Design2Share Holiday Wish List: Passiflore Dinnerware from Gien

Word Association

fresh = passion flowers

everyday earthenware = Passiflore

Passiflore = the perfect table

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How to Add an Elegant Touch to Your Dining Room

Jessica Ackerman - If your home is like many, the dining room probably serves a myriad of useful functions. During the holidays and on special occasions, the dining room is frequently the center of attention when it comes to dinners and family get-togethers. However, during the rest of the time the dining room table might be used as a place for children to do their homework, or for you to engage in craft or sewing activities. Although you might tend to use your dining room for casual activities, perhaps you'd really like to transform it into a more elegant space. Here are some easy and quick ways you can add a touch of elegance to your dining room, while still maintaining it's useful and multi-functional qualities.

Take Advantage of Wall Space

If you commonly use your dining room for entertaining or for family activities, you probably won't want to take up too much floor space with your decorating accessories. Busy dining room spaces are the perfect place to utilize beautiful wall decor. In the dining room, a beautifully framed mirror or perhaps a lovely and yet functional wall-mounted wine rack could be the perfect choice. Decorative wall shelves, framed prints or paintings, and wall tapestries can also add a beautiful and elegant look to the room. Contemporary metal wall sculptures can also be used to add a modern, elegant touch to your dining room space.

Pick Accessories that Work with Your Decor

When choosing your dining room decorating accessories, it's important to pay attention to the room's overall style. For example, while abstract metal wall sculptures can be the perfect choice for a contemporary-styled dining room, a beautifully framed print or painting could be a much better choice for a more traditionally styled room. By keeping the room's overall look in sync with your decorating accessories, the end result will be a more coordinated appearance.

Make Small, Yet Effective Style Changes

Sometimes it's the little things that can really add a touch of elegance to a dining room. For example, a beautiful tapestry tablecloth can transform an everyday table into the center of attention. In addition to looking beautiful, a tablecloth can also help to protect your dining room table's surface from the wear and tear of daily activities.

Instead of hiding your good china in a cabinet, display it on a shelf in the dining room. By doing so, you'll free up cabinet space in addition to adding a beautifully elegant look to the room. This can be an especially good technique to use in the case of large pieces that are beautiful and yet difficult to store, such as serving platters.

A beautiful floral arrangement can also help transform a plain dining room into something a bit more elegant. However, if your family uses the dining room table on a daily basis for other activities, the center of the table might not be the best location for a bouquet of flowers. Instead, try displaying a vase of flowers on a shelf, or perhaps on a buffet or side table. 

Dining Room Decorating Bonus

• Click here to read How About Some Tips for Redecorating Our Dining Room?
• Click here to read How Can I Decorate My Small Dining Room to Serve Multiple Functions?
• And click here to watch our Design2Share video on How Can I Make My Dining Room Special?

Jessica Ackerman is Senior Staff Writer and Design Specialist for Wall Decor and Home Accents. 

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Handy Hidden Leaf in Expanding Dining Table

Irwin Weiner ASID - I'm always looking for a good dining room table for my clients. I prefer round or oval tables - just because I like putting a round shape into a squared-off or rectangular-shaped room and it's great to sit around a table and be able to see everyone around "the pie." Check out this lovely round expanding table: the DB Fletcher Capstan Table, for instance.

But some families and their entertaining needs require a longer table in the traditional rectangular shape. The new Omnia Wood Dining Table demonstrated in this video exhibits clean lines, and I love the way the side leg and side details present a beveled picture frame molding appearance. It adds a nice tailored twist. Extend the table and you've got much more seating room, but you'll need a tablecloth to hide the sliding metal track that borders the stored leaf. It would have been better to extend the side molding to provide an "edging leaf" when the table is extended so you wouldn't have to use a cloth. Calligaris, keep this in mind for a revised reissue of this otherwise elegant wood dining table.

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