If you’re a first time home buyer or have just started living on your own, chances are you haven’t had much experience picking out dining room furniture. You may have chosen your own bedroom furniture while you lived with your parents, but shared living spaces, like the dining and living rooms would probably have been decorated by your parents.
When you first start looking for dining chairs and a table, the sheer number of options can make it overwhelming to make the right choice. Should I choose a round table or a square one? Do I need 4 dining chairs or 8? Should I get the dining table and chairs set or should I get them separately and mix and match? If you’ve found yourself asking yourself any of these questions and tearing your hair out in the process, let this piece guide you on your journey to buying your first dining room furniture.
Your table is the heart of the home
This will be the place where you will have heart-to-heart conversations with your significant other over a plate of food. It will be the place you will entertain guests and family members on. With offices frequently closed during the lockdowns, it will also be the place where you put down your laptop and log in to work. Finally, it will also be used by your children to do their homework and for the family to play board games on. A good quality table will serve you for decades to come!
Space: Measure the available space you have in the dining room and leave at least a metre of space all around the table for people to move around comfortably even when someone is seated on the chairs. Before buying your table, sit on a chair and scoot all the way in on all sides where you plan on putting chairs. See if your legs have ample space to move and whether you can cross your legs under it.
Shape: When it comes to choosing the shape of the table, it will depend on the shape of the room and the available space. For example, a round table looks best in square rooms, or in smaller spaces. On the other hand, for a more rectangular space, a rectangular table looks best.
Durability: If you want a dining table that you will be able to use for decades, steer clear of “trends”. You don’t want to look at your dining table after a year and wonder what you were thinking when you bought it! Choose a more timeless style, and look for a solid build and reliable construction to last you ages.
Material: Depending upon your lifestyle, the material you choose for your table will be different. A household with little kids would do better without a glass table, and people living in high humidity areas should choose tables without metal hardware as humidity makes it corrode faster. Wood is by far the most durable and sustainable option. High-quality, pure wood tables can be very expensive, but some cheaper alternatives include mango, teak, pine and acacia wood.
Comfort is paramount when it comes to dining chairs
Previously, the only right way to buy dining room furniture was to get it as a set. While this option is also available today, many buyers now choose to mix and match their furniture, which allows greater flexibility and more options. The dining chairs you choose for your table can make or break your look!
Comfort: First and foremost, your chairs need to be comfortable. There’s really no point in getting uber-stylish chairs if every time you sit in them, it feels like your back’s stiffening up! Ideally, for the most comfortable fit, your chair should have a slightly curved back that fit the contours of your back. Choose chairs with a width of at least 43cm at their widest part and a depth of 50cm. Additionally, make sure you have at least 30cm between the top of your chair’s seat and the bottom of the table’s base so you have sufficient space for your legs.
Size: Based on the amount of space you have around your table, the size of your chairs will change. Armchairs and chairs with armrests around a table may be a very popular trend, but they usually take up more space than a standard chair.
Material: There are a number of different material options available today. Depending upon your lifestyle and the overall aesthetic of the room, you can choose from wood, upholstery, metal, wicker, or even a mix of two materials in one, or two chairs in one material and the other four in another. The trick to making dining chairs of mismatched materials marry each other is to focus on one similar element; colour, shape, height or even the furniture period.
Now that you know of the most important things to look for when selecting your dining chairs and table, you’re well on your way to setting up your first home. Good luck!
