How Do you Build an Elegant Dining Room?
The Importance of Designing an Elegant Dining Room
Your dining room is where your friends and guests gather to celebrate and to connect. An elegant dining room reflects your taste in the most public space inside your home.
A dining room not only welcomes and entertains, it provides an opportunity to romance and impress people you love.
Your dining room is therefore a special place, and should be treated as an 'event' in itself.
Reserve your boldest design choices for your dining room. Choose luxury finishes, and beautifully made tableware so you can serve dinner party guests or loved ones in style.
Here we highlight how to make your dining room an elegant space for hosting and dining.
We provide ideas for how you can create atmosphere, add colour or use feature walls, dining room furniture, lighting or even simply paint to turn a simple seating area into a great room for the ultimate dinner parties.
The Origins of the Elegant Dining Room
The concept of a separate room reserved for dining and entertaining is thought to have originated with the Ancient Greeks. Male members of the elite gathered to lounge on couches of stone or wood, and feast and talk in private.
For most of the Medieval period, all classes of people would eat in a drafty banqueting hall and the idea of a private room for dining would only become more common with the rise of the middle class, and was only really established as a requirement in rich households by the Victorian era.
A separate dining room was therefore for many centuries, a novelty, and always a visible sign of wealth and status.
The Victorians celebrated dining as a social event with luxurious decoration, plush dining chairs and elegant table settings. An elegant dining room was a display of social status.
As Darwin remarked "Show me the way people dine, and I will show you their rank amongst civilised beings."
The 21st Century has seen a distinct decline in the use of the dining room, except for formal occasions. People are often understandably pressed for time, and short of space, but as we hope to illustrate, now more than ever, it is important to find time to dine together, and just as important to consider the dining room look, and design.
The Dining Table: The Centrepiece of your Dining Room
Whether you want a more formal and elegant dining room, an opulent banqueting hall or a casual dining area used more frequently for family members and friends than for special occasions, the dining table will play an essential part.
The dining table is the key piece of furniture for social entertaining, but it is also a critical platform for simply feeding your family. It must therefore be beautiful, but also well designed and functional.
This is a principle we recommend for your whole interior design philosophy. This is your home not a showroom and every room has to be lived in.
The dining room look is important, but you need to prioritise the key items of furniture as they will be the centrepiece of your room.
A well built table and comfortable chairs are essential to a dining room that fulfils its core function.
Eating at The Dining Table
A dining table literally brings people together, to eat, share and talk so it is one of the most important items of furniture in your house.
With an elegant dining room, you can create an environment that is conducive to sharing and talking in a relaxed way. A room that will help foster healthier communication and eating patterns.
Sitting down at the dining room table to eat together also makes it more likely that you'll prioritise good food and company, focusing on what you're eating, and making better choices at mealtimes.
How to Relax and Reset at the Dining Room Table
Remove clutter, and insist on a tech free dining room table to allow yourself a window of time to reset.
Although a sit down meal might not be possible every day, try to use a weekly shared dinner as an opportunity to relax and unwind, providing important balance to a stressed and busy working week.
Choosing your Table:
Think about the shape, size and layout of your room, when you purchase your dining room table.
Choose natural materials, forms and textures for a table surface that invites you to enjoy a home cooked meal.
Dressing the Dining Room Table
POSH has an exclusive range of tableware to elevate your dining space for every special occasion.
Position our luxury placemats and coasters around a well made flower arrangement in a statement vase, or alongside your choice of candle stands and bowls from the POSH Collection and you are ready to entertain even the most discerning of visitors.
Placemats
Our stunning placemats are carefully curated to work perfectly as a set of the same colour, or with different luxury finishes paired together, making the range ultimately versatile and adaptable to your personal taste.
Choose from square placemats, or our larger serving mat/grand placemat for the centre of your table arrangement.
Coasters
As with our placemats, our beautiful sets of coasters are also available individually for maximum flexibility.
Choose from the classic single square coaster or double coaster, for a place setting with two glasses.
Both our placemats and coasters are handcrafted by artisans in genuine silver leaf, with a layer of tinted lacquer, followed by ten further layers of clear lacquer for an exquisite finish.They are available in a choice of 14 different finishes.
Matboxes
Display our stunning placemats in one of our trademarked unique Matboxes.
Handcrafted in a choice of silver or gold leaf lacquered boxes or for a more modern finish, also available in precision cut clear acrylic these beautiful display boxes contain over 600 pieces of individual genuine Silver leaf.
Explore our range of Matboxes in the POSH shop.
Coastboxes
Each coastbox contains eight of our beautiful coasters. Handmade in gold or silver leaf, these lacquered or crystal clear acrylic boxes will be a unique and striking addition to your coffee table.
Choose from our range of Coastboxes in the POSH shop.
Chairs: Are you Sitting Comfortably?
Dining Chairs:
Nothing will undermine an elegant dining room like old, damaged or mismatched dining chairs.
If you want people to linger and laugh with you, then they need to be relaxed, and that means all the chairs need to fit the dining rom table height, and be as comfortable as they are stylish.
Accent Furniture: Chairs that Add Elegance
Guest entertaining doesn't, of course, begin and end on the dining room chairs.
The same principle of comfort and practicality coupled with beautiful design should apply to furniture throughout your home, in any area where you want people to instantly feel at home when they sit down.
POSH has an exclusive furniture range that includes feature chairs such as the luxurious Bruda Chair, in polished gold bronze with a marine silk seat, or our Twig chair, in antique bronze with brown leather.
High quality chairs, handcrafted with luxurious materials, these signature chairs will impart elegance to any lounge or living room space.
Creating a Focal point for your Dining Room Design:
One way to make a statement in a larger formal dining room, is to highlight one wall.
This is a commonly employed trick of the interior design trade: a way to lift the entire space, without dominating the interior design philosophy of an elegant dining room.
Dining Room Walls: Unusual Aesthetic ideas
Perhaps the wall opposite the head of the table could be transformed into a gallery wall or decorated with a modern wall mural or a large mirror for an unusual aesthetic.
Paint a trompe d'oeil in a small dining nook and lend the illusion of depth, or tell a visual story that becomes a talking point.
Be bold with wallpaper:
A popular trend of the past few years, is to be bold with wallpaper on one end wall.
Match the style of the wallpaper with your overall home decor, by picking out the same colour that features in your furniture or by choosing a motif or pattern that reflects the architecture of your house or your taste in accessories.
Art:
If you prefer a minimalist approach, but don't want a room to appear too formal, you can create instant warmth, and flair, by choosing art in bright colours to hang on white walls.
Carefully chosen art will draw your guests attention and add a bold splash of colour to formal dining rooms, without undermining the elegance of the whole room.
Always buy art that you genuinely love. An expensive purchase purely to be on trend rarely pays off in the long run.
An Elegant Dining Room Floor
Consider the floor space as an important element of your elegant dining room design.
A rug can be a great way to create a border or frame to your table, however rugs in dining room tend to divide opinion.
When deciding on whether to place a rug under your dining room table, you need to factor in the practical aspects and the design aesthetics of your own dining room.
A large area rug can be a real feature of your dining room. It can zone off an area of a room, creating an intimate space within a space, it can also highlight or tie together aspects of your decor.
On a practical note, a rug can absorb sound and add warmth whilst protecting your flooring.
Tips on How to Choose a Rug:
Go larger to add a sense of luxury and create an elegant dining room area.
Choose a print or pattern in bright colours or dark motifs that will camouflage spills and be easier to keep clean.
Durability should be a consideration. A rug under a table will get a lot of use, and be continually scraped with chair legs and feet.
Ultimately, the choice is yours, a rug will only work if it fits with your own dining room layout, and looks right underneath your table.
Remember that your lighting and the colour of your dining room walls will also change how the rug appears on your own floor compared to how it appeared in a showroom or brochure.
Intimate Dining Rooms: Remember Small Can be Beautiful
Even a small dining space can be elegant, so if you don't have a great room you can provide a smaller group of guests with a memorable evening by enhancing the dining table and surrounding walls.
Cozy snugs and intimate dining rooms can be painted in bold colours or with a rich darker paint palette, complemented with luxury gold accents and accessories to make your dinner party area feel really special.
Table decoration and clever use of light can transform the ambience of one room, however tiny.
A well positioned mirror, can reflect light and add sparkle and an illusion of more space.
Using Lighting for Effect:
Light has always been one of the simplest ways to add drama, warmth or to subtly change the mood in a dining room.
Nothing says Elegant Dining Room Quite like a Chandelier;
Take inspiration from the popular trend for hanging a chandelier above your dining table to really create glamour with an elegant central focal point fit for a palace.
A chandelier has an undeniably effortless elegance, that has traditionally been used as a sign of wealth and stature.
However a modern chandelier can be a simpler, less showy affair. Providing a more diffused illuminance to a basic bulb, a chandelier adds ambience and warmth.
Now available in a variety of contemporary materials, hung in geometric or linear patterns or designed in complex abstract shapes, a chandelier can be a dynamic lighting choice.
A modern chandelier can also provide different styles of illuminance including: fluorescent, LED, halogen, or energy saving bulbs, so the sky (or ceiling) quite literally is the limit.
Lighting Smaller Areas:
In a small area or dining nook, you can use light to add more space and height. Uplights can add warmth but ensure you choose your light fittings with care as light draws the eye.
Elegant wall sconces or carefully placed candle holders will lift even the darkest corners.
Add intimacy with Candlelight:
Candlelight always adds intimacy and warmth, a romantic finishing touch that can soften the style of even the most formal dining room.
POSH Candle stands
POSH has a selection of stylish candle stands that will add sophistication to console tables or could be a focal point of your main dining room table itself.
Explore the POSH shop's Decorative Accessories now.
You can choose our Daisy candle stand with antique gold finish at either low or high heights or our Orchid candle stick or Elm candle stick with different bronze finishes, available in small, medium or large.
Elegant Decor: POSH Design Philosophy:
Find inspiration in the POSH design philosophy, combining elements of Eastern and Western visual arts, with a love of Art deco and add instant elegance and sophisticated style to your dining room and other areas of your home.
Choose from the POSH collection of stunning decorative accessories in luxurious finishes, and natural materials and textures and you cannot fail to create an elegant dining room.
Add Luxury with Gold and Silver Accents
Whether you are choosing from our range of bowls, matboxes, coastboxes or trays choose gold and silver leaf finish for instant luxury.
Our unique, handcrafted products are made to exacting standards of superb quality to provide the ultimate finishing detail for your table settings and add elegant style throughout your home.
How to Create a More Relaxed Dining Room Environment for Daytime
Make your dining room welcoming during the day so that the space is used, rather than shut away for purely formal occasions.
Choose a light, bright decor if you want to create a dining room that is more flexible at all hours of the day.
Flood the dining room with natural light, or install dimmable switches to ensure you have flexibility in the light conditions for different types of events.
Remove table linens to expose the natural tones of a wooden dining table, and store your elegant tableware, so that your dining room can also be a popular family space.
Entertaining Beyond The Dining Room
POSH has a range of exceptionally beautiful pieces of high end accent furniture that will add sophistication to other areas of your home where you might entertain people such as living rooms or lounges.
Choose from our wide variety of luxury chairs, side tables, console tables and stools, and create living spaces that feel like the most stylish hotel lounges.
Complement with POSH decorative accessories and lend sophistication to every surface.
Just a few examples of our homeware suitable for entertaining are highlighted below:
Explore the POSH Collection:
The POSH range includes an eclectic, elegant and beautifully handcrafted selection of tables for living rooms and elegant entertainment spaces.
Side Tables and CONSOLE TABLES:
Choose the Morgan Side Table in either polished gold or silver bronze finish or for a light, minimalist aesthetic, you might prefer the Adele Side Table in bronze and ivory gesso.
Choose our Dojo Console Table in jade parchment and bronze for an aesthetic that references the beauty of Asian visual arts and materials, or our Katana Console Table in ivory parchment and bronze for a touch of gold.
Bowls
The POSH range of bowls includes unique designs of luxury materials and superb quality. A perfect way to add elegance to your home.
Our Wabi bowls in antique gold leaf with polished gold interior are a stunning addition to any side table, and available in three sizes.
Our Ranchu table bowls in bronze and gold leaf come in seven different dimensions and are a versatile central display for a dining room table.
Whilst our Water Drop Table Bowls in bronze, with gold leaf finish and available in four different sizes, will be a talking point of any table.
Conclusion
An elegant dining room is a timeless, essential space in any home. It serves an essential function, never more important than in our busy, distanced world: providing a place for people to come together, share, laugh and communicate.
By investing time and effort into designing your dining room with care, you can create a welcoming space that feels comfortable and inviting for all who enter.
Whether you are looking to create a formal or casual dining experience, there are many different design elements and decorating ideas that can help you create the perfect dining environment for your home. We hope that this article has provided food for thought and given you some design inspiration.
For more ideas please explore the entire POSH homeware range in our online shop. Or contact us with any questions on a POSH product.
