Want to know the best home decor dining room essentials? This checklist will have you designing your dining room as if you hired a designer.
Whether you’re moving into your first home or have been living there for quite some time and want to spruce up your dining room, these top home decor dining room essentials will have your guests questioning if you hired a designer.
You will get a crash course on the major home decor dining room essentials including, the furniture, style, how to decorate according to the size, and more.
After learning about these home decor dining room essentials, you will not only be an expert but will be able to help out your close friends and family members with their dining rooms, just in time for the holidays.
This post is all about the must-have home decor dining room essentials every homeowner should know.
Must-Have Home Decor Dining Room Essentials
1. Defining Your Dining Room Decor Style
Modern Dining Room Decor
The most important step is to define your decor style. If you feel at ease with clean lines, neutral tones, mixing metals, and large-scale windows you may lend yourself to the modern aesthetic.
Whether you are in a modern build or high-rise apartment, typically you may find these elements. Often this aesthetic has architectural details such as higher ceilings, and exposed materials, and the floor plans tend to be more open.
Modern enthusiasts may lean towards light fixtures like the one below for their dining room. However, be sure to notice the scale of the fixture.
Rule of Thumb: If you have a rectangular dining table, then your fixture should be 2/3s of the length of your dining table, if not close to it.
Boho Dining Room Decor
If your style lends itself to the boho vibes, you tend to love tons of natural light, warmth, textures, and lots of greenery to name a few.
Your dining room should consist of wood furniture, layered or visually textured rugs, vintage artwork, and as many plants as you can stand.
For all of my boho enthusiasts, you tend to love how your interior makes you feel, unlike the modern aesthetic which is more about the look.
Rule of Thumb: When choosing a rug for this space, as fun and cozy as it may sound to have a high pile rug in your dining room, try to focus on a low pile rug that is visually just as interesting.
Nothing is worse than trying to vacuum food that’s stuck in between those high-pile fibers. Make it easier for yourself and go for a low-pile rug.
The rug below is visually interesting and won’t have you compromising style when designing.
Simple Dining Room Home Decor
When creating a simple dining room, it’s more about functionality than anything else. This style has a more realistic approach, especially if clutter tends to leave you feeling uneasy.
Designing a simple dining room is less about aesthetics and more about a way of life. Not to be confused with minimalism, which still has certain characteristic traits similar to modern with clean lines and architectural interest.
In other words, you can have any style while still designing a simple dining room. Adding a buffet or sideboard to your dining room will give you the necessary storage for all of your glassware.
2. Home Decor Dining Room Furniture
Now that you’ve nailed your desired design style, we must talk about furniture. When deciding on furniture, specifically which dining table shape, it’s best to follow the natural shape of the dining room.
For instance, if you have a square dining room it would be best to go with a round dining table, just like shown below.
The round table with help visually soften the lines from the angled room. This also can be applied if you have a circular room. Opting for a square table can have the same effect. The juxtaposition of having a table that’s the opposite shape of your room helps balance out the visual weight.
The same goes for having a rectangular room. Just like below,
Both rooms allow you and your guest to move around the room freely while optimizing the space to its fullest.
However, when it comes to what furniture pieces make a complete dining room this would include:
- Dining Table and Chairs
- Storage for your essentials such as a sideboard, buffet, and in traditional settings a hutch
- Above the sideboard or buffet should be a mirror if the piece is across from a mirror (Side Note: Placing a mirror across from a window allows the natural light from the outdoors to reflect and bounce the natural light around the room)
- Artwork which should help bring color and tell your design story
- Drapery which helps soften the lines from the window trim
3. Dining Room Ideas for Small Spaces
Multifunctional Furniture
When decorating small spaces, it’s important to maximize your space by having furniture that can be multifunctional.
For instance, having a built-in bench is not only perfect for seating, but is great for storing pots, pans, and seasonal dishes that aren’t used frequently.
Often there may not be enough room for both a storage/display piece of furniture and a bar cart. In this case, combining the two functions into one piece would work perfectly.
Maximizing Vertical Space
When space is a factor, optimizing your vertical space is important. This does not mean placing floating shelves in the dining room. Instead, focus on visually drawing one’s eyes up to create the illusion of more space.
This can be achieved by painting walls, ceilings, and trim to create dimension in addition to making sure your drapery rod is above your window trim.
Rule of thumb: When your ceiling height is extremely high, for instance, 13 feet or higher, measure the space between the window trim and the crown molding or ceiling. Divide that number in half and place your drapery rod at the halfway mark.
The reason is that when you place the rod to the ceiling, visually there appears to be too much negative space. However, if you place the rod at the halfway mark, it gives more intentionality.
4. Affordable Home Decor Websites
Although shopping online is so much a part of our culture now, there’s nothing like seeing furniture in person. It’s important to see the scale of the furniture you may have been eyeing online.
You honestly, never know what you could be purchasing unless you can physically touch and other cases sit down and feel how a piece of furniture truly feels to you.
When decorating your dining room some brands are good to check in person, especially when purchasing your case goods. Here are a few trusted brands for each category.
Be sure to go in person to see your preferred dining table, chairs, and storage cabinet. If they do not have them on the floor, ask for a sample at least, to ensure the color is EXACTLY what you’re looking to purchase.
Dining Table + Dining Chairs + Storage:
- Ballard Designs
- Williams Sonoma
- Crate and Barrel
- Pottery Barn
- Arhaus
- Local Consignment Shops
These next categories are not necessary to see in person, however, it’s EXTREMELY important to pay close attention to the scale and measure several times before purchasing.
Rugs
Lighting
Mirrors
Artwork
- World Market
- Ballard Designs (Versatile)
- Anthropologie
- High Fashion Home (Higher End)
Just a few things to keep in mind when choosing these home decor items for your dining room. Scale and proportion are the MOST important things to remember when decorating any room.
- Don’t forget to choose the shape dining table for your space according to the structure of the room.
- When choosing a rug, choose a low pile rug which would be easier to clean up if there happens to be any spills. Also, be sure to purchase a rug that’s large enough for both the dining table and chairs to be placed on.
- Whether you decide to put a mirror or piece of art over your sideboard, make sure it’s 2/3s the width of the sideboard underneath. You could also purchase two pieces of art that take up the same amount of space as one
- If you purchase a rectangular dining table you may want to opt for the linear light fixture, as opposed to a round light fixture. Unless the scale of the round fixture is large or grand enough on its own.
5. Home Decor Dining Room Wall Ideas
It may seem like a daunting task to decorate your dining room walls, however, it’s quite easy. Most dining rooms have windows, which means that’s a wall that doesn’t require wall decor. There’s also another wall that has a cased opening which then leaves two walls left for dining room wall decor.
Decorating a large dining room can be filled with pieces such as statues, pedestals with sculptural elements on top, trees, and more.
Sometimes decorating as a maximalist can be overwhelming. Simple dining room decor also has an elevated look. This can simply be a photograph you took during one of your travels or an heirloom piece that didn’t have a place before.
Another dining room wall idea could be a gallery wall with your family or a triptych which means the artwork comes in 3 pieces. This would be the perfect area to display both sets of art. You can have a personal touch with your family, or allow this place to tell a better story of your personality.
If your dining room has windows, this would be a great place to display a mirror on the opposite wall to help bounce the light around the room. Remember to think about scale when purchasing. Notice this large-scale mirror in the dining room below.
If you’re interested in a mirror that has dimensions in your dining room. Check out this Antique Brass mirror. Remember to choose the 36″ mirror if you have enough wall space.
Artwork and mirrors aren’t the only home decor elements when decorating your walls. In some cases, adding a textural element to your walls would truly elevate your space from drag to fab. This can come in the form of a tapestry, baskets, and masks to name a few.
If you’re interested in woven baskets that are similar, check out these:
Adding textural elements to your walls creates dimension and interest while setting you apart from traditional dining room designs. Always remember to set yourself apart by creating visual interest whether you’re a maximalist or minimalist.
