Fine Dining

By Amy West

It may be the least-used room in your home, but more and more people are striving to create the perfect dining room. As the entertainment centre of the home, dining rooms tend to be more dramatic spaces, incorporating styles and colours you may not use in the rest of the house, such as leather floor tiles, marble tables, and chandeliers.

"The dining room is today's glamour room," says Jane Lockhart, manager of design communications for Benjamin Moore & Co., Limited in Toronto and author of Room Recipes: Cooking Up Style With Colour. "It is a room for entertaining, so people want it to have a luxurious, uptown look and feel."

Paint colours, furniture selection, and accessory use add to the atmosphere of any room, and the dining room is no exception.

Colour

When choosing a colour scheme, says Lockhart, you need to think about what atmosphere you want to create. You also need to consider whether the dining area is separate from the rest of the house or adjacent to the kitchen.

"In an open-concept space, using a different colour for dining rooms can act as a divider between rooms," she says. "Or, for more flow, you can continue the same colour through the whole space."

According to Lockhart, most people don't use their dining room very often, all the more reason to make it dramatic.

"You can use different painting techniques to change the look of the room," she says. "For example, stripes add the appearance of height, while tone-on-tone painting gives the walls a glittery and glamorous effect."

Studies have shown that colour choice can affect appetite. For example, reds have been proven to increase appetite and stimulate conversation.

If you're looking for a more serene or calming look, blues are very popular this season, as are pastels and earthy tones.

Furniture

The days of the dining room suite have long since passed. Furniture selection is not as matchy-matchy as it used to be and, according to Lockhart, homeowners are no longer buying an entire dining room set.

"They may buy pieces individually or sometimes they will buy a set and break up the pieces throughout the house so that they don't get bored with it."

Although the styles may vary, the dining room table is still the focal point of the room.

There is a trend now towards the stone look or marble tables. Wrought iron and glass are also very popular.

Tables come in a variety of shapes, but the most practical is still the rectangle. Round tables require a square room to fit properly and oval tables have a lot of wasted space. Ideally, a rectangular table with a pedestal base allows for maximum seating.

Another trend that is just beginning to emerge is square tables at counter height with bar stool seating. Furniture is taking on a more relaxed look in the dining room, experts say. From clean-looking woods to Asian-style dark ebony with neat lines, it's all about comfort these days.

The sideboard is still going strong but variations on this piece of furniture are also becoming popular.A serving cart can be a decorative and functional alternative, while glass-front display cabinets allow homeowners to showcase place settings, crystal, photos, and floral arrangements.

Accessories

Accessories allow homeowners to add touches of colour to the room while straying from the dominant colour scheme. Floral displays, candles, framed pictures, and glass pieces make the room welcoming and warm.

Chandeliers, both modern and traditional, are in style, adding a touch of elegance to the dining area.

Decorating tips

In the age of do-it-yourself television shows, homeowners are being inundated with information on decorating their homes. This is a trend that can become very confusing for first-time decorators.

People see something on television and think "that looks great, let's do that." Then they get halfway through a project and discover that it doesn't suit their space. By this time, though, they've exhausted all their time and resources.

Lockhart recommends hiring a professional, even if only for an hour, to help you design a road map to where you want to end up.

"Get professional advice," she urges. "Find out what works for your space and what suits your lifestyle."

She also emphasizes measuring a room before starting on it.

"You'd be amazed how many people don't measure the room and end up with a table that's too big or too small or a buffet that sticks out too far."

She also recommends decorating the whole room at once because it makes it easier to focus, plan, and budget.

"Dining rooms are, by default, the most expensive rooms to decorate. You can't just do a dining room for a couple of thousand dollars, so most people leave it until the end to decorate."

There are no hard and fast rules for decorating your dining room. The secret is to choose the look that best suits your home and build on it.