6 Designer Tips for Showcasing the Dining Room

It’s often one of the first parts of a home that buyers see when touring properties. Here’s how to dress up the dining room to impress visitors.

By: Melissa Dittmann Tracey

The popularity of the dining room may be waning, but it hasn’t gone extinct. While many homeowners have turned their dining room into a home office or den—and many homebuilders have scrapped formal dining rooms from their blueprints—there’s still demand for the space. And in many homes, the dining room is often one of the first parts of the home a visitor sees.

“Dining rooms are special spaces for celebration, connection and memories,” Vanessa DeLeon, owner of design firm Vanessa DeLeon Associates, said at a recent webinar on decorating tablescapes. “They are an accessory of a home and can be a showstopping space.”

DeLeon highlighted several ways to make the dining room feel more luxurious:

1. Go big: Balance a long, expansive table with bold lighting, DeLeon suggests. She recommends having at least a 72-inch table to accommodate six to eight chairs if space allows.

2. “Wow” with the lighting: “Lighting is the key to evoking an emotional response in dining spaces,” says Riki Lent, senior vice president at Kalco Lighting, a luxury lighting and furniture design firm that sponsored the webinar. “It sets the tone and influences different moods for intimate dinners for large gatherings.” DeLeon considers lighting as the accessory to an outfit. “The dining room is the ‘outfit’ and the chandeliers, pendants and wall sconces are the layers that will elevate the entire look,” she says. For an extended dining room table, she recommends having two matching chandeliers above to ensure a balanced feel and show off the expansive space. Also, DeLeon prefers dimmers on lights to help set the ambiance. “You can do a candlelit display and then dim the lights really low,” she says.

3. Feature unique accessories and finishes: Incorporate some unexpected elements, like a ceiling with a unique wallpaper design, décor with hand-painted details or a one-of-a-kind piece of artwork, DeLeon says.

4. Mismatch the chairs: “Make the host dining chairs more dramatic and the side chairs more subtle,” she suggests. For example, mix cream side chairs with emerald green end chairs for an added color pop.

5. Set the table: Thoughtfully design a tablescape, whether matching it to the holiday season or showing it off as an entertainment space. DeLeon suggests picking a theme or color palette and coordinating it through the linens, candles and tableware. For a holiday tablescape, layer in subtle festive accents, like greenery and ornaments.

6. Mix light with dark: One of DeLeon’s favorite styles for a dining room is to combine dark colors against lighter tones. For example, the draperies may be black while the walls are a cream color. For a minimalist dining room style, DeLeon recommends neutral, earthy tones and a simple candlelit table. To add more drama, she suggests painting the ceilings and walls in a dark color, such as a deep blue, and adding lighter and natural accents, like greenery, to balance out the darkness.