You may think that choosing a dining table or dining chair set is a relatively straightforward affair, and doesn’t bear much significance at all. But, you would be wrong. It is. Simply because of the fact that these, although just pieces of furniture, are places where you will be having and sharing ‘experiences’ for an amount of time. It is also not an everyday affair, once you select a dining set, you are likely to stick with it for a while. Depending upon usage and your moving needs, well built and well maintained dining sets can last for years, sometimes even decades. Dining room table sets are usually a significant purchase, both monetarily and also in terms of emotional investment. You would want to be sure to get your hands on the right one, or risk losing both time and effort on replacing it later. Before you buy yourself a dining table and chair set, you should contemplate not only the style and size of the furniture, but also the kind of mood and ambience you want to create.
A dining table and chair set serves as the central attraction of any contemporary household. It is one of the key pieces of furniture around your house. A dining table set takes up a noteworthy amount of space inside of a room, and sets the tone of the whole décor around. It is one of the first pieces of furniture you would notice while on a tour of someone’s home, and easily also one of the first pieces of furniture you would inevitably you would use to adjudge the ambience of a household, owing to its importance as a social heartbeat. In simple terms, you would remember if you sat on a chair that wasn’t pleasing for your back or if you were dining at a table that you couldn’t reach the food at. Wouldn’t you? Whereas, on the flipside, if you had a comfortable seating or dining experience, you are more likely to remember the good food or the good conversation you had as you shared a meal with your loved ones, rather than an unruly piece of furniture. And that is what it should be about, shouldn’t it?
With the modern house architecture growing ever more malleable to meet the needs of a modern household, dining table sets have readily been adapted to provide a gathering place across various locations inside the house. Based on your ease of accessibility, dining table and chair sets can be placed anywhere from your living room where it may be used to entertain guests or inside your kitchen to offer a cosier dining area for your closed ones. It could also be placed outside on your patio or porch, where it can serve as an informal seating and dining area with a tropical feel, especially if you love the outdoors or boast of an eyeful of greenery in your home.
How to Choose Your Dining Table and Dining Chair Set?
In a modern home, the dining table assists in more persistence than just playing host to a dinner party every now and again. Here are a few questions you need to ask yourself before you set out to buy yourself a dining set.
1. Are there other dining locations in your house?
Wherever you choose to place your dining table set, you need to work out how frequently you are going to use it. If you have alternative dining area choices like a kitchen or a patio, you might want to make one sturdy and comfortable for regular usage and play around with contemporary options with the one reserved for special occasions.
2. Does your table need to serve multiple uses?
If you use your dining table for other purposes than eating like your kids doing homework, or you completing a work presentation. You might want to consider the setting differently than if you would if it was an eat-only place.
3. Are you the dedicated Party Host?
In any sort of group, whether amongst friends or family, where one individual or one family is often the host for most of the parties within the group, and they take pride in being the perfect host. If you fall within this category, you might want to buy a table that extends your hip lifestyle and welcoming smiles.
The dining table is a not only a place for people to gather and solve their hunger issues, but also a place where you absorb new cultures and philosophies, as you interact and enjoy cuisines and delicacies you could feast on. But when we look back on the importance of coming together for a meal with family, friends, or loved ones in order to share institutions and good times, therein attaches a derivative nostalgia to it that lends it an even deeper meaning.
The Psychological Prominence of the Dining Table
Often much more than just a flat surface area upon which we dine, a dining table can be the soul of a household. It is a place where we assemble around to talk and reconnect and revisit and share stories and memories. Many parents look back fondly on their dinner table conversations and remain eager to recreate such memories with their own loins. But what is it exactly that lends so much importance to the dining table within a household? Even though the legacy of a dining table has grown troubled over the years, as the nucleus of a modern family runs shorter and shorter, even the modest contemporary kitchen table continues to be the humdrum of activity around a household. You don’t need to be a psych scholar to see or understand why though, especially when you consider the various everyday but significant emotional sense is spent on it. It is the place around which a mother serves her heartily cooked meals, whilst teenagers often complete their homework on them, or maybe it serves as the location for family board games after a fulfilling meal on a Sunday night. This is also the place where inevitably all your guests would gravitate to keep their host or hostess company as well as being at the table to relax and unwind with a glass of wine.
The Warmth
Your dining table might be huge or small depending upon you necessities, but one thing all dining tables share is their warmth. Dining tables and chairs must be cozy and comfortable for the purpose they are built for. They should ideally beckon a family to feel attached to each other as they gather around to sit and have a meal. In today’s hectic lifestyles that encompass the urban adults and children being pre-occupied with smartphones and electronics, families do not really spend as much time in each other’s proximity as they should. The dining space works to bring families within comfortable proximities to share a conversation. The meal served almost takes a backseat to taking the time to gather around and let each other know about their day or on goings. Psych studies from various prominent universities have emphasized the importance of interaction within a family, as without it relationships, wither and die. Studies have also shown food and the act of eating allows people to relax, and relaxed people are more open for conversation.
Beguile Onlookers
A dining table is not a recurring investment for you or your family. Over the years, a constant dining table will bear witness to many a meal gathering and captivating conversation. This is the place where brothers and sisters will share their secrets, and parent will counsel their children, secluded from other activities of the house. This is also the place where children will ask their mothers to cook their favourite meal before dinner, as they lounge for a quick screening of what’s on television. Mothers could also keep an eye on their children, as she orders them to finish their homework before dinner is ready. For numerous families, the dining table is synonymous with personal or family time and genuine conversations. Scheduling meal times as regular family times often allows the regularity for maintaining strong family bonds despite being pre-occupied with umpteen different issues on a given day. Everyone has to eat, don’t they? And when families sit down to share meal together, conversation flows naturally and gives the members the freedom to share stories and opening up.
Work Bureau
The dining table has taken on multiple avatars over the ages. Even before electricity was commonplace in Australian households, the dining table was used for homework, reading the morning newspaper, sewing, etc. among other tasks. Basically a well bought and well maintained dining table and chair set can bear witness to your children learning to speak, till they mature enough to have a solemn conversation on settling down. If you take into account the amount of time you spend at this juncture, it is easy to see why Australia as a collective indulges in such a longing within its reminiscence.
Plug in to Family
Distractions that keep us from conversing with each other like the TV, or the desktop PC or the gaming console are usually further away from the dining table set. At the dining table though, the focus remains solely on the food and the people around it. Many families loosely plan a phone call free zone in their dining area, where smartphones lose their charm, and families gather around to focus on each other. Sitting around a dining table gives parents the chance to get their children to disconnect themselves from their smart device filled world and plug in to family.
Healthier Families
Many a psychology study has evaluated those children who tend to eat with their families grow up to be healthier than the children who don’t. When meals are had together as a family, children are able to mimic the healthy eating habits of their parents or elders. This also serves to protect your children from the hazards of obesity and guards against various eating disorders. They also serve as a learning curve for children to wrap their heads around table manners and etiquettes.
When you consider the emotional attachment you have with a piece of furniture around your home, your dining table set will probably the near the top of that list, if not topping it. This simple piece of traditional furniture that is available in modern and contemporary outlooks is a part of the family culture that is as comforting and welcoming as your child’s growing into sensibilities or fireworks on New Year’s Eve. The psychological significance of a dining table is embedded in our thought process forever.
Choosing the materials, types and shapes of Dining Table and Chair Sets
The dining table set is the focal point of any dining space, and distinct amounts of thought and deliberation goes into settling on the shape or the design or the size of the furniture. Dining tables and dining chairs come built in a diverse assortment of material types either as a set or as individual furniture pieces that range from classic hardwood options like mahogany, oak, maple, and teak to composite wood components like plywood or Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF). They can also be made up of modern materials like acrylic, mirrored chrome, brushed steel, stainless steel, glass or black glass that deliver a punch of design and color to instantly improve the dining environment for any location.
You could also choose you dining set with respect to size choosing from small tables for an intimate seating arrangement to larger tables that can seat larger crowds. Dining table sets also come in a variety of shapes like rectangular, square, oval or round, and based on the symmetry of the space you are working with and the choice of guests you seek to entertain, you could select your options. Traditionally, rectangular tables are best suited for seating larger crowds, and round tables are more cherished and warm for intimate dining sessions.
If you choose to pick out a dining table first and then “mix and match” your chair options with while designing your interior area, you should have a clear and concrete idea of the image you are going for. For more informal and modern approaches, you could pair old-fashioned chairs with a contemporary table, or vice versa. It is of great importance as you fixate your décor that you try to find furniture pieces that share at least one common design element. A table that has an arched leg design should match it with chairs that show similar arched legs. Similarly, if you are using a square or a rectangular dining table, you should opt for chairs with a square or rectangular seat to keep up the symmetry. In terms of whether or not you should go for chairs with arms or arm rests, you should remember that chairs with a arms are usually more comfortable to sit in, especially for long durations, but at the same time armless chairs take up lesser space.
Based on the type of style you are going for you can find your seating options in a multitude, with various designs and patterns available. Solid dining chairs made up of wood, metal, or molded plastic are amongst the most popular types of chairs today. You could also opt for a cushioned chair to go with the solid build. Upholstered chairs that are covered by some sort of fabric or seating material over the seat, back, and arms, are also another viable option. If you are really feeling adventurous, you could also experiment with benches and bar stools as alternatives of your dining chair, and can add an element of fun and frolic to your space.
While bricks and mortar shops have traditionally been the communal choice for people who are looking to buy a new dining table set, shopping online through an e-commerce site, such as our During Days website is another viable option, with a wide array of furniture items to choose from. You could also refer to our in-depth Buying Guide for Dining Tables and Chairs to give you the clarity you need before making an informed purchase.
Mismatched Dining Areas can be Fun
If you have ever walked around a friend or a relative’s place and seen all the dining chairs and their table sitting around perfectly matched, you must have realized sometimes the nonchalance of the same can get irksome. While a formal and minimal fuss dining table and chair set can be
Have you ever walked around a furniture store and seen all the tables sitting there perfectly matched and looking almost too perfect? Although a formal and matching dining room set can be spectacular, it can also sometimes be deemed as mundane and boring. If you are one of those people, who want to add a bit of zest and zing to their bland dining spaces, you can do so with a mismatched dining table and dining chair set. Here are some tips to help you do the same:
Select Your Dining Table First
You might get your eyes stuck on a set of chairs first too that you just have to have. But generally, it is better to look for the table first as logically it is considerably easier to look for chairs that will match the height of your table instead being on the lookout for a table that matches the height of your chair set. In terms of mismatch contrast, there are generally more variations of dining chairs available than dining table choices, and it selecting your dining table first will open up more options for you to play around with.
Do not Compromise Durability for Style
Many a times, with the open book of options, whether online or at your local store, you are overwhelmed with options and sometimes the sleekest of designs aren’t the most functional. It will be of no point if you got a dining chair set to go with you table that looks like a piece of art, but tips over at the slightest lift of your spoon. In the long run, durability is of more value than style.
Height Matters
Even if you are going for a mismatched dining set, the one area that you have to keep even is the height. Mismatched dining sets cannot be mismatched when it comes to height requirements. There is nothing more irritating than sitting on chairs or stools where you have to crouch or bend your elbows to avoid touching the next person or if you have to reach for food more than you desire. As a rule of thumb you should allow for a space of 10-12 inches between your seat and the table top. You could also refer to our in-depth Buying Guide for Dining Tables and Chairs for more accurate table and height measurements.
Chair Sets can Match
When we say mismatched dining tables can be fun, you should be careful not to overdo it. You really don’t need to use a range of individual custom chairs for each specific piece. A carefully placed contemporary dining chair set can work just as well.
Conclusion
Selecting the perfect dining table and chair set depends on a multitude of factors including but not limited to—checking the size of the room to gauge the biggest or smallest table it could accommodate, the amount of space you wish to leave in between your seating arrangements, the number of people you plan to entertain, the shape of the table you want, the ambience you are willing to create, etc. One thing remains for certain amongst these variables though, in that there is a lot of emotional attachment vested in the purchase of dining table set, and it is not an expense one that you are not likely to repeat year or year. You should take the time to evaluate all the options and choices you are presented with before making an informed decision.
In addition, if you are looking to make a dining furniture purchase online, During Days provides an impressive array of various types of dining tables and dining chairs that can meet your requirements and will allow you to buy the best product online at an attractive price. Happy Shopping!
We are the leading suppliers of top-notch quality dining tables and dining chair sets across Australia including Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Canberra, Victoria, and other prime localities. You can also avail some of the best deals and discounts we frequently offer our customers, to get your hands on some splendid and affordable dining tables and chairs.