How to Design a Dining Room

How to design a dining room for a London home: sizing the table and its clearances, layering the lighting, planning storage, and zoning an open-plan dining area.

Learning how to design a dining room well is really about getting a few practical decisions in the right order: the table and its clearances first, then lighting, storage and the finishes that give the room character. In many London homes the dining space is either a separate room in a period house or a zone within an open-plan kitchen, and each needs a slightly different approach. Get the layout and the lighting right and even a compact dining room feels generous and works beautifully for everything from a quiet supper to a table full of guests.

Start with the table and the clearances

The dining room is one of the few rooms designed almost entirely around a single piece of furniture. Choose the table size for how many you actually seat, allowing roughly 60cm of width per person, then protect the space around it. Leave about 90cm to 100cm on every side so chairs pull out and people move behind seated diners without a squeeze. In a tight London room, a round or extendable table often seats more when it matters while taking up less space day to day.

Get the lighting right

Lighting makes or breaks a dining room, because it sets the mood as much as it lights the food. Hang a pendant, or a pair, centrally over the table, around 70cm to 85cm above the top so it lights the table without blocking sightlines, and always put it on a dimmer. Then add a softer background layer, wall lights or a lamp on the sideboard, so the room can shift from bright and practical to low and intimate as the evening goes on.

Design in storage and a sideboard

A dining room needs somewhere to keep the things it uses: glassware, table linen, serving dishes and candles. A sideboard or a run of built-in storage earns its place, doubling as a surface for serving and for lamps or display. In a period house, a chimney breast alcove is the natural home for a made-to-measure cupboard or shelving that turns dead space into useful storage without crowding the table.

Zoning a dining area in open-plan spaces

Where the dining table sits in an open-plan kitchen or living room, the job is to make it read as its own zone without walls. Three tools do most of the work:

• A rug sized to sit under the table and the chairs, even when pulled out, to anchor the area.
• A pendant light centred over the table, tying the eye to the dining zone.
• A sideboard, shelving or a change in flooring to mark the edge between dining and the rest of the room.

Keep the materials and tones in step with the adjoining kitchen and living areas so the whole space feels considered rather than three rooms fighting for attention.

Colour, texture and the finishing layer

With the practical decisions made, the finishes give the room its personality. Dining rooms suit a slightly richer, more enveloping palette than everyday spaces, because they are often used in the evening; deeper wall colours, textured upholstery on the chairs and warm timber all read well by lamplight. Add art at seated eye level, dress the sideboard simply, and resist over-filling the room: the table should stay the focus.

Approached in this order, layout, lighting, storage, zoning and finishes, designing a dining room becomes methodical rather than daunting. For related rooms see our guides on designing a bathroom and designing an open-plan kitchen-diner, or start at the Vertigo Interiors homepage.