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Design Dilemma: A Truly Special Dining Room

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The holidays are all about parties, celebrations and grand feasts. If your dining room wasn’t a central focus of your home before, it probably is this month! But is it up to snuff?

Answer these questions honestly: Is your dining room flexible? Can it seat 4 or 14 with ease? Is it comfortable? Do your guests linger in their chairs for hours? Is it inviting? Does it feel lively and reflect your style the way the rest of your home does? If you can’t answer yes to all these questions, something is wrong.

So how can you improve on your dining room? Keep these tips in mind:

1) Avoid matchy-matchy. Ditch the dining room sets of yesteryear. Mix and match chairs and tables for a more dynamic, creative look that beckons and welcomes without feeling stiff and forced. See examples below:

Or this:

Or this:

Or this:

Or this casual, but extremely inviting dining space below:

Notice how each of the dining rooms above is much more dynamic, more “alive” than they would have been with a traditional dining room set complete with matching chairs. Try mixing a traditional table with modern chairs or vice-versa. Try using benches with upholstered chairs with wooden chairs. Mix it up, but avoid the deadening look of matching table and chairs!

2) Invest in a great chandelier or pendant lamp. Nothing is going to set the mood in your dining room like the appropriate lighting. A beautiful chandelier or pendant light should not only create a focal point when the lights are off, but should cast moody, romantic light during dinners, with the ability to turn up the lights for game night or office meetings. Take a look:

 

Or this:

Or this:

3) Give people something to look at. A lot of people stick a dining room set in a room and call it a day. But a dining room should exude all the warmth and personality of the rest of your home. That means adding wallpaper, interesting art, and area rugs. For example:

Above, a vivid wall paper creates interest, and lends style and warmth. Below, another dining modern room features wallpaper, a beautiful pendant light, and sheepskin draped over the chairs, which makes it feel cozy and dramatic at the same time.

 

The colorful dining room chairs below exude joy and happiness.

And below, the wall art adds lots of character:

4) Don’t forget a centerpiece. A little decoration on the dining table is the finishing touch to any great dining room. That decoration could be a colorful fruit bowl, a bouquet of flowers, or an arrangement of candles.

For example:

Or this:

So you see, a dining room can actually offer infinite possibilities for creativity and personal expression. There’s no need to allow it to be an afterthought in your home. Jazz it up and enjoy the holidays!