How to Buy Dinning Room Furniture

Buying dinning room furniture is the most misunderstood aspect of home decorating. Many home decorators believe that a dinning room should be created for formal entertaining. Instead, the dinning room should reflect the family’s lifestyle and needs.

The room size, not the entertaining needs, will determine the table’s size. There must be amble elbowroom for everyone. Homeowners who entertain large numbers of people once or twice a year, but who have a small dining room, should think about a dinning set that will accommodate a buffet style dinner instead of a formal sit down dinner.

The leg placement is next. A dining room that does not let guests push their seats back to accommodate long legs, or crowded seating arrangements, should be built on a pedestal. This lets people move their legs under the furniture without banging the legs and jarring the table.

The table shape is next. A square room needs a square or round table top. This makes it easier to crowd people around when necessary. It also makes it easier for people to move around the table when entering or leaving the dinning room.

The last thing to consider is whether there is room for people to enter and leave while people are seated.

This does not mean that people will smaller dining rooms, or dining rooms that are not large enough to accommodate their entertaining need to forgo a dining room. Instead, they need to look at new trends in furniture that will make the room accommodate their needs.

Pub style dining rooms can add another five people to a table. The homeowner may need to adjust their ideals of formal dining to accommodate the dinning room, but if the room is tastefully decorated, your guests will feel more comfortable, and appreciate the attention you paid to their comfort, instead of your own home pride.

If the room must be formal, purchase an extendable table and store the leaves and the extra chairs into the basement until needed. This can leave an awkward room for the rest of the year.

A formal dinning room in a suburban home may not only look pretentious, it may be downright ostentatious. Your guests may feel that you are more interested in showing off than you are in entertaining them. Think long and hard before selecting a formal dinning room that you can only use once a year.

Your guests may be more impressed with a high, pub type table and chairs, that permit intimacy and a relaxing atmosphere, over a formal dinning room where people are stuffed into the room and trapped until the meal is over.

The last thing to consider is fabrics and cushions. A dinning room that only needs to seat four or six people can employ a smaller table with plush, padded chairs. This comfortable dinning room can have a formal flair all its won, while still maintaining a relaxed atmosphere.

There is one last thing to consider, should the dinning room area be the real dinning room? Do you have a long living room that could be made over into an excellent formal dinning room? If so, use one end for a sitting area, and place your dinning room here. Then, close the ‘dinning area’ off, using glass doors, and turn it into a games and living area.

Breaking with convention is the best way to make your home fit your needs.

Patricia Taylor advises on home furnishings and decor from her web site at http://www.patioheatershere.com She invites you to get her FREE home decorating guide here http://www.blanketshere.com