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Dining Room Decorating Ideas

Your dining room style needs to be flexible enough to accommodate differing numbers of guests and practical enough to cope with children - a number of factors will influence your decisions.

Is this the only eating area in the house or do you also have a Breakfast Nook?

If you have two separate areas, you may like to make one casual and one formal but with only one dining area in your property, it needs to cover all eventualities.

When it comes to a contemporary look, round dining room tables, especially when teamed with leather chairs, are a practical and attractive look which should be considered.

A round or oval table adapts well to differing numbers of guests and smaller parties will find it easier to spread out than they would with a 4-sided table.

Angular furniture is also a bit of a worry with young children running around and a round table will eliminate this potential hazard.

With this being a vacation property rather than your own home, your dining room decorating ideas need to focus on the practical as much as the decorative and I would steer away from a large or fragile table centrepiece as guests will feel the need to move it off the table when they eat if it is their way and once it is off the table – and perhaps put on the floor – it is vulnerable.

I love candles but would be nervous to provide them in a vacation property (except those, perhaps kept in the cupboard under the kitchen sink in case of power cuts).

An unattended candle is of course a fire hazard and, less worrying but still a concern, melted wax won’t do the surface of your table any good.

Leather dining room chairs can be expensive but are very practical and stand up well to wear and tear and spillages.

If your chairs are fabric covered, loose slip covers, available by mail order or online, that can be machine washed as and when necessary are well worth considering as food is bound to be dropped on your seats at some point.

If you are providing your guests with use of a dishwasher, don't forget to also provide plently of crockery and cutlery as it is annoying to have to remove dirty items from the dishwasher to wash them when you run out of something.

If your vacation property appeals to families, remember to also include a stock of plastic items for children to use and some smaller cutlery.

If your property boasts a pool, your guests will want to take crockery outside so again, some non-breakable or plastic 'glasses' and plates will be needed.