7 easy ways to update your dining room

The dining room is a room that’s (let’s be honest) become a little unfashionable in recent times. These rooms are being done away with in favour of open-plan living spaces that incorporates your dining space within it.

But these rooms can be really useful and can be decorated in such a beautiful way, creating a lovely space to socialise with friends, or sit down and share food with your family.

So, if you feel like your dining room has become a little unloved (or even if your dining space is in your kitchen and you want to freshen it up), my guide will show you how you can update the space to make a big impact while on a budget.

 

1. Go big with the lighting

Lighting is important in any room, and not just for the light it emits. The fixture itself is a huge design statement and can completely change how a space looks and feels. A large rustic pendant is going to give a distinctly different vibe to a modern glass chandelier, so you should think about the style you want to go for, and look for statement lighting that works.

What I love about light in a dining space is how you can be bold and choose something that’s going to be a focal point over the table itself. You can get away with a low hanging, bold light that sits over the dining table, like we’ve gone for. 

 

2. Upgrade the seating

The dining room is for dining (though to be honest, we don’t use it that much, either), so it’s only right that you pay close attention to the seating in this space.

Changing the chairs can have a big impact on the space. I always thought our chairs created too much wood and wanted to swap out for fabric chairs for a bit of a softer, cosier feel but we’ve never got round to it.

So what should you look for in your dining chairs? Comfort is key. You’ll be sitting at these chairs every day for up to an hour, maybe even longer if you have friends over for dinner, so you want them to be comfortable. You’ll also want to consider style. As with the lighting in the room, the chairs can really create the vibe in the dining room, so think about whether you want modern, traditional, farmhouse, cottage, sleek, or something else entirely.

I always wanted to reupholster our dining seat pads from the teal blue above to a lighter fabric, and I’m so pleased with how they turned out:

 

I think you’ll agree it gives a completely different feel to the first photo, just by changing the seat pads.

 

3. Update the wallpaper

I absolutely love a wallpaper, and it’s really quite an easy thing to update if you’re happy to get stuck in and do it yourself.

If you haven’t changed the wallpaper in your dining room for a number of years, it might be feeling old and dated, you might be bored of it, it could be faded or peeling in the corners. A change would be welcome and could change how your dining room feels.

However, if you haven’t changed your wallpaper in a number of years, it might be starting to feel a little old and dated by now. Have a look at all the options out there, and choose something classy and completely not subtle.

Karen from Making Spaces stripped back her wallpaper and decided she liked the effect so much, she decided to leave it blank! I think it works really well, and look at what she’s done with her lighting! 

 

4. Choose a new rug

A rug, under a dining table? I know, the dining table is a notorious place for crumbs and dropped food and drinks, but actually, if you choose the right rug for the space, it won’t be difficult to clean and it will really change the look and feel of the dining room.

Rugs are wonderful interior design tools. They zone an open-plan space, so by putting a rug under a dining table and then a rug under the sofa and coffee table, you’ve created two zones that act as two rooms. Plus they’re a way to bring in texture, colour and pattern, which is why I’m such a big fan of them.

The most important thing when choosing a rug for a dining room is making sure it’s big enough. You should be able to pull the chairs out from the table and have them still on the rug. If their legs are off the rug, it’s too small. I’d say the rug in the below photo is just a little too small, and it would be so much more effective if it had an extra 30cm on each side (plus the space can take it).

 

5. Introduce some greenery

Plants mae such a difference to the space, and absolutely should be used as an interior design tool. Take the giant plant in the image above. What would that dining room look like without it? Probably a bit empty.

You could have a large statement plant, such as a fiddle leaf fig, in the corner of the room. Or bring the greenery onto the table in the form of a pothos or boston fern. A peace lily or orchid looks really classy and elegant in a traditional or modern dining room, and you can use plants to bring in colour that match your scheme.

You could even get creative and have herbs growing in the dining room that add a gorgeous scent (and can be cut straight onto your food).

 

6. Switch up your furniture

If your dining room design doesn’t feel quite right, it could be down to your furniture, and so making some changes here could be a really good idea. What you don’t want in a dining room is all matchy-matchy furniture. I love mixing things up, mixing materials or styles, to create a cosy and functional dining room.

If you haven’t got one, consider a drinks cabinet or drinks trolley (yep, they aren’t so 1980s any more!). It means you can easily create drinks for your guests and they look really lovely too, a chance for you to display your favourite drinks.

 

My top tip: include old, empty drinks bottles that look pretty on there if you haven’t got enough to fill it! You can also decorate the trolley with pretty glassware.

 

7. Add some natural elements

Finally, you need to add some natural elements to your dining space. I love the use of linens and other soft materials in a dining room, whether this be the table cloth, the napkins or even the curtains.

While I’ve talked about greenery, you can add fresh flowers to the table each week, which makes a real difference. You don’t have to go for crazy expensive ones, in fact most supermarkets offer bunches from £3, making a small dent in your pocket but a big impact on your dining table.