Her Haus: Dining Room Design

Remodeling Your Dining Room. Making the best use of your dining room can be a real challenge. If your family prefers to eat in the kitchen and rarely uses the dining room, it might be time for a change of approach. 

Stop viewing the dining room as an ‘occasion’ room and start imagining practical functions for the space. Successful dining rooms are excellent places to entertain friends and extended family and can double up as offices, playrooms and places for children to do homework.

Invest in Quality. Investing in a few high quality pieces of furniture is essential for creating the perfect dining room. If you’re after a traditional, solid oak dining table, choose a trusted retailer like Fortune Woods. For the eco-friendly decorator, it’s worth doing some research into where the wood for your new furniture has come from. 

Some companies offer sustainable options from reclaimed wood or guarantee that they have trees planted to compensate for what has been cut down. Cheaper than an antique market, why not dig around in your parents’ attic to find furniture gems? 

It’s always good to have a mixture of old and new furnishings within a room and it’s likely that the furniture your parents’ have collected will inject real personality into your dining room. 

Staying within your budget. If you’re doing a dining room remodel on a budget, you shouldn’t feel limited in terms of what you can achieve. A collection of second hand wooden chairs in different shapes and sizes can be painted one color to create a unified appearance. 

There are so many little things you can do to improve the overall appearance of your dining room. Why not edge a dramatic drum light-shade with colored ribbon? Another bright idea is to bring some of the outdoors inside, with collections of shells or pebbles, or a bunch of freshly cut flowers on the table. 

Old chairs can be reupholstered yourself, even if your DIY skills aren’t particularly impressive. All you need is fabric, foam and a stapler. 

Space Consciousness. If space is an issue, why not try using a round dining room table? You can create a dining area in a kitchen nook or a conservatory, and round tables allow you to save on space while fitting in plenty of place settings. 

Make sure you have plenty of storage space for crockery, glassware, tablecloths and napkins. When the time comes for entertaining, you’ll be able to find your best china quickly and easily. If children use the dining room for play, you should ensure that there are places for them to store their toys at the end of the day.