight for More Natural Light
As well as opening up a space to light it, you can choose to add to the amount of natural light that enters it. While larger windows might help, during the day a skylight can do wonders to increase how bright a room ends up.
On top of this, even during a rainy day, you will have a calming amount of white noise coming from a horizontal window that meets the falling rain. It can help bring a pleasant mood to a stressful day.
This might not always be a solution, as it demands that the dining room have a roof incorporated into its design. Although, that is sometimes resolved by extending the side of the dining room out into the garden or other areas if space allows.
In general, larger windows can not only give you more light but can often make the whole space seem homelier. It gives you more chances to include nature in your life, and events that occur outside, such as the movements of animals, can become a daily joy.
7. Include Storage in the Design
One of the more practical dining room design tips we want to leave you with is to make use of permanent cupboard wall fixtures. By setting a group of shelves or cupboards direct into the wall, you reduce the amount of space they take up. This lets you use them as a place to keep many of the things that the room needs without taking anything away from it.
It is up to you if you close these with a door or leave them open. Either option comes with its benefits and drawbacks.
More Dining Room Design Ideas
With the above dining room design ideas, you should be able to find something that matches your aesthetic. You can then start your planning process and get started on renovating or building a brand-new custom home. Do you need a helping hand to get off the ground?
Our designers will work with you to design and enact a plan to create a space your whole family can feel proud of. All you need to do is talk to us and we can get the process started. So, give us a call today and see what we can do together.