Renovation Ideas for Your Dining Room

Many believe that the kitchen is the heart of the home, but we think it’s the dining room. It’s the room where memories are made over good food and good company. Whether you’re hosting a family meal or a dinner party with friends, the dining room should be a stylish and functional space. If you’re thinking of renovating this area of your home, we’ve put together this helpful guide for you.

Where to Begin with a Dining Room Renovation

With any project, a robust plan needs to be put in place which covers what you’re trying to achieve and what needs doing, along with costs and a plan of when a construction team can start work.

One of the best ways to add value to a home with a dining room renovation is to create a larger open-plan kitchen diner with bi-fold doors into the garden. Depending on your home, that could mean knocking down walls and taking on a larger project, but as more of us opt for blended spaces, the open-plan dining room into the kitchen makes socialising and family time at one with food prep and cooking.

What to Consider When Renovating a Dining Room

It’s easy to get carried away on any sort of build, but it’s essential to consider the following so not only can your project run smoothly, but the result is one that you can happily live in long after the novelty has worn off.

• Utilising the space: consider how you use the space in your current home and what you will need to make your new space work post-build. Include ergonomic design elements so you can freely move throughout the space without knocking into furniture or a newly-installed support column — particularly important if you’ve got kids. It’s essential that the dining room needs to look good but also be functional.
• Don’t forget storage: whether you go for a separate dining room area or an open plan design, include storage as part of the initial model. This can be built-in and discreet storage solutions, or you can add it in when you’re decorating with freestanding furniture — either way, the space needs to be accounted for ahead of the build; if you’re working with an architect or interior designer, they can add it into the floor plans for you.
• Light it up: as part of the redesign, include new light sockets that can be functional and atmospheric over the dining table. As well as repositioning the light switches and carefully choosing the right light fixtures, introduce natural light. Bi-fold doors are an excellent addition to the dual-functioning space to allow natural light to flood in and create the illusion of a bigger space.
• Dual function: the dining room, particularly an open plan kitchen diner, has a lot of functions. For example, if you use the dining table to work from home, ensure that you have plug sockets close for charging your devices. Alternatively, if you’re looking to create a separate working from home space, the dining area would still benefit from multiple plug sockets and charge points.

There are myriad nuances when renovating rooms in your home, but aside from budget and planning, the finer details are important to consider because they’re often overlooked as part of a bigger initial build. Once you know your layout and the placement of windows, sockets, and fixtures, you can move on to the fun part: design.

Design Trends to Try for Your Dining Room

As the room is stripped down, now is the time to try something new from an interior design perspective. 2021 interior design trends for dining rooms show some clear winners that are effective for transforming your space.

Informal Dining — a relaxed eatery is the vibe of 2021 dining rooms. Gone are the structured dinners parties where the fine silverware is brought out — now we want comfort and a relaxing atmosphere.

Maximise Small Spaces — round tables are a great way to create a relaxed ambience as well as offering a space-saving solution for smaller dining rooms. If you’re tight on space but would prefer a rectangle or square table, opt for a bench in place of chairs on one side of the table.

Bring Nature Inside — plants and interiors are nothing new, but now they’re taking centre stage with the inclusion of plant walls, providing a focal piece of the room, as well as filtered, fresh air to the space.

Panelling — you’d be hard-pressed to go online and not see a picture of someone’s DIY home panelling. But panelling has become a leading trend in interior design and is a cost-effective and relatively easy way to add a feature and some texture to your wall.

There are a variety of how-to videos to apply these trends yourself, but if you wanted to work with someone to take on the project, consider hiring a professional.

Hiring Professional Help for a Dining Room Renovation

Whether you want to do most of the remodelling yourself but require some support, or you want to outsource the work to an expert, hiring a professional tradesperson has been made easy thanks to iknowa’s hand-picked and vetted roster of specialists. Every tradesperson listed is insured, verified, and showcase their previous work so you can select the tradesperson that’s right for you.

If the dining room renovation you’re doing requires structural work, you’ll need to onboard an architect; they can draw up the plans and submit the project for planning approval if needs be. For more information on approved structures or extensions, take a look at some of our other articles.