By Paul Miller
Interior Designer Though they inspire romance, most dining rooms get very little use. Especially for those who either purchased formal furniture earlier in life or who inherited it from family, it can feel like their dining room harkens back to an era of fancy dinner parties with jiggly aspic on fine china. It can seem dated, fussy, or like a lot of work. Many clients say that they only use the dining room once or twice a year, for those holidays when folks come home for Passover, Thanksgiving, or Christmas.
I believe the dining room needs to be thought of differently - and enjoyed with love regularly. I also think that while more casual trappings do make a dining room more approachable, the lack of them should not hinder a person from making the most of this part of their home. Here are some tactics I recommend to clients who find it challenging to get excited about using this space more often.
Dinner For Four
Some people feel that their dining table is too large to use when only having one other couple over to dinner. However, with some dramatic flourishes, the scale can work to your advantage. My favorite tactic is to turn the ends of the table into garden-like scapes, massing plants, flowers, and lanterns to create a sense of romance and intimacy.
The plants can be borrowed from elsewhere in the house or, in their stead, generous clippings from shrubbery and trees can be arranged in tall vessels for a similar effect. This approach works because it uses a little bit of stagecraft to make the dinner feel all the more unique and cozy.
In the setting above, we leaned into an autumnal vibe, using moody green votive holders, dishes with a leafy print, ringtail pheasant feathers and dried garden flowers. A vintage woven horse blanket doubles as a rustic runner to add texture and pattern.
Note that in all of the styled photographs in this post, we have made room for candles. If it is stated nowhere else in this post, let me clear that no one is going to really warm up to your dining room unless the overhead light is on a dimmer and you use candles for flickering shadows and warm pools of light.
Go For JoY
For those holding onto elegant, heirloom furnishings, it can be hard to see beyond the known table dressings, that pair of simple candlesticks with an unassuming (and maybe underwhelming) flower arrangement. Making a space our own is a lot about thinking outside of conventional norms. Start by embracing the carefree spirit of eclectic design.
Dress the table in joyfully patterned table clothes and napkins, mixed sets of dishes and glasses, an array of sunny flower arrangements and candles in assorted holders. Less structure and more variety and color will take the chill off even the most refined dining room furnishings. The good news is, dressing the table is a great way to explore your personal style. It may even lead you to other, more permanently bold choices, like painting that dark old furniture a fun color or going for it with a splashy wallpaper. Even if this is not the outcome, you’ll have created memorable, magical meals.
In the setting above, we used a large scale print for the table cloth, vintage luncheon napkins for coasters, and a mix of vases to hold the ever-joyful sunflower and other sprigs of color from the garden. Note that the glassware is fairly casual and that the dishes are not all matched. While this table design evokes a feeling of summer, it would perhaps be even more satisfying in the long, grey weeks of mid-winter.
Lean Into The Elegance
Obviously, another option is to embrace the formal connotations of your heirlooms. No need to shove things away between the holidays. Throw a dinner party for a friend on one of their big birthdays or mark a summer or winter solstice with flare. Too often what is missing from our grab-and-go, casual modern lives are reasons to dress up in style.
That doesn’t mean you have to have the kitchen skills of Ina Garten to create a swanky, vintage meal. Ordering takeout from your favorite local kitchen is effortlessly elegant on your grandmother’s china. We styled (and enjoyed) simple sushi in the traditional setting above. Modern touches like the grey marble serving board, along with punchy red napkins, keep the setting warm and happy.
Lived In By Design
The best approach to make sure you will use the dining room is to design it with everyday use in mind. Offset formal dining room furnishings you may have inherited with airy paint choices, dynamic wallpaper, vibrant art, or unexpected lighting. Or if just starting out, consider furniture with an earthier finish and more densely padded chairs that invite guests to stay past the meal for long conversations and games. With the right relaxed design choices, the dining room can become a favorite everyday space on your home.
Want more useful tips? See our previous post in this series - 6 Ways To Steer Clear Of Trend Dead Ends.
