12 Small Dining Room Ideas and Design Styles
The formal dining room has been fazed out of many contemporary homes. In its place, we often see kitchen nooks, makeshift breakfast bars, and tiny rooms that can barely hold a full-size dining table.
Even if sit-down meals are a rarity in your home, a dedicated dining room is a valuable asset. So making the most out of whatever dining space you have available is becoming more important than ever.
Check out the small dining room ideas below to learn how to transform limited square footage into a stylish gathering space for family and friends alike.
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1. Maximize Space with Banquette Seating
You probably associate banquette seating with a cozy breakfast nook or intimate cocktail corner. But you’d have a hard time finding a dining room seating solution that’s more space-conscience.
A banquette bench can be incorporated into a casual or formal atmosphere with ease. For a more luxurious aesthetic, opt for banquette seating upholstered with durable suede, leather, or velvet.
You don’t need to use only one type of seating in your dining room. Combining banquette seating with coordinating dining chairs is a great way to maximize capacity with minimal square footage.
2. Stylish Bench Solutions for Compact Dining
A banquette is not the only communal dining room seating solution out there. You can also swap out regular chairs for benches.
Place your dining table in the center of the room with benches on either side. Or tuck everything in a corner to save even more space. Again, feel free to mix and match your dining room furniture to suit your household’s needs.
Non-upholstered benches aren’t the most comfortable seating option for a home dining room. It doesn’t hurt to invest in a bench with a supportive back or supplement with accent cushions!
3. Minimalist Elegance in Small Dining Design
A minimalist approach to your dining room furniture and decor is the best way to maintain elegance in a small space.
Limit decorative pieces to just one or two special pieces displayed on your wall or dining room table.
Choose a dining table and chairs that are proportional to the available floor space. The worst thing you can do is spend money on a furniture set that is too large for your dining room.
Neutral colors are the ideal option for a simple yet elegant design. Accent your setup with a sleek glass tabletop or statement light fixture.
4. Cozy Farmhouse Charm for Small Rooms
Farmhouse decor can make even the most cramped living space feel like a home. There’s a reason this design trend has been at the top of the charts for the past decade and beyond.
Farmhouse-inspired spaces almost always boast bright white walls. This is perfect for a small dining room where maximizing light is a top priority.
You can warm up your farmhouse dining room with a wood dining table and chairs. Add vintage charm with a one-of-a-kind chandelier or reclaimed barn wood decor.
5. Revitalize Small Dining Rooms with Grey Decor
Rumor has it that grey home decor might be falling out of style. But, as we all know, neutrals aren’t beholden to the same rules as bolder design trends.
If grey is your color of choice for the dining room, there’s no need to reimagine the entire room.
Instead, find ways to update your dining space with textured wallpaper or contemporary dining furniture in shades of grey.
Grey is an excellent alternative to white. It still offers a bright, spacious feel with a more finished appearance overall.
With that said, contrasting your grey dining room decor with a stark white wall or sideboard will keep the space looking fresh and on-trend.
6. Luxury Dining in Small Spaces
Today’s real estate market has tricked all of us into believing that luxury design requires a ton of square footage.
Don’t worry — you can do just as much with a small dining room as you can an open-concept one.
A circular table will make the most of your small dining area. Choose a table with a heavy base and polished finish for a high-end look.
Hang a statement pendant light several feet above your dining room table to draw the eye up toward the ceiling.
Rather than fill your small dining space with the most diminutive furniture possible, dare to go big. Upholstered dining chairs have an unmatched presence that will make your dining room feel intimate (not cramped).
7. Streamlined Modern Design for Small Rooms
Modern design is a popular choice for any small space, largely because of its overlap with minimalism. You can create an intriguing modern dining room with far fewer elements than other interior decor trends.
You won’t be adding many decorative elements to the final design. So it’s important to curate your dining room furniture and fixtures to create an aesthetically pleasing dining area. You’ll see countless modern dining room ideas featuring statement light fixtures.
Another tenet of modern design is the use of geometric lines and shapes. An accent wall can add much-needed contrast to your dining room. You can also lay a modern accent rug under your dining table to split up the space.
8. Embracing Coziness with Rustic Decor
The best thing you can do for a small room is to embrace its size. Rustic decor thrives in an environment that’s short on space, especially if cultivating a warm, lived-in aesthetic is the goal.
Many homeowners have a biased opinion of what rustic decor really involves. While farmhouse design is a type of rustic decor, there’s much more to this trend than shiplap walls and vintage barn doors!
All you need for a rustic dining room is a mixture of neutral tones and organic materials. Wood is an obvious favorite but you can also include elements like stone, wicker, and living plants.
9. Integrating Dining in Small Homes and Studios
Decorating a small dining room is one thing. But what do you do when your dining space isn’t even in its own room?
The formal dining room is nowhere near as important as it once was to everyday life, and there’s nothing stopping you from eating every meal at a kitchen table.
This setup is ideal for anyone who lives alone or with a partner — families will have trouble fitting everyone into such a narrow space.
You can’t get even more mileage out of your small home or studio apartment by investing in space-saving furniture. A wall-mounted tabletop or folding dining chairs will free up floor space when you need it most.
10. Functional Style: Balancing Utility and Aesthetics
Like any living space, the dining room needs to be functional. Even the most stylish small dining room ideas must start with a table and seating.
Once the basics are covered, you can feel free to explore different design ideas for your dining room walls, floor, and more.
A curated color scheme is — arguably — the secret to a stylish interior space. Every element should fit into your chosen palette.
Don’t shy away from accent colors and statement pieces. Unique and textured finishes like polished metal, glass, knotty wood, and velvet upholstery are all great additions to an otherwise simple dining room design.
11. Unique Vintage Styles for Small Decor
Vintage interior design encompasses more trends than perhaps any other decor style.
Whether you lean toward mid-century modern or classic Victorian, your vintage dining room is guaranteed to be 100% unique!
A lot of vintage decor is, by its nature, warm and lived-in. Allow your dining room design to have a soft edge. Ultra-sleek furniture and finishes should only make an appearance in modern-inspired vintage decor.
No matter your passion for vintage items, it may not be possible to outfit your entire dining room with authentic goods. High-quality replicas can be an incredible resource, especially if you’re working within a set budget.
12. Enhancing Small Dining with Texture & Accents
Many small dining room ideas share a common color scheme: White, white, and more white. But creating an all-white room does not need to mean sacrificing your personal style.
White decor is famous for making spaces feel larger and brighter than they really are. However, it can also look cold and sterile in large doses.
Incorporate a textured area rug or natural wood accents into your dining room design to warm up the space. Potted plants are another excellent way to breathe life into your white dining room decor.
Small Dining Room FAQs
You can hang a chandelier in nearly any room. As long as your chandelier is the right size for your dining area, it doesn’t matter if the space is small, average, or large.
One common rule of thumb is to select a chandelier that is about one-half the width of your dining room table. It’s better to hang a chandelier that is slightly bigger than this guideline than one that is too small.
Most chandeliers should be hung 30 to 36 inches above the tabletop. However, you may want to adjust the height depending on your dining room ceilings and table style.
Unless your dining area is set up at your kitchen island, there’s no need for matching decor. Even open-concept homes benefit from giving each living area a slightly different style.
If your dining room is completely separate from your kitchen, you can decorate it however you want. But if the room is adjacent to your kitchen, living room, or another area entirely, the two spaces should coordinate (but do not need to be identical).