Contemporary Dining Room – How to Style your Home for the Perfect Dinner Party

With winter fast approaching, it’s likely that your dining room furniture will see a bit more action – as will your cooking skills! As jumpers become jackets, and jackets become coats, you’ll find yourself uncontrollably inviting people over for dinner. It’s important that your dining room furniture, as well as your living room furniture and home accessories, helps to create a warm and welcoming contemporary environment. Everything down to the layout of your furniture, will affect the style and atmosphere of your dinner party.

Dinner Party Season

I don’t know if it’s the weather or the imminent arrival of Christmas, but we just love to spend time indoors with friends and family in the winter. Making sure that your home is welcoming, warm and relaxing should be one of the top priorities when planning your dinner party. In the winter time, it’s nice to feel comfortable and relaxed in someone’s home, as opposed to sitting on the edge of your seat waiting to go home.

“For centuries men have kept an appointment with Christmas.  Christmas means fellowship, feasting, giving and receiving, a time of good cheer.” 

-W.J. Ronald Tucker

In other words: go to your friend’s house, enjoy their food and company, and return the favour. Christmas is one of the most popular times of year for dinner parties and it’s important that your home is dressed accordingly. You want your home to look like a contemporary winter retreat, rather than the interior version of a knitted Christmas jumper! There are so many different styles and atmospheres to choose from, so it’s important that you find the right one to suit your dining space.

The dining room is the focal point of many homes. Whether you’re having your breakfast in the morning, having an evening meal or entertaining guests, the dining room plays a huge part in everyday life. Life-changing discussions happen at dining tables, proposals happen at dining tables. Now, don’t be disappointed if neither of these things happens at your dinner party, it just emphasises the importance of the dining room.

The Hub of the Home

A dinner party is a great opportunity to show off your personal taste and interior style, but be careful not to create a dining area which isn't functional in terms of everyday use. A smooth lacquered table is a beautiful style, but it's not an ideal surface for kids to do their art homework on; this all has to be taken into account.

If you have a kitchen/dining room or living/dining room, why not try a less formal way of serving food at your party, and create a warm winter buffet. As well as being a relaxed and informal way of serving food to your guests, it gives people a choice of food and enables you to invite more people to the party; with a buffet you aren't limited to the 6-10 seats that a normal dining table might offer.

Choosing the right dining room furniture

The foundation, on which your entire interior style is built, is your choice of furniture. In the dining room, the obvious focal point is the dining room table, with chairs, sideboards and dressers as complementary pieces. There are so many different styles of dining table, so where to start?

First of all, you have to decide what kind of atmosphere you want to create. If you are looking to create a chic, contemporary and formal atmosphere, then dark woods such as walnut and teak, as well as black lacquer and glass dining tables, will be the order of the day. The dark tones of your dining table will give your dining room a sense of occasion, whilst the lines of the table will dictate whether the style feels more traditional or more contemporary. A great way to prevent a dining room looking too dark, and perhaps intimidating, is to couple a dark table with cream or white leather dining chairs which will make the room feel comfortable and inviting.

If you want to create a relaxing atmosphere, try natural wood tones and light colours. Using lighter furniture will spread light through the room, instantly creating a positive and calming atmosphere. Contemporary dining room furniture made from solid oak will enhance the natural and relaxing feel of the room. A really good chunky modern oak sideboard, with large and smooth surfaces, is a fantastic way of exhibiting the beauty of oak grain. Once you’ve got to grips with how to use furniture to affect the atmosphere of a room, you can move on to colour schemes, accessories and decorations.

Dinner Party Tips

“I painted one dining room red and I must say, the conversation became very heated in that room.” –Amanda Pays

The human brain is extremely responsive to the influence of colours. Colours can dictate the way we feel and interact, as well as how much we connect to and enjoy a situation. It shouldn’t need a psychology degree or an art degree to dress your home for a dinner party, so here are a few colours tips for winter:

Red stimulates conversation as well as creating a lively and vibrant atmosphere. Although often thought of as a dangerous colour, you can make red work as your vibrant Christmas dinner party backdrop. Holidays are comin’...

Green is perfect for a relaxed and informal gathering. The connotations of green are of nature and life. In the depths of winter, when nobody has seen so much as a leaf for months, it’s a great mood booster.

White is ideal for a formal winter wonderland dinner party. If you can get hold of some simple white drapes, hang them from the wall in order to create a welcoming and intimate environment. If you choose white, use large candles as a dining table centrepiece in order to add a touch of warmth.

An oriental theme is a great idea for a winter dinner party, but can often be a lot of work if your home doesn’t already have an oriental style. Just because you aren’t having an oriental party doesn’t mean you can’t use oriental techniques. Feng Shui is all about using space in order to create harmony and relaxation, which are exactly what you need for a dinner party. Simple Feng Shui techniques can completely change the dynamic of a home. Try taking any full length mirrors from bedrooms and putting them downstairs, leaned up against the wall. The mirrors will give an impression of space and in the case of a party, will give the impression of more people; when people feel part of a buzzing crowd, their inhibitions seem to vanish. If there are certain areas you want (or don’t want) guests to go, you can dictate this with the layout of your furniture. As a general rule of thumb, if the light’s bad, there’s no food or drink, and nowhere to sit, then people will tend to avoid these areas. Populate the social areas with seating and small canapés in order to create a balance of guests.

Once you’ve gone through all of these factors, you’re ready to receive your guests.

You did cook some food, right?

4 Living are a well renowned retailer of extremely high quality living room and dining room furniture. Their range of dining room furniture features oriental white and black lacquer, solid oak and solid teak pieces, as well as a number of stylish and quirky home accessories.