People have predicted the demise of the formal dining room for many years, but it remains a staple of modern family homes. This room’s design, which serves as the backdrop for elegant dinner parties and cozy family gatherings, should be both functional and reflective of your distinct personality. However, as with any room, outdated styles can prevent it from functioning to its full potential in your home.
These outdated dining room trends are giving way to more modern and functional design concepts. In the ever-changing landscape of design preferences, it is interesting to look at trends that were once considered fashionable but are no longer.
As with all trends, you can take these ideas or leave them. You should choose the style of your dining room because you are the one who will use it. If you are interested in knowing what is coming up in terms of dining room interior design ideas, read on, and you might just find a few ideas that you can use to give your space a fresh look.
Outdated Dining Room Trends
Dining room design trends are constantly changing. While you cannot change your dining room furniture or colors to match every fashion trend, you may be able to pick up a few ideas to help modernize the look of your space.
Overly Formal Dining Room Design
The dining room space is a valuable room for staging fun parties, game nights, and spur of the moment meals with friends, but it doesn’t need a formal design to do this. Many people still value a separate dining room, but they want the space to be flexible enough to function for all their gatherings. Formal dining room designs also require ornate and expensive furniture that requires a significant financial investment and meticulous upkeep to keep it in good condition. This is out of step with the needs of many modern families.
Instead, many homeowners want a space that is casual yet put together – a dining room that combines quality materials with a simple aesthetic. This can include natural materials, comfortable seating, and a mix of contemporary and vintage furniture and decor.
Static Seating Arrangement
A static seating design, in which chairs are arranged around a formal table, restricts the use of space and does not meet the needs of many modern families. Rather, they prefer designs in which the furniture and decor are adaptable to the changing needs and lifestyle of the family.
Flexible designs that include options such as extendable tables and lighter weight seating that can be mixed and matched will allow you to use the dining room for more events and larger group sizes.
Matching Furniture
Matching furniture is now making way for more personalized and eclectic dining room design preferences. Even though matching furniture sets are a simple way to create a cohesive design, they frequently result in a cookie-cutter showroom style that lacks personality.
Dining rooms with a mix of furniture styles, materials, and textures create a more appealing and dynamic environment. This method is also the best way to provide enough flexibility to change out specific pieces of furniture and decor and replace them with different styles or new trend preferences that appeal to you.
Large Dining Room Furniture
As has been discussed, today’s families want room designs that are flexible and versatile to meet their ever-changing needs. Large pieces of furniture, like dining room hutches and oversized tables, limit the available space in the dining room and restrict the arrangement of the rest of the dining room elements. Large pieces can also overwhelm a room, making it appear visually awkward and unbalanced, particularly in urban homes with a small footprint.
Many homeowners want to use their dining room for a variety of purposes, so space optimization is essential. Smaller dining tables and other furniture allow the user to use the space for a variety of purposes. Rather than keeping a large table all year, invest in an expandable table that you can extend only when necessary. You can also do away with that large, formal hutch. Modern homeowners are seeking storage furniture that is more discreet and less invasive.
Open Floor Plans
Open floor plans pose a challenge for dining room spaces. Open floor plans are often noisy and can present distractions that can detract from the dining experience. With the rediscovery of the need for the separation of some rooms, some homeowners are opting for more separation between rooms. This can help to create an intimate and cozy dining room while also setting the space apart so that people can retreat to study or relax.
If you do have an open floor plan, you can make your dining room more distinct by incorporating elements that absorb noise, like rugs and window coverings. Choose furniture carefully so that the dining room has a distinct style but still one that works with the rest of the furniture. You can also use auxiliary pieces like sideboards and bookcases to create a more separate dining space.
Wall-to-Wall Carpet
As comfortable as carpet can be, it has limited utility in a dining room. There are better flooring options in this area, where food debris and liquid spills can cause lasting carpet damage. Hard surface flooring materials such as hardwoods, tile, natural stone, and LVP are all excellent options for a dining floor. These options provide greater longevity and ease of maintenance than carpet. They also give your dining room a more casual, informal appearance.
Of course, hard floor options can make a dining room feel more cold and sterile. You can mitigate this by incorporating a large floor rug into your space. Make sure to select a rug that is the appropriate size for your dining room. The proper size rug will allow all of the chairs’ legs to sit on it even when they are pulled out. Also, make sure to choose a rug type that is easy to keep clean, either one with a low pile or one made from durable materials.
Heavy Drapes
Heavy and formal drapes and other window coverings often contribute to a dining room that looks dated. Design preferences today are shifting toward lighter and more edited window treatments. Consider window treatments that provide privacy but still allow in natural light. Curtains made from sheer materials or light natural materials like cotton or linen are excellent options. Other options are blinds and shades that you can open and close as needed.
Standard or Inadequate Lighting
Lighting in dining rooms often consists of generic or outdated fixtures that lack visual impact or provide adequate lighting for the room. One of the quickest and easiest ways to update the room’s style is to hang a one-of-a-kind light fixture above the dining table, such as a chandelier or linear pendant fixture.
You can also add other lighting elements to layer the light sources throughout the room. This may include strategically placed floor lamps or table lamps on a console. These options can provide ambient light for intimate dining occasions when overhead lighting is too bright.
