How To Create The Perfect Scandinavian Dining Room

How To Create The Perfect Scandinavian Dining Room
Scandinavian style interior design first emerged in the 1950s and has recently made a big comeback, with many of its tropes trickling into our homes. At Noa & Nani we want to help you and your family to turn your home into a peaceful retreat, where you can shut the outside world away and be happy. That’s one of the main reasons we created our Nordic dining furniture range. By transforming communal rooms like your dining room into a Scandi dining room, your whole family will benefit from the positive effects of what Scandinavian’s refer to as hygge.

What is hygge?

There isn’t actually a direct translation for the word hygge so trying to describe it can often be difficult. It is regarded as a defining characteristic of Danish culture, but hygge is about so much more than just decor. It’s known as a concept of feeling deep joy and of homely cosiness that can come from spending time in good company and having a good time. It’s being able to appreciate a moment as something special and enchanting, no matter where you are. Think of it as feeling true contentment and being present in your environment. Hygge can refer to creating a secure, familiar surrounding where you can feel true happiness by breaking up the mundaneness of everyday life. For many, home should be the main place that hygge can be experienced. As the concept of hygge has filtered into home design, Scandi interior style has been built on the idea that beautiful homes shouldn’t just be for the wealthy but for everyone, which is why simplicity is a key theme. Through minimalism and functionality, hygge should be felt, making it more about who and how you share the space, rather than what’s in it. To achieve a Scandi dining room and to help your family achieve a daily sense of hygge, you need to create an inviting, social space which is the perfect backdrop for intimate conversations. Transform your dining area into the place perfect for time spent with those you love and a place to appreciate the small, beautiful moments. But, how can you achieve a sense of hygge in your dining room?

What can you do to achieve a Scadanavian dining room?

Purchase multifunctional Items

To achieve true Scandi style, every item has to have a purpose and add something to the room. So, if one thing can do the job of two, you’re taking up less space whilst still having everything you need. An easy way you can achieve this in your dining room is to include a versatile table. Having an extendable dining table means your close family can sit together daily, whilst always having the option to share time and welcome guests and visitors. Pair this with comfortable seating and your dining room will suddenly become somewhere you can settle and share time, no matter the occasion. white, 8-seater dining table

Keep your space light and airy

Scandinavian countries experience extremely dark winters, meaning they have to try and make their homes radiate warmth and light all year round. By pairing pure white walls with light wood flooring within your dining room, you should create a clean, rustic style that captures natural lighting beautifully. To warm up your ample amount of space, try a low hanging light fitting above your table. This will mimic having the sun close by or may even become the modern day campfire your family can gather round to share stories of their day - either way it will make the room feel warmer and have you closer to feeling a sense of hygge.
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Add a statement piece

With the natural finish of our Nordic dining table, it leaves an opportunity to add a flash of colour elsewhere in your room, whether this is in the form of a beautiful piece of artwork, a few stylish prints backdropped by the white wash wall or even a rug placed centrally under the table. By adding one statement piece, it will give your dining room dimension and make the available, airy space feel much more homely.
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Layer up those textures

A big element of Scandi interior design is the use of raw materials, such as untreated wood floorboards, fabric cushions or faux fur rugs, all of which help warm up the coldness of the white and monochrome aesthetic that can often be found in Scandi-inspired rooms. However, this is not the only way that you can add texture to your dining room! Adding a bit of pattern play like floral placemats or a geometric lamp can soften up the harshness of the clean lines and make your dining room much more inviting. Sometimes being simpler can still mean the bolder the better.
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Have lots of plants

Nature is one of the key design influences of any Scandi space, so potted plants are a big go-to to achieve the best Scandi interior. If you’ve decided to go with a Scandi monochrome colour scheme for your dining room then scattering these small snippets of green will break up the lack of colour and tie together the beauty of your dining space. Not only will including them connect the outdoor world with the indoor, but it will add a bit of eco friendliness and an element of sustainability to your dining room, because nature never goes out of style!
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Remember simplicity

The perfect Scandi dining room will exude understated elegance. With a lack of visual clutter, the soft colour schemes and your dining table as the rooms centrepiece, you will have created a simplistic haven ready for time well-spent with the family. Using the small ways that we’ve suggested to add depth to your airy space you should have created a simple yet attractive space that doesn’t feel empty, but instead feels warm, cosy and welcoming.
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What are Scandi colours?

A true scandi colour palette is actually very limited, as it is made up of mainly soft whites, with only 3 or 4 other shades, be them black, greys or hues of brown. When you think of scandinavian interior, think of earthy shades that can be beautifully activated by natural light, including muted glints of colours like pale blues or blush pinks that bring the simplicity of room to life.

Pastel colours

If you’re used to a colourful style and having only white-wash walls feels a bit too clinical for you then including pastels can help break this up! A pastel colour scheme is much more popular in modern Scandi style rooms, be it blush pink pottery, baby blue cushions or a mint green statement rug. There are easy ways to break up the white and spice up your Scandi colour scheme.

Monochrome palette

A popular Scandi colour palette is monochrome; a creative take on black and white that can include beautiful hues of grey. This classical use of contrasting colours will make your home a haven and can help create that clean feel that is crucial to Scandi style. To add a pop of colour to monochrome, people often incorporate a statement fluorescent piece, for example through a print on their dining room wall.

Bold Scandi style

If your dining room is one of the main spaces in your house, you might be worried your Scandi colour palette filled with natural colours might be more boring than beautiful. If so, why not be more experimental with the Scandi style and use bolder colours? Rich tones of copper metal cutlery or rusty pink fabric curtains can add some strong colours to your scheme. These would be great additions next to the dark pine of our Nordic dining furniture range and will create a dense, cosy space for your family to share.

A Pinterest-worthy dining room

The fundamental principles of Scandi interior are high-quality design and ample space, complemented by key pieces of furniture and layered textures. If you incorporate even a small element of each of our steps to achieving a Scandi dining room, then you should be left with homely results and a space for the whole family to happily share. Your Scandi dining room will not only feel welcoming for everyone who visits your home but will look so stylish it will inspire your guests to follow suit and bring the concept of hygge to life. Check out our range of Nordic dining furniture today and get started on creating your Scandi dining room of dreams.

Article by Alex Tolofson