In this splendid post, Johanne Lee will give you several tips on choosing the right dinner table. Enjoy!

A dinner table will be one of the most important furniture and interior purchases you’ll ever make. This isn’t some accent piece or doodad that’ll rest on a shelf and call attention to itself every once in a while! Your dinner table will be the centerpiece of your home. Here, you’ll break bread with friends and family, talk amongst yourselves, and enjoy each other’s company, just as well as any living room couch or bedroom.

Making this decision unsurprisingly is benefited by a lot of research and planning, especially if you don’t have the services of an interior designer on hand. Knowing where to start is the most important part, of course. Let’s take a look at some of the most important considerations you have to make when choosing the right dinner table.

Always measure first!

It goes without saying that your dining table has to fit your dining area. However, in addition to that, you should also have ample spacing between your table and the surrounding walls so that diners have room to move about when getting up and sitting down, and of course sufficient space for each diner at the table.

This means that you should be breaking out that measuring tape, in order to inform the size of table you should be getting.

The first thing to do is to measure the space where you’ll be placing your table. Once you have an idea of how big it is, you’ll want to leave 3-4 feet of clearance between the dining table and any walls. This will provide an upper limit for the size of your table.

After that, you’ll want to look at how many people you want to fit at the table. As a rule, you’ll want each diner to have about 2 feet of length and about a foot of width to dine comfortably. This means that a rectangular table that’s 6 by 4 feet in measurements should be able to seat 6 people – two on each long side, and one on each short side.

You should also consider the height of your table, relative to the height of the chairs you’re getting. You want to have a one-foot allowance between the chair seat and the top of the table, for comfortable dining.

One final piece of advice: After you’ve gotten all your measurements down to the last inch, and you still have a bit of room, consider getting something slightly bigger anyway! The extra space will be great for guests, and you should be maximizing whatever space you have lest it seem empty.

Pick a good shape

Most tables are rectangular, but you also have the option of square, oval, and circular tables that may meet different needs.

A circular table is perfect for a smaller dining area, as they don’t have any corners which diners might accidentally hit, and they fit into tighter spaces as well.

Round tables in general, which of course include circular and oval shapes, are especially good for gatherings and parties because there’s no head of the table, and you can fit more people due to the round shape rather than being limited by corners.

A square table is perfect for a square-shaped room, and is excellent for households where the typical dining situation is just a few people in an intimate setting. You can also combine two square tables into a rectangular table if you have more guests.

Have the right material

The perfect dinner table material blends well with existing décor and style. There are a lot of choices out there, and it may seem like a daunting task, so follow some rules of thumb and you’ll have a table whose design language harmonizes with the rest of your home.

Wood

Durable, classic, timeless, a solid wood table wouldn’t be out of place whether now or in some royal dining hall a couple of centuries ago.

Something like a Georgian Architectural Dining Table is perfect for homes going for an expansive, regal feel that plays host to many formal dinners.

Alternatively, an imposing English Beam Dining Table could draw as much attention to itself as the huge plates of food atop it, enough to please even the heartiest of warriors.

Metal

A metal table is the perfect complement for a home with a more modern, industrial look. Because metal tables can be very thin and lightweight, they’re also great for minimalistic interiors, and are also easy to clean.

Glass

Dark areas and open spaces lend themselves well to being graced by the presence of a glass table, which don’t feel like they consume a lot of space, and can brighten up an area that doesn’t have a lot of natural light.

No right answer

At the end of the day, whatever works for you, whether functionally or aesthetically, will determine how much joy a table brings you. Be informed by design language and space considerations, but always choose whatever you connect with and serves your needs, and you’ll have a table that’ll keep you happy for years to come.