In most of the houses dinning room is the least utilized room of the house, used only on holidays, birthdays and occasional dinner partys as normally the hectic city life does not allow full family dinner or lunch on the table together. What a pity, what a waste of space. What can be done and what should one do?
First one should make dinning rooms interior less formal and less imposing, like every other room dinner rooms interior should reflect the living style of the family, if the family members have a habit of eating hot meal with hot chapattis served on the table one has to have dinning room and the table located close to the kitchen as it would make it easy for the housewife/cook to serve, also the dinning table can be small in size as the occupancy on the table at a given time would be less. Small families with working couples normally have habit of watching television while eating so one would prefer a small television in the interior of the dinning room. Some people may take the filled plate in living room and eat while watching television so is the dinning room required? Well in these cases one should use the dinning room for other important needs, guest room, in house office, study room or audio video room.
However many people try to decorate their dinning room interiors in a very formal way even though there is no time to have meals there, hence this unused room quickly becomes a dumping ground for unwanted making it sore to the eyes.
So if one has a dinning room one could make the formal dinning room interior work for multiple purposes. One can line one of the walls of the dinning room with shelves or a library unit to house good interesting, decorative hard bound books, inviting a comfortable easy chair with a proper table lamp in the interior can transfer this room into a comfortable library even with a dinning table and chairs around.
A dinning room interior can also double as a home office or a study room with the help of a proper working desk and a side board in one corner of the room, care should be taken to keep fax, computer and papers in proper drawers or close units so as not to spoil the look of the room.
Whether the dinning room interior is formal or informal the room will have the same basic requirements of furniture i.e. dinning table, chairs and storage units for linens, cutleries, eating utensils, salt pepper masalas and pickles. These small units can also provide as an aid in serving too. Size and shape of the dinning table can be as per the layout and the size and the shape of the room but one has to take care in selecting the table top as it should be able to take the burnt of excessive oil and water use so the right choice would be glass or laminated top.
Seating is the other element common in all dinning room interiors, and the sitting style often sets the concept of the room, it could be one side sofa and other chairs or it could be chairs all around, the sitting could reflect some period or could be modern in style, but nothing would be more satisfying than a feeling of comfort even after an interesting meal, so cozy and properly designed chairs should be used. Properly cushioned chairs with removable seats for the purpose of maintenance and cleaning would be most practical. Walls of the dinning room could have framed mirror or good paintings to make the interior look cozy.
So a right mixture of elements used in the interior of the dinning room could help create the right sense of comfort, contentment and relaxation.