The dining room as a family gathering place has been challenged in recent years as we lead busier lives. Sunday dinners featuring a roast shared with extended family are mostly long gone/nostalgic. Projects like Harvard’s The Family Dinner Project emphasize the need for families and communities to schedule regular times to share meals.
If your dining room is the most underutilized space in your home, you may need some dining room inspiration to help you reclaim it. Whether you have dinner together as a family seven nights a week or can only manage a regular Sunday brunch, scheduling time to break bread with family and friends is important. Discover five decorating ideas to ensure your communal meals are held in a place that’s not only comfortable but beautiful.
1. Mismatched dining chairs
One of the biggest trends in home decor is dining chairs that don’t match. Introducing an eclectic component to your decorating scheme can have many benefits, including heightening the sense of individuality and belonging in what is often the most formal room in a home.
Additionally, if different chairs really don’t appeal to you, modify the concept by painting identical wooden chairs different colors (just like color-coding family toothbrushes). Or, you can choose a series of complementary fabrics in colors that match your decorating scheme to reupholster the seats. It’s the same idea as throw pillows: not too focused on matching, but with a unifying color theme.
2. New lighting
There are so many beautiful and energy-efficient lighting fixtures available today that there’s no excuse to settle for something you don’t love. Changing an overhead light and installing a dimmer switch is one of the easiest and cheapest home renovations you can make. Good, adjustable lighting will dramatically increase your comfort.
Lighting trends for 2019 include wicker and other natural fibers to add texture, asymmetry and even avant-garde shapes. If you’ve got a long, narrow dining room and rectangular furniture, add some curves with a few pendant lights that spotlight the head and foot of the table.