Creative Seating Solutions for a Small Dining Room

Many dining room areas are small and compact instead of being large and spacious. While some people view this as a problem, there are many different ways to add creative seating to a small dining room to maximize its size and usefulness. By minimizing the use of floor space in the dining room for other functional and decorative items, you can create more space in the room for the actual dining area. When combined with creative seating solutions, this can make even small dining rooms seem larger.

Maximizing Your Floor Space

In order to allow more space for the dining room tables and chairs, you should find ways to maximize your floor space to accommodate the largest pieces of furniture in the room. Instead of using a large dining room hutch, try adding a tall bookshelf, which has a much smaller footprint, while still providing a lot of storage and display space for dishes, linens, and other decorative pieces. A shelving unit that includes at least one shelf that has cabinet doors is also a great addition to the dining room, since it combined display space with hidden storage.

If you have some building skills, you could even build bookshelves into the walls themselves, taking advantage of the spaces between the studs in the wall, to free up even more floor space in the dining room. Using overhead lighting instead of floor lamps also saves space. Other pieces of furniture, unless they provide a vital functional purpose in the dining room, should be minimized, so that you will have as much room for seating as possible. Removing extra furniture also reduces the chance for clutter, which can make a small dining room seem even smaller. 

Designing for Maximum Seating in a Small Dining Room

Drop-leaf tables are perfect for a small dining room, as are tables that use one or more removable leaves. These tables provide maximum flexibility, since they can be used in a smaller size for daily use, allowing more walking space in the dining room, while offering the flexibility of a larger size for family dinners. When choosing a dining room table and chairs, selecting a style that allows the chairs to push under the table is the best choice, as this will create a more compact effect in a smaller room. Choosing a table with a compact profile and smaller chairs instead of those with oversized styling will also allow you to maximize floor space and fit more chairs comfortably around the table.

When using a drop-leaf table or one with removable leaves, use only the minimum number of chairs in the dining room on a daily basis, storing the other chairs in other rooms of the home when not needed, to avoid a cluttered appearance. Position the table in the dining room in a way so that when the leaves are added the table is centered in the room, allowing chairs to be placed on all sides for maximum seating. However, if the dining room is especially small, you can push the table a bit to one side of the room for daily use, allowing for better traffic flow through the room, pulling it out front and center only when you need to use the leaves.

Don’t forget to add decorative touches to your small dining room as well. One or two larger pieces will have more impact that several smaller pieces. Choose wall art that blends with your style; for example, a large fleur de lis artwork adds French country appeal while a bold abstract metal artwork will accent a streamlined modern look.