5 Tips from Happy Sleeper Furniture
Many people believe the dining room is antiquated – a relic of a bygone era when families sat down and enjoyed each other’s company, instead of joylessly shoveling food into their mouths while staring at their phones.
Ultimately, how you spend your mealtimes is entirely up to you. But if you would like to feel the special warmth of dining with people you care about, then you can’t do without a room that is specifically created for that purpose.
How do you create the perfect dining room? It’s easy when you follow Happy Sleeper Mattress & Furniture Store’s five expert tips! Consider the following, and make plans to pick up a few key pieces of dining furniture when you come visit our store during our big annual Memorial Day Mattress Sale!
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Let Your Home’s Architecture Guide You
Your dining room furniture selection should complement your home’s style – not conflict with it. That means you would ideally choose pieces which feature wood and fabric patterns that mirror the design of your home.
Are you obligated to choose furniture that’s suitable for a ’50s rambler? Not at all. You can go for any aesthetic you please, as well as mix and match different styles of furniture as you see fit. But if your dining room’s aesthetic doesn’t match the rest of your home, do take care to confine it to the dining room. Otherwise you risk creating an incongruous atmosphere that you and your guests will find distracting.
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Combine Multiple Furniture Styles
There is nothing wrong with adhering to a single style of furniture. If you are especially fond of Arts and Crafts, American Colonial or Minimalism, then by all means stick to that single theme. But if you would prefer a dining room that better reflects your unique brand of creativity, then you will find that mixing and matching different styles of furniture is key!
Mixing different styles of furniture can extend to placing different types of chairs around the dining table. You may even go so far as selecting different styles of table settings. Just take care not to mismatch! A room can contain multiple colors of wood so long as each one possesses the same undertone: warm, cool or neutral. Likewise, a room can contain any number of colors and patterns provided they adhere to the five principal rules of color combinations.
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Choose the Right Dining Table Size
When it is too small, a dining table will make the dining room look odd and unappealing. When it is too large, a dining table will crowd the dining room and make it difficult to navigate. It truly is a balancing act!
Fortunately, arriving at the ideal dimensions for your next dining table is as easy as taking a couple of measurements. Simply determine your dining room’s length and width and subtract 6′ from each figure. For example, if your dining room is 10’x10′, the ideal dining table is 4’x4′. Likewise, a 15’x12′ dining room’s best dining table is 11’x6′.
It is okay to deviate slightly from the room-to-table ratio. For example, you may wish to buy a smaller table if your dining room already contains many pieces of furniture or seldom needs to accommodate more than a few dinner guests.
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Select the Right Area Rug Size
When placed beneath a dining table, the right area rug will make a dining room appear far more defined and dynamic. You can go bold or subtle, minimalist or bold; so long as you choose a rug that is easy to clean (i.e. wool, synthetic or cotton) and the right size, it will go a long way toward tying your dining room’s aesthetic together.
What is the right size area rug for your dining room? It’s quite simple. Select a rug that extends 2′ beyond the table and its chairs. If your dining room isn’t large enough to accommodate an area rug of that size, then it is better to omit the accent altogether.
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Select the Right Wall Decor
We cannot tell you what the “right” wall decor for your dining room might be. It is entirely up to your discretion (although if you are Minnesotan, then at least one painting of a fish or waterfowl will probably find its home on your dining room wall).
We would only advise making your dining room decor personal. Instead of neutral pieces that would look at place in a restaurant or corporate building’s lobby, choose art and decorations which speak to your heart and would tell strangers exactly what kind of person you are. You spend too much time already in spaces you don’t control. Your dining room – and every other room in your home, for that matter – should be a reflection of your soul.
Need some decor ideas to get started? Consider adding a gallery wall with several framed family photos, a row of shelves that holds curios and heirlooms, or a single very large framed painting if the wall is large enough to accommodate it. For reference, wall art looks best when it covers between 60 and 75% of the space behind it.
Whether you’re furnishing an entire dining room or simply need one or two pieces to bring it to completion, we welcome you to visit Happy Sleeper Mattress & Furniture Store’s showroom at 4 24th Ave S in Waite Park, MN. You may also contact us today if you would like to ask about the dining furniture we have in stock!