Dining Solutions

by Stephanie Johnston

Dining Solutions
Most will say that the Kitchen is the heart of the home—it is where the food is. The dining room, however, is where all the kitchen’s hard work gets appreciated, family and friendship ties are strengthened, relationships are built, and a place where memories are made.

The trend in open plan living has meant that many opt for a breakfast bar or kitchen island to eat rather than traditional tables and chairs. As families get busier than ever, sitting down to eat, socialize, and catch up becomes more important while texting a friend, sending an email, or checking social media takes a backseat. 

Make your dining room the place for the family to gather at the end of a long day, not a place that’s used at Christmas and major holidays. So tonight, lay out the table, turn off the TV, put down the phones, and visit with your family.

For a room with such importance, your dining room should reflect your style, your personality, and your home. We recommend taking the following things into consideration when looking for a dining table.

Self Storage Leaves
It can be a struggle to find a table that not only fits your space, but that can also accommodate the number of people that you have invited over to enjoy certain festivities. Also known as extendable tables, hardwood tables with self-storing leaves are a great solution for smaller eat-in kitchens or dining rooms. 

Self-storing leaves solve the issue of where to seat everyone and you don’t have to spend time dragging them out of storage every time you need them.

The WOW Piece
The Yale Dining Suite is a great example of some innovative ways self-storing leaves are making life simpler. All you have to do is twist & turn the table face for the leaf to appear, immediately increasing the size of the table. Want to bring it back to regular size? Give it a spin in the opposite direction and voila. It couldn’t get any easier! 

A Seat for the Whole Family
Do you have a supersized family tree? Look for a table that has more than one self-storing leaf. This can increase your table’s seating capacity to hold 12-14 people. The Expandable Dining Suite is one of our favourites for this purpose. The best part is that you won’t have to separate family members into multiple tables – everyone can sit together!

As much as we would love to pretend that everyone has room for 14 people in their dining room, we know this isn’t the case. If you often host larger groups but do not have limitless space, consider a few of our dining room hacks:

  • Use narrow or armless chairs in your dining room when you’re trying to accommodate more people. That way you can fit a couple of extra chairs around the dining room table with ease. 
  • Forget the placemats! Placemats look great, don’t get us wrong. But if you’re squeezing in a few extras, leave them tucked away in the closet. 
  • Swap traditional chairs for a bench! Unlike chairs, a bench can sit a few extra people comfortably. Not to mention how great they look. 
  • Go for a round table. Round tables can sometimes be a great solution to a group of 6-8, especially since the nature of the table promotes better conversation.

Additional Storage
As mentioned above, a bench can be a great solution to fitting a couple extra people around the table. They add style, functionality, but can also be an excellent means of storage. This is a great place to keep extra napkins, table cloths, and anything else that can clutter up our dining rooms.