6 min readDedicated dining rooms were once among the most underused rooms in a home. So much so that in recent years, they sometimes weren't on a homes floor plan at all—or if they were, they were quickly converted to sitting rooms or home offices. But separate, formal dining rooms are having a resurgence, according to many design professionals.
"I think people have become exhausted by the big, open-concept, multi-purpose room," says Lisa Porter, principal designer for Dallas-based Spruced, part of Decorating Den Interiors, a collective of individually owned and operated design firms across the U.S. "There's all the noise, there can be a lot of clutter, there's so much going on. Our clients are leaning more into intentional, dedicated spaces."
Porter makes the distinction between a separate dining room and a formal dining room—the design itself does not have to read formal or fancy, she says. In the dining room above, the goal was to create a loungey environment.
Porter and her team elected to go clean and simple with the furniture and "put all of the punch and wow around it," she says. Walls were painted deep black to create a sense of intimacy and sophistication; a boldly patterned metallic wallpaper adds a moody surprise to the ceiling. "It's interesting, it's layered, it's a gathering place," she says.
"This is a room that's not just a place to eat; it's intended to create an experience. The art, the ceiling, the floor—it all kind of wraps you in abstract gold and black for a very modern and fun showpiece."
Making a First Impression
"Showpiece" was a word used by many of the designers we spoke with—perhaps fostered by the tendency for dining spaces to be located toward the front of a house, so they're the first room visitors encounter.
Take, for instance, the dining room below, in Castle Hills, Texas, created by Brooke Coffman, owner and principal designer of Effortless by Brooke, also a part of the Decorating Den network.
As visitors enter the home, the room is immediately to the left, "so we wanted something eye-striking," Coffman says. She created an immersive experience with a large-scale English-garden-meets-chinoiserie wallpaper wrapped around the room. "Any kind of dimension that we can add to the wall, whether that be wall trim or wallpaper, elevates a space," she says.
The wallpaper's organic theme is picked up by the chandelier and sconces, whose brass adornments were molded on actual twigs, and a gold mirror that evokes flower petals and leaves. While a dark wood table might initially suggest the kind of furniture that characterized dining rooms of old, this one's slim lines, along with the light-and-bright chairs with their contrasting seat and back fabrics, skew nicely contemporary.
Small Room, Big Impact
Space constraints confronted Barbara Elliot and Jennifer Ward-Woods, principal designers and owners of Atlanta-based The Sisters and Company, also a Decorating Den company, when they tackled the square-shaped dining room above. Their client had only one requirement: "She loves the color red," Elliot says, "so we decided to color-drench it." The powerful color in a small area provides maximum drama but also creates a cohesive effect.
The client has a large family and entertains often, so she wanted as large a table as possible—this one is 60 inches around. The glass top gives an open, airy feeling, making the oversize piece work comfortably in close quarters. The designers also chose to forgo the typical dining-room serving or storage piece along the wall, and instead put a credenza in the adjoining foyer to house dinnerware, linens, and the like.
Elliott and Ward-Woods say that a dining room is a common request from their clients. In fact, Ward-Woods says, "What we see a lot now, especially with our younger clients, is the disappearance of the formal living room. That's now the space that gets turned into an office or something else."
The 'Semi-Formal' Approach
For Shelley Rodner, owner and principal designer of Shelley Rodner Design/Decorating Den Interiors in Bethany Beach, Delaware, the freshest take on dining rooms is what she calls "soft formal"—the space is specifically dedicated to sit-down meals, but the feel is more casual in terms of decor.
The dining room above is Rodner's own, and thus served her as a sort of design laboratory. "We wanted something that would be more open, almost like a flex space. And that's where I'm seeing most of my clients headed," she says. These days, Rodner says, many of them want to entertain, "but they also value multifunctionality, where it's not just this tiny room, but part of the big picture where we spend most of our time anyway. They want the best of both ideas."
To that end, Rodner favors a relaxed, eclectic approach to dining room decor. "People have moved away from matchy-matchy. By having mixed finishes, your eye travels around." In her own room, even an individual piece might have a variety of colors: The table's top is a sandy mid-tone, while the legs are creamy, with an antiqued finish. She encourages her clients to mix up the seating, as well. "They don't have to be the same style or even from the same company. You might even have bench seating, or a banquette that wraps around. The kitchen is thought of as kind of the hub of the home, but if you have a dining area with a really large table and have it open and bright and airy, you will use it all the time."
Formal But Functional
Kathie Golson, owner and principal designer of Golson Designs Decorating Den Interiors in Orlando, says she is noticing not so much a return of dining rooms as a shift in the way homeowners use the ones they have.
"Early in my career, dining rooms were more of the 'red rope room'—most people didn't really use them," she says. "When I'm working with people now on a dining room, it's very much about how they function as a family. Will they use it just for guests? Is it going to be the family dinner gathering space?"
Case in point: For a couple with a large extended family, Golson employed a number of strategies to make the dining room above feel special—"They only use it when they're having people over, because they have a dining space that seats six off their kitchen"—but be exceptionally versatile despite its modest proportions. Working with Evelyn Jimenez, a decorator in her firm, Golson designed a serving sideboard that is narrower than usual and floats off the floor so when the room is packed, guests can get close, their feet in the open area beneath. To enhance the sense of space, the ceiling is framed and finished with metallic wallpaper that reflects light. Room-height curtains give the illusion of a high ceiling, and the small, somewhat awkwardly placed square windows were turned into an asset by framing them in bold black. "When you come in, your eyes are drawn up instead of left to right," Golson explains. "You look at first the chandelier, then the windows, then the ceiling."
But most importantly, the dining table both pivots and extends, so when a big party is in the offing, it can form a "T" with the sideboard, then stretch through the doorway into the entryway beyond. All of the chairs are on casters so they can be easily rearranged.
"They wanted it to be impressive because it is at the front door, but they wanted it to be very functional," Golson says. "This room would also have been beautiful with a round table and chairs and no sideboard, but it would not have fit their lifestyle."
