Homes are not just functional spaces of day-to-day living. They continually hold opportunities to share wonderful memories with friends and family. Sharing these memories and reflecting on memorable moments is beneficial for your whole being.
Positive reminiscing has been linked to reducing stress, enhancing mood, reinforcing self-assurance, and strengthening relationships. For these reasons, some homeowners are choosing to design their rooms and properties around entertaining and creating memories with friends and loved ones.
But don’t worry if you can’t commit to an entire home renovation geared around your social life. You can achieve a lot by just focusing on single spaces. Your dining room can be a great option here. With a little planning and forethought, you can design this area to be the perfect venue for your own memorable events.
Understand the Needs of Your Events
If you’re planning on making your dining room an event space, it’s worth thinking about the types of events you’re likely to hold there. After all, each type of celebration or activity has its own needs that require different types of design features. While you can’t always predict everything, a little forethought here can give you a good base to build from.
Here are some examples of common events and ways to approach their design considerations:
Wine Dinners
Successful wine dinners tend to be sophisticated events that revolve around pairing meal courses with wines. There are often periods of mingling during hors d’oeuvres and educational discussions about the beverages being served. If you plan to host this type of event, thoughtful design choices like having menus, providing drink markers, and designing centerpieces can boost the impact on your guests.
Consider your seating space and ensure there’s enough room for guests at your dining table. Adding wine racks to display the bottles can be a great touch as well.
Family Gatherings
Some of the most common events to hold at home are family gatherings. These may be holiday celebrations, family reunions, or just game nights. Your design decisions should depend on the guest demographics. If there will be a mix of young and old, be mindful of increased risks.
Take care to remove tripping hazards, be mindful not to serve foods that are easy to choke on, and temporarily move glass or breakable decor. At meal times, if children are in attendance, you might consider creating separate dining spaces for small guests and adults. Alternatively, you could try adding buffet-style tables at the edges of the room to open the rest of the space for activities and mingling.
You don’t need to design for just one type of event. Consider how you can design your dining room to be adaptable to the circumstances. This might include fold-away tables or furniture with wheels so you can easily reposition it.
Decorate to Fit the Atmosphere
Events aren’t just enhanced by the layout or the furniture in your dining room. They also tend to benefit from your ability to set the right mood. One of the ways you can create an impactful atmosphere is by selecting your dining room’s furniture and decorations with a specific style in mind.
Try incorporating versatile decorations like mirrors in your dining room. A mirror not only makes any space look bigger but can function as a statement piece, setting the mood as glamorous, vintage, minimalist, or trendy.
Beyond furniture and decorations, many other noteworthy design elements can set your dining room’s mood. Some atmosphere aspects you could consider include:
Color
Scientists and psychologists have known for some time that colors can affect how people feel. This is why marketers will use red to evoke passion or therapists may strategically place blue objects to promote relaxation. You can apply the same techniques to setting the mood you want for your guests. This methodology could apply to the colors you paint the walls or the hues of your drapes. You might also get different colored soft furnishings — cushions, wall hangings, tablecloths, and napkins — to be swapped out depending on the particular atmosphere of an event.
Lighting
Lighting can be a great influencer of mood. Soft and warm lighting tends to be associated with cozy or sophisticated situations. Brighter lights might be better for game nights that require everyone to focus on details. Consider investing in a range of options from overhead lights to table lamps. Also, decide if you would like to incorporate a more modern look or a classic crystal appearance with your lighting. These choices allow you to make lighting decisions both for individual events and as an ongoing style theme to set the mood for any gathering.
Remember that you will have to live with these decorative decisions on a day-to-day basis, as well as at your events. Try to avoid permanent changes that are too jarring or lighting that isn’t particularly practical. It’s usually better to start with something subtle and build up.
Make Welcoming Choices
Whatever type of event you’re holding, you naturally want your guests to feel welcome in your space. Therefore, your dining room designs should be geared toward ensuring that everyone can feel at ease and at home.
Some aspects of your dining room design that you should consider include:
Promoting Inclusivity
Remember that not all of your guests will have the same needs. Some may live with mobility or vision challenges. An important part of making everyone feel welcome is to design your dining room to be inclusive. This may involve making certain the furniture can be navigated around with a walker or wheelchair or checking if dining table chairs are at a height for easy use.
Making Space for Casual Conversation
Formality doesn’t always lead to a welcoming feeling in a dining room. Guests may be more comfortable if — even in a dinner party situation — they can relax a little more and chat with others. You could try dividing your dining room with a space for a formal table and another with a sofa or comfortable chairs. If you have a small dining room, it might be practical to knock through the wall or expand a doorway to create a freer flow to an adjoining living room.
Remember, though, that different people find different elements of spaces welcoming. Talk to your family about what they think makes guests feel at home in a space. Perhaps discuss it with friends who are likely to be attendees. They may be able to provide insights and ideas that make your dining room a truly welcoming venue.
Conclusion
Designing your dining room to host memorable events benefits from a range of considerations. This includes looking at the resources your events will need and making choices that boost inclusivity, among others. That said, interior design is a fluid art. You can test out aspects to see how well they work or where they might need a little adjustment. Over time, you may find your dining room is the go-to space for functions among your family and friends.