60 Dining Room Ideas That Will Make You Swear Off TV Dinners (2024)

Designer Jennifer Bunsa had to seriously rethink this Miami house,(it once boasted a trompe l’oeil mural of a leopard and cherubs) and the dining room was no exception. To delineate the awkward space, she reached a genius solution: turn it into a hybrid library. “The space is central to the house and is a main pass-through, so the bookcase helps define it as the dining space in a bigger room,” Bunsa tells us. “A lot of times, the formal dining room is not a space people use that much, so we were also providing an additional function.”

This Connecticut house—designed by architect Andrew Bartolotta along with interior design duo Jesse Parris-Lamb—may have been inspired by Industrial Revolution–era factories, but Dickensian it ain’t. Here in the dining room, the floor-to-ceiling operable windows open onto views of the coastline, while an Italian travertine table is surrounded by five bentwood chairs clad in a gray leather. Please, sir, can we have some more?

ELLE DECOR A-List designer Michelle R. Smith brought her casual yet elegant taste to the Manhattan home of Simon Huck (you’ll recognize him as a regular on the Kardashians) and Phil Riportella. In the dining room, that meant rich timber furnishings (we love the Giancarlo Valle chairs) that stand out against their subdued vanilla backdrop. A swirling green painting by Ammon Rost introduces a swath of color. “I wanted this house to feel like an exquisitely tailored Loro Piana coat,” the designer says. “We used all these cashmere colors, like cream and white, along with the oak.”

This combined dining area and kitchen, designed by Georgia Tappert Howe, manages to pack in plenty of style and plenty of storage. The custom leather banquette and marble kitchen island contain drawers and cupboards—perfect for this on-the-go Brooklyn family. “You have to be mindful about how much storage you need,” Howe advises.

This airy California home, designed by Noz Nozawa, is a rarity in that it is surrounded by regal redwood trees. “They love all the nature right outside their doors,” the designer explains of the clients, “and had the thought of doing a custom live-edge dining table, so we found a felled piece of wood that would be perfect.”

Inspiration was quite literally underfoot in this Hudson Valley home: Decorator Miles Redd drew the entire color palette from the hues of the rug. This seating vignette, though, is a nod to the homeowner’s love of antiques. Here, Biedermeier chairs pull up to a 19th-century table. And, in our humble opinion, you can never have a flower arrangement that’s too big.

Everything is allegedly big in Texas and judging by the ceiling heights of this Dallas home, that holds true. Designer Chad Dorsey played with the dining room’s staggering scale by installing an array of white pendants that shower the table. The move adds drama, while ensuring the seating area doesn’t get lost in the home’s larger-than-life proportions.

With views this exquisite, interiors need to take a backseat—a fact designer Nicole Hollis expertly navigated in this jaw-dropping desert escape. Here, the dining area features a custom table surrounded by Jean-Michel Frank and little else, save for a vinelike chandelier by Jeff Zimmerman—an otherworldly touch for an out-of-this-world backdrop.

Now this is how you nail the modern farmhouse look. For this country estate, designer David Netto swapped chintz and antiques for more modern, cozier touches. In the dining room, that included Charlotte Perriand woven seats and an antique Italian table surrounded by simple wood chairs.

Think in 3D, if you’re looking for an artful dining room moment. This breakfast nook in a Manhattan residence by Lucy Doswell is traversed by an art installation by artist Bradley Sabin. “They’re all handmade and painted flowers, and he likes to come up with the installation pattern and the exact placement,” Doswell tells us.

When designer Jamie Bush approached the interiors of this Montecito, California. residence, he got back to basics: primary and secondary colors. The dining room nods to the theme, with its golden rod-hued swivel chairs and the pop of red on the side table.

You can never have too much of a good thing, especially when it comes to entertaining space. Here in a Park City, Utah, ski retreat, the design firm Electric Bowery added a comfortable banquette for informal family meals next to the more formal dining area. To create cohesion, an open bookshelf serves as a room divider.

We love how ELLE DECOR A-List firm Retrouvius limited the palette of this distinctly modern Parisian dining room to just two colors: cream and gold. Our favorite part? The cabinet doors (at right) were made from a salvaged parquet floor.

There are few walls in the Brooklyn loft belonging to Orior creative director Ciáran McGuigan, which is why the furniture designer created distinct groupings of furniture to delineate different functions. “We knew we wanted to have as much big, open space as possible,” he tells us. Here, between an original timber column and a mint-green credenza, he tucked in an Orior table and surrounded it with electric blue chairs—a hue that occurs throughout the apartment.

Hey, we hear you: You might prefer all-white walls to a maximalist look. But before you banish bold flourishes entirely, check out this elegant space by Toronto designer Sam Sacks. Here, she introduced pattern via the striped chairs and rug, and color via a crimson antique tapestry.

At first blush, this dining room may resemble an ultraformal space reserved for dinners with your great aunt. But upon further inspection, you’ll appreciate how fashionista Marc Valeanu pushed the envelope with color and shape. Observe: the celery-green walls, a barely there black chandelier by Tommaso Barbi, a canary yellow table by Konstantin Grcic, and a cheeky flower sconce by Garouste & Bonetti.

Nothing says “grand” like a chandelier. And though this Beverly Hills interior leans more trad, designer Gary McBournie made sure to enliven it with spring-fresh colors and welcoming furnishings, like the sherbet-hued dining chairs by Soane Britain. “I’m always aiming to put things together in a mix of high and low that doesn’t look like you’re decorating for a rich person or a museum,” he tells us. Cheers to that!

There’s no competing with the beauty of Mother Nature, so why try? We love the effortless, thrown-together look of this outdoor vignette on the Greek island of Patmos. Bring the look to your own patio with a rustic farmhouse-style table and woven chairs to match. Oh, and don’t forget the Sauvignon Blanc!

No view? No problem! A scenic wallpaper in your dining room can replicate an alfresco look, even if your urban pad faces a derelict parking lot. We’re turning to Augusta Hoffman for inspiration. Here, in her elegant New York abode, she set a scene with a hand-painted mural by James Mobley and coordinating olive-green wainscoting.

This funky Swiss home might not exactly have towers and turrets, but it was indeed built for Italian royalty in the 1970s. The informal dining area features a curvaceous vinyl-clad banquette and grass-green carpet, among other throwback features—ideas you can pluck from in your own home if the allover look doesn’t appeal. But for its current resident, Prince Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia, the extraness of this home is part of its charm: “If today’s kings and queens could build their own castles, perhaps they would do it like that,” he says.