The dining room is the focal point of the house, a place where memories are made, conversations are shared, and the best foods are eaten. As our lives get busier, it’s also the room that most often gets overlooked when it comes to design and decoration, leading to many dining rooms ending up looking drab or lacking character.
At Noa & Nani, we’ve pulled together some inspiring ways for you to transform your dining area on a budget, to make it look super chic and sophisticated without breaking the bank. By breathing luxurious life into your dining room, it’ll soon be the hub of the house once more, ready for you to share with the whole family.
How do you make a luxurious dining room?
It’s really easy to add a touch of luxury to your dining room without having to buy a whole host of new furniture and accessories. Sometimes even the smallest changes to your set-up can help to really reconstruct your dining rooms' overarching look and feel. From curating a new focal point to adding some stylish new accessories, here are our top tips to help you create an opulent look for your dining room on a shoestring budget.
1. Introduce a Focal Point
Whether you choose some stylish framed prints, a rug for the floor, or statement wallpaper to create a feature wall, adding a focal point to your dining room helps to add immediate warmth and style to your room. If choosing artwork, be as individual and creative as you’d like, choosing prints that create conversation or enhance the colour scheme of your dining room.
If you’re unsure of which artwork to choose, framing your travel photographs or looking for prints in vintage stores is another way to add some quirky character to your room. If prints aren’t your thing, a statement feature wall can provide the same ambience. Finally, placing a rug underneath your dining table can help to angle the room and acts as a good centre point to work from when you’re arranging the rest of your furniture.
2. Upgrade Your Lighting
The lighting you choose for your dining room can have a huge impact on its overall look and feel. Try and recreate the lighting of your favourite restaurant by adding a dimmer switch to the lights above your table and keep some candles nearby to emphasise the feeling. Similarly, for fun brunches, go for brighter lights and enhance the mood with some bright and fun florals on your placemats and serving plates. Finally, if your dining room allows for it, a chandelier or feature light hanging above the table can add another interesting and luxurious focal point to your room.
3. Break Away From the Norm
If you’re looking for new and interesting ways to transform your dinner table but don’t have the money to buy a brand new one, it’s time to mix and match. Add some new dining room chairs to your existing table in a new colour to freshen up its look and give your dining room a modern twist. If your existing chairs are made from materials that allow it, painting them in an on-trend shade is another way to achieve this look on a budget. Adding some new, luxurious cushion pads to your chairs to accentuate the colour scheme of the room can also give your table a more luxurious feel.
4. Invest in New Serving Pieces to Accentuate your Room
Not just great for serving when you have a big party around the table, serving pieces can also work as good accents to enhance your dining room’s style. Leave out in the centre of the table when not in use, or stack on a dining room sideboard as a fun accessory. Use your room's colour scheme and carefully coordinate your serving dishes in a matching or complementary shade for best effect.
For a luxurious twist that can be virtually inexpensive, browse local charity shops and thrift stores to pick up new and unusual pieces. For total decadence, choose metallic flatware in gold or silver and set them out on your table for a luxurious, wow-factor finish.
5. Make a Bold Choice
Dare to be different! It’s the best way to fill your dining room with character! Whether you choose a standout statement vase for the corner of your room, a bold, bright paint for your feature wall or a statement sideboard to store your dinner service, being bold and brave with your accents can give your dining room a real showstopper feel. Whatever accessories you choose, make a choice that highlights your personality and the personality of your house.
6. Be Confident with Colour
Although there’s the temptation to paint your dining room white, or a pale, muted tone, sometimes there’s nothing more luxurious than adding colour to your room. Consider the amount of natural light that lands in the room and choose your colour accordingly, choosing lighter colours for low-lit rooms. Earthy colours create a feeling of warmth and cosiness, so can add ambience to an otherwise cool room. Corals, golds, silver-greys and warm reds are all luxurious colours that can give your dining room an instant elegance boost.
7. Add a Stylish Sideboard
A sideboard acts as a great place for your serving dishes when there’s not enough room on the table and can also act as a focal point to hang your framed artwork above. A great place to stand plants and flowers, coffee table books or your favourite bespoke ornaments, a sideboard not only provides extra storage space, it can look amazing too.
8. Coordinate Carefully
Colour is great, but coordination is key. Choose key accent colours, pairing the pattern on your platters to the colour of your chairs, or pick out colours from your artwork and add accents to your table based on the same shades. Coordinating carefully will help your room feel more pulled together and planned, resulting in a chic finish.
How do you make a dining room look elegant?
Adding some tasteful artwork, upcycling your dining room chairs and adding some stylish accessories are all ways that you can add personality and opulence to your dining room, transforming it into a much more inviting and luxurious living space. Then, if you’re looking to make some bigger changes, explore our full range of dining room furniture for more ideas and inspiration.