Most of us pay a lot of attention to how we fit out and decorate our kitchens and lounge rooms, as well as bedrooms and bathrooms. However, we often don’t focus so much on making our dining rooms as beautiful as they could be.
Whether you want to dress your home for a quick sale, make your dining room more enticing so it gets used more, or completely decorate a new home that you’re about to move into, it pays to think about the below ideas to elevate the dining area.
Consider How You Want to Use the Space
It’s vital to have clarity about how you want to specifically use your dining room space. While this area is there for eating meals in, who will mostly use it, how, and when? For example, perhaps you want to set it up as a space for family lunches and dinners every day, meaning it needs to be child-friendly, relaxed, and comfortable. You may also want somewhere you can have all the extended family share a meal in, thereby requiring a large table and many chairs.
Or, you may like to do a lot of entertaining where you have friends and family members or even work colleagues or clients come to your home for meals. If so, you’ll want to create more of a sophisticated space. On the other hand, if you’re thinking about selling your home soon, you may want to set up your dining room space in a neutral way so it can appeal to as many buyers as possible.
If you’re clear about your goals for the space, you’ll find it much easier to decide how to decorate it and what to include, and what to leave out.
Keep Things Decluttered
An elevated dining room is visually appealing, a feat you can’t pull off if the room is way too crowded and hurts the eyes. As such, it’s time to get decluttering to remove the excess “stuff” that may have accumulated in your eating area over time. For example, you may find that a bunch of miscellaneous papers, like school forms, mail, bills, and local magazines, have ended up sitting on a chair in your dining room or that you’ve got too many chipped or cracked wine glasses or other pieces sitting on a cabinet that you don’t use anymore.
Go through every item in the room and pare back your belongings to streamline the room. This will give you a better idea of the actual space you have to use, show you any repairs to walls or furniture, etc., that need completing, and make it easier to keep the space clean, too.
Frame a Nice View
If you’re lucky enough to have a dining room that looks over a pretty view, you should be framing this vista. The room may give you glimpses of the sea, showcase a spectacular garden you’ve worked hard on, overlooking a city skyline, bush outlook, or lake, or otherwise have something lovely to show off.
If so, it’s wise to set up your dining room table so that it gives those seated a perfect view of what’s outside or beyond your yard. Don’t hide the scenery with too-heavy drapes or a window with heavy bars, either.
Pick One or Two Statement Pieces
If you don’t have a view that can be the room’s focus, it’s wise to draw the eye with one or two statement pieces, instead. This is often a large, stand-out dining room table that takes up much of the room, but it doesn’t have to be. For example, you might place an expansive, vibrant artwork on the wall behind your table or choose some interesting dining room chairs, such as ornate antique ones, fun mismatched options, or even clear lucite products to dress up the area.
Don’t forget to pay attention to the ceiling, too. You might bring in a statement piece by choosing a stunning chandelier or another memorable light fixture, or you could purchase remarkable windmill ceiling fans or even add crown moldings or wooden beams to the room’s roof. Another option is decorating with a long and tall display cabinet where you can keep all your beautiful fine China and glassware for entertaining.
When decorating your dining room, always keep space and scale in mind, too, and consider updating your dinnerware, glassware, and napery to complete the look and feel of the room. This dining zone will soon be one you and your loved ones want to spend a lot more time in, no matter the time of year.
