All too often the dining room is neglected. The table and chairs have to be enough. But the eyes eat with and people want to feel comfortable in their eating environment. Make the room modern and cozy!
The Modern Dinning Room Design: what's around it makes the difference
You and your family will certainly need a table and chairs to take your meals. But that's not all, because anyone who wants to feel comfortable while eating also needs a pleasant environment. This in turn is achieved through the lighting and beautiful wall decoration. The food tastes much better and the dining room becomes a meeting place. This is where the family meets to talk about the day and eat.
But friends also meet here and have more or less in-depth conversations about the world or current problems. So it is important to give the dining room an ambiance in which you and the family feel comfortable, but in which guests also feel that they are welcome. Incidentally, you don't necessarily need designer chairs and the latest table from designer xy, you need creativity and a sense for design subtleties.
Tips for the design of the dining room
The dining room looks particularly beautiful if you give it a personal touch. Pictures and photos of great life events are particularly suitable for this. Snapshots of the wedding, with friends or from vacation. These life hacks prove that you don't even have to unpack a hammer and nail.
Make the walls in the dining room modern
Not everyone has a dining room; the dining area is often only part of the large kitchen. It is still worthwhile to make a demarcated area recognizable here, which is very easy via the wall design. The walls should be kept modern and above all light. Dark colors would promote a depressed mood and nobody wants them when eating! So that everything is cozy and pleasant, wall colors and wallpaper should be coordinated with one another, but still offer a contrast to the rest of the room. If the dining room is separate, you can work with colors even more freely.
When designing the wall, consider whether the table will be in the middle of the room or whether it will be a seating group that should find its place in the corner. Tip: If there are still small children in the house, the wallpaper or paint on the walls should be washable or at least wiped off with a damp cloth, at least in the immediate area around the dining table. Otherwise, flying yogurts, cups full of tea and cocoa, or spinach that has escaped from a fork can quickly ruin the hassle of creating a great dining room.
Design modern: brightness in the dining room
With a little luck, your dining room will be right next to a window or maybe even integrated into the winter garden. For all people who are less fortunate and whose dining rooms are rather dark, they must help with artificial light. Design the walls in light colors, these make the room appear larger and friendlier. Make sure you take advantage of the natural light and place sideboards or shelves so that the light hits them. Light-colored furniture reflects the incoming light rays and the room appears to be getting lighter.
There should be a chandelier or lamp directly above the table that provides soft light but still provides sufficient brightness. Pendant lights that can be adjusted in height are particularly popular. The dimming should not be underestimated either: If you sit at the table in the evening and review the day, you certainly want it to be brighter than the couple who are still sitting together for a glass of red wine. If your modern dinning room design is very large, you can make it modern, but use an opulent chandelier as a contrast. However, this does not come into its own in small rooms and is therefore only an option for “dining rooms”. Additional floor lamps provide the necessary light and ensure comfort.
Designing the dining room in a modern way: It's all about the furniture
Some will now ask themselves which furniture should still be in the dining room: a reasonable number of tables and chairs are enough! Depending on the size of the room and the available space, however, a sideboard and a showcase make sense. The necessary dishes can be stored here and are always within reach from the same room. The showcase serves as a decoration and holds, for example, collectibles.
They give the dining room its very own charm if you put up an old buffet (or one that is designed in this style). If it is closed in the lower area, it offers the wonderful opportunity to stack the dishes. The upper area is usually behind glass and thus combines the advantages of the showcase and the sideboard.
Old and new furniture can be combined, but you should not randomly place them next to each other. The furniture should follow a style or contain a deliberate break in style. You can also pick up different shapes and colors from each other, but it should always be recognizable that this combination of furniture was deliberately chosen.
Let's go to the individual pieces of furniture, which might offer you suggestions for the dining room :
The dining table
If you want to make the dining room modern, you should sit on a round table. However, this requires more space than a rectangular or square table. The advantage of a round table: everyone sits equidistant from one another and can have a good conversation. Nobody has to contort to speak to another person at the table. A table with a diameter of one meter is enough for four people. If the family is larger and there should be space for six people, the diameter should be around 1.20 m. For large groups, rectangular tables are the better choice, especially since such tables can usually be enlarged with extension pieces. Square tables need a lot of space because they look very bulky and visually block the space. Wood is the classic material for a table in the dining room and is as modern today as it used to be. The reason: It looks warm and pleasant, while a plastic table is a bit reminiscent of the canteen in a hospital. When choosing the wooden table, however, make sure that it is made of solid wood and particularly hardwood. Soft types of wood such as alder are not particularly suitable in children's households, because wonderful patterns can be impressed with a fork. However, it is doubtful whether you want it that way. Ash or oak is therefore better, both are hardwoods and therefore extremely robust. If the surface is not painted, even small damaged areas can be touched up. A solid wood panel can even be sanded down and replaced, but it must be maintained with wax or oil. Important to know: glass can also be damaged, even if it is significantly heavier than wood. On the other hand, a glass table is extremely sensitive when it comes to intensive contact with heavy objects. In addition, grease stains can be seen on it quickly. Depending on the number of people at the dining table, you need different sizes of the table:
one person: 70 cm
two people: 140 cm length, 40 cm depth
100 cm for a rectangular dining table for two to four people
When choosing the table, remember that there should also be bowls and tureens in the middle. All too often you can see full tables and where those sitting at them only have as much space as their plate is wide.
You don't have space for a large table, but you want to entertain guests? Then choose a table that can be extended. Most of the tables are equipped with a mechanism that allows the table to be extended ("pulled out").
With wooden tables, it is important that the extension plates can be stowed in the table, because this way they cannot warp, unlike the rest of the table. This is a common problem with wooden furniture, but it is at least consistently taken into account here.
The chairs
If you want to make the dining room modern, you should also be careful when choosing the chairs. These have to match the table and the style of your dining room, should be comfortable, and not allow long periods of sitting for several hours to become an ordeal. With some models, the seat and backrest can be adjusted so that the seating furniture can always be moved into new positions. Decide for yourself whether you want to sit on classic wooden chairs with a seat cover or on a cantilever chair that can relieve your back by rocking. Should the chairs even have armrests? When designing the dining room, at least the furniture designers have no limits and you can design the dining room as the center of your house or apartment.
How do you find the right chair? You have to try it out because this is the only way to notice whether the advertised convenience is such or whether it was just a fake advertising matter.
Also, consider your family situation: If there are children in the house, stains are to be expected. Therefore, it is better not to invest in good upholstered chairs, which will soon show the first signs of abuse. Wooden chairs are the better choice because their varnish makes it easy to wipe off spilled food. Stacking chairs are modern and also a good idea because they can be put aside to save space and wait for guests there.
It doesn't always have to be chairs: A dining bench can also look modern and help you to design the dining room individually. You can combine these benches wonderfully with chairs, and upholstery with cushions and turn them into a comfortable seat. Many such benches have storage space inside and hold pillows or blankets. Very practical in a room that should ideally always appear tidy and tidy!
Great decoration in the dining room: make the room modern and personal
If you want to make the dining room modern, that doesn't mean that you have to do without decoration. The only thing that matters is the amount of decorative items. Under no circumstances should there be too many, so that the room appears overloaded. This would destroy the entire effect and there is no longer any question of feeling good. Decorate in a modern way with murals and flower vases, with unusual objects or with a small carpet. For cleaning reasons, it should not be under the table. You can also decorate and design the table yourself, which is easily possible with tablecloths made of damask or linen. But these are more for guests. In everyday life, cotton tablecloths are completely sufficient and are easier to clean. Decorate with candlesticks and flowers that you put directly on the table. Especially with flowers, they must be always fresh, because who likes to look at a depressing bouquet of dead flowers while eating? Despite the additional effort, it is better to choose real flowers than artificial plants, this is more stylish and cozy.