7 Small Dining Room Ideas to Maximize Space
By Sharon Keigh
Everyone loves a beautiful, spacious dining room where you can unleash your interior design dreams and fantasies. Sometimes, there is simply not enough space for all of your ideas to come to fruition. However, that does not mean you cannot play around with the space you have at your disposal. For this reason, our MyState MLS team has collected seven small dining room ideas to inspire you and maximize space.
Luckily, today it is possible to apply smart design ideas to enhance your dining room spatially and aesthetically. Even if your dining room is but a small corner, there are ways you can make it visually appealing. Read on to see how you can do that.
Small but useful dining room
If you plan on doing a home remodel anytime soon, this is the perfect chance to make your small dining room space as useful as possible. Some simple tricks and investments can help you accomplish this.
The oldest trick for interior designers is to swap your rectangular dining table for a circular one. This allows the space to breathe, so to speak, making movement around the table much easier. Furthermore, you can easily add an extra chair or two if need be, thus making maximum use of your dining room space.
2. Add artwork to the dining room.
Another way to visually enlarge your dining room is to play around with scales of items and the size of the room. Placing large format artwork on the walls or installing flooring with interesting patterns will give off the impression of grandeur, making the space impactful and memorable. You can also experiment with wall-paper, although in order to open up the space, it is typically better practice to paint the walls into light monochrome colors.
3. The narrow space principle
A gallery-like space is a perfect place to designate as your dining room. In this case, a long and narrow table should make the room appear even longer. Your use of the room will also be eye-catching and eclectic, alongside the practicality of having more space to move around.
Be sure to find a really narrow table - at least 36 inches of free space are needed to keep the room functional. You might also consider buying or making a table that can pull out another board - this will also help maximize your dining room space. Naturally, you want to keep the surface of the table as free as possible - packing your table with kitchen items or decoration will make everything feel cramped and cluttered.
4. Make use of mirrors
Place a big, broad mirror opposite a window to create a visual illusion of spaciousness. If possible, try to position it opposite a window to reflect light and make the room more bright and inviting. This is a nifty way to use the space on the walls to create a visual illusion that there is more to the room than there really is.
If you need help with mirror placement or, for that matter, any other piece of furniture, we suggest you hire a professional interior designer that will assess what the best option is, and what kind of mirror fits your dining room best.
5. Install a kitchen island
A kitchen island is a versatile structure that can simultaneously serve as a kitchen surface to make meals and as a substitute for a dining room table. In this way, you can use the space you have more efficiently to free up space that a dining table would normally occupy.
To make it even more space-efficient, choose a taller kitchen island that has additional storage space inside. This enables you to store kitchen utensils, groceries, and other kitchen items, thus maximizing the available space.
6. Swap your clunky dining room table with a petite breakfast table
If you are going for a minimalistic and clean interior design solution, this type of table is the way to go. Although you won't be able to host a 12-person dinner anymore, your day-to-day coffee drinking and meal eating will be much more chic and eclectic. Also, since you can place the chairs underneath the table, you will have much more movement space. Additionally, you can use it as a kitchen surface.
These tables are usually relatively small and free up space considerably. Choose a petite breakfast table made of light wood to make the dining room appear more 'open-air.' However, do so only if it makes sense when paired with the color palettes surrounding the table.
7. Built-in kitchen nook
A built-in kitchen nook can be on the pricey side, and it is not every dining room that can accommodate it appropriately. However, as with kitchen islands, their appeal and usefulness should not be underestimated. Having a kitchen nook will add an unmistakably welcoming and homely vibe to your dining room. It will also allow you to store items inside without them ever being noticed.
Furthermore, since kitchen nooks have to be custom made to fit the corner perfectly, you can choose how long and wide it can be. Be sure to use this to your advantage since it is not every day that you do not have to rely on pre-made tables and chairs.
All in all, we hope these seven small dining room ideas to maximize space helped you find a suitable solution for your interior design problems.
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