Your guide to a perfect dining room
Dining rooms may seem a dated, anachronistic luxury, but don’t surrender the importance of a dedicated family table even in a smaller home.
Grab a chair for a lip-licking feast of ideas to get you gathering back together this weekend.
The ultimate space magic — tuck a dining area into a corner of the kitchen, drop a pendant light low into the space and distinguish the area with colour even in just a rich timber top.
To use this hug of wall to its full, include an ‘L shaped bench with a deep back on the two walls, with 2-3 chairs on the traffic side.
Built-in benches can work even harder, providing extra storage both in the blunt ends as drawers and beneath flaps under the seating and even squirreled away in the back as a cavity for cushions, table linen and flat folding chairs.
If you’re renovating the room, ask your carpenter for ideas in framing something out with safe, soft closing mechanisms.
Sucking in our core is for the gym — it’s not a pinched breakfast workout. Kids can slide into benches with less, but not much less room than an adult.
Keep in mind they cannot pull any fixed seating set on the wall forward if their backs cramp. 90cm width is dignifying room for an adult place setting.
A low wall, a run of kitchen units or an island can divide and demarcate the dining area but don’t be afraid to put the table right in the middle of an L-shaped kitchen where room allows and the area can take it.
U-shaped kitchens demand a lot of space, and should easily accommodate a table for suppers. Alternatively a run of base units used as room division is ideal for handing meals over to a nearby dining bay.
Recessed areas built into stud or masonry walls (low room dividers or full walls), can provide a sleek, non-intrusive storage solution in voids and shelves.
Islands and peninsulas with storage on two sides offer discreet efficiency to deliver on a compact kitchen/diner arrangement — with push mechanisms doing away with handles there’s no excuse to leave those expensive unit faces blank.
A mechanically operated extender or a table with a drop-in-leaf can be moved into a more theatrical position for larger gatherings. Casey’s Baxter range in oiled oak is Danish mid-century all over and highly affordable from €549, (on sale), for a 150cm chic extender.
The iconic Calligaris Airport is uncompromising in its modernity and doubles in size to seat a whopping ten hangers-on. The best price I could find was Arnott’s at €1,789 for the GxW version.
Upright backs to chairs, rather than a lofty outward swoop could save you 30cm of space per chair. Choose chairs with a low, straight or softly curving back that can be sheltered under the table when not in use, fully clearing the surrounding floor.
Allow 60cm between chairs if possible (not I’m afraid always possible). If you love Ercol vintage 1970s styling in Goldshire, try Next Direct for their charming Newbury chairs, just €297 for two.
When it comes to tables, setting it by a lovely low window or French door, try pointing the end of the table at the view rather than slicing across it with the full table’s length.
Glass and metal tables (floating tops are so Italian) are lightweight visually. Slats, rails, Perspex, polypropylene and clear acrylic backs and shells married to airy metal legs again allow more light and views to flow. Harvey Norman’s popular Femme Fatale in Smoke, has been reduced to just €89 for a transparent perch.
Combining chairs with a free standing backless bench on one side of a rectangular table is a relaxed and very current urban style choice. Try Argos for the Canonbury, table, bench and four chair combinations in solid wood at €829.
Chairs with arms should have around 18cm between the arm and the table apron (below the top). For a weightier industrial look, Littlewood’s has a new set with two backless benches and a simple framed table at just €689.
Circular tables are versatile with hidden angles. Shearing off the corners makes for a safer table, more chairs can be huddled to its eternal edge and aesthetically, they add softening relief in a room of rectangles and straight lines.
Don’t go too small, or as four diners you will be head-to-head like a pack of hyenas over a kill. Oval shapes are rarer but combine the advantages of length and the soft curve.
Throwing in your lot with a larger, longer traditional kitchen table, you can prepare, serve, dine and work from a multi-function unit.
Check circulation space and leave one end free of chairs in order to shuffle them out of your standing room — 105-120cm is essential galley room, so don’t trip up the run from the cooker to the sink with a table or chair. Leave 120cm per chair to enter the area, pull back and sit while not assaulting the cook.
A blocky neutral kitchen can stand aside for a bright-legged table, seat pads, and table dressings while remaining in an agreement of line.
Try painting up the legs of a budget timber table and/or its matching chairs in a tasteful lick of chalk paint after a light sanding. Universal enamel paint can cover a metal leg; go slow and don’t overload the brush.
Mix and match chairs will work in some colour, and DFS go all the way with their Energise four-seater in a harlequin set of chairs, (comfy according to my behind), at €1,299, if you manage the sale price in time.
Hovering a pendant light in the eating area anchors and defines, as well as bouncing light back off the table in a diffusing, flattering glow. Paper, plastic and twine are all the rage for under €100 in designer abstracts.
Stagger two to three pendants in different heights, or use a bar of lights, or simply stick to one designer piece and combine with a dimmer switch. My choice would be Normann Copenhagen’s Bell, which appears nattily tied up by the cord. From €215, www.normann-copenhagen.com
No room for a dresser or sideboard? Slender shelves or a full wall unit of the right depth can run to head height on at least one wall over a dining area.
IKEA’s Vard wall cabinet is a popular choice with its smoked glass, 37cm depth and fold back doors at €170. We love Bo Concept’s versatile new Como bookcases too at €299, an addition to their Lugano wall systems. www.boconcept.com
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