7 Mistakes Not to Make When Decorating Your Awesome Dining Room

Furnishing a dining room can be difficult. There are so many shapes and sizes. Many people struggle with how much to bring into the space. Or they underfurnish the room to the point where it feels like a spare storage room.

Here are some key things to avoid in your dining room so you won’t have to worry about either. We’re sure by the end of this post, you’ll know everything you need to know about decorating a dining room.

1. The Chairs and the Table Are the Same

This is one of the biggest mistakes regarding dining room furniture. Ideally, you should have different colours and materials for your table and chairs. If they are the same, make sure that you are not guilty of ignoring point # 2. 

There is a time and place for everything, and the time for buying matching tables and chairs have long gone. Furniture brands are now offering dining sets in multiple colours and materials, making it easier for people. Just visit an online furniture shop, and you’ll know. Having matching dining tables and chairs means too much of the same colour and finish. You don’t want to overwhelm your audience. Sometimes, it could get downright uninviting. 

If possible, you should include some softness. You may want to consider combining timber tables with leather chairs or glass/marble tables and leather chairs. You would be a fool not to try mixing materials up a bit. There are so many stylish combinations to choose from.

2. The Table and the Floor Match

Aside from having contrasting colours and materials in your table and chairs, you also want to have contrasting colours on the legs of the table and the floor.

You want a dining room that is more tailored to your taste. It will look like the table grew out of the ground. That is a look you certainly don’t want.

In an ideal world, the legs of the dining table would be made out of a different material, such as black metal legs on an oak floor. Breaking up the same colour monotony would be a huge benefit. It would be kind of like a cake with layers. Cream would go between the layers!

There is also the option of putting a rug under the table, but this has its risks. Let’s discuss.

3. The Rug Size Doesn’t Match the Table

Rugs aren’t necessary for all dining rooms. The size may be inadequate in some instances. Our experts say that 80% of people don’t have a large enough dining room for rugs. People still try, though, and the results are less than perfect.

In general, your dining chair should be able to be pulled out, sat on, and still have the back legs remaining on the rug. Alternatively, the rug may be too small as your chair legs rest half on the rug and half on the floor underneath.

The tabletop should be at least 60cm away from the end of the rug since dining chairs, when pulled out, sit about 50cm from the table. The room is too small to take a rug if your rug is close to hitting the outer walls.

4. The Table is Too Small For The Room

People with big rooms in their homes are lucky. If, however, you ask them to purchase a dining table, they end up buying a smaller one, either for budgetary reasons or worse, because they only need a table to seat four people.

Scale is everything in a room. Don’t put a big table in a small room. Therefore, even though you only need four seats, you might want to get a bigger table if the room has enough room for a six- or eight-seater. Maybe you should get some sideboards to fill the space.

Even though this might seem odd, getting the proper table size is more significant than having your dining room look like an echo town hall with a small table sitting in the middle of it.

5. Buying Cheap Dining Chairs

You were thinking, why spend loads on chairs? Now you need to do back exercises after every meal, now that you have the chairs. When it comes to buying something, you get what you pay for.

If you’re going to buy a dining room set, it’s better to spend less on the table and more on the chairs. You can dress up the table with a tablecloth, a runner, placemats, a centrepiece, etc. The chairs don’t need anything. Every week, for years, you’ll spend hours staring at them.

Paying good money for chairs is what we suggest. Try to sit on them in a showroom if you can. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for sitting, so make sure you know what you’re buying.

6. Placing a Sideboard in a Small Room

You can get good stuff in small packages. The same goes for your dining room. Small is good. Enjoy its coziness and don’t overcrowd it.

One of the rules is to keep it simple but stylish. If people have to ask you to get between you and your sideboard when sitting at your table, you may need to get rid of the sideboard.

It’s easy for people to get obsessed with needing certain items for their rooms, but they don’t think of what it can actually fit. Perhaps a slimline console table would be better than a buffet or sideboard. When you have a tight dining space, less is more.

7. The Walls are Empty

There’s something so wrong about naked walls in a dining room. They need to be covered.

Mirrors and art are perfect focal points for a small dining room. Mirrors make the space feel bigger, but art is just as good. Instead of multiple frames, make it a large statement piece.

It doesn’t matter how big your dining room is. If there are two walls, you have to hang art and a mirror. Hang a large piece of art and a mirror over a console or a side table/sideboard. The space will feel more formal.

Conclusion

Whether you have a big dining room or a small one, you have to decorate it with style or it’ll lose its visual appeal. You can’t use the same methods in a small dining room that you would with a large dining room. Contact us for more information and to view a wide variety of dining room furniture.