Dining Room Remodel design

What the room has to do

A dining room remodel is mostly about the perimeter. The table position is fixed by the room, so the work goes into what surrounds it — panelling, storage, the light above it, and often removing the wall that separated it from the kitchen in the first place.

Layout rules

• Allow 36in from the table edge to the wall; 42in where people pass behind seated diners.
• Hang the pendant 30–34in above the table top, centred on the table rather than the room.
• Size the pendant to roughly half the table width — smaller looks lost, larger blocks sightlines.
• A sideboard needs 18–20in of depth and 36in of clear floor in front.
• Give each diner 24in of table width.

Lighting plan

The pendant is the room. Everything else is support: a couple of wall lights or a lamp on the sideboard so the room is not a pool of light with dark edges. Dimmers are non-negotiable here more than anywhere.

What usually goes wrong

• A pendant centred on the room instead of the table, once the table moved.
• Chairs that cannot pull out because the sideboard is opposite.
• Downlights over a dining table, which light the tops of everyone's heads.
• Panelling run at the wrong height — under 32in it looks like a mistake.

In a small one

A round table seats the same number in less floor and removes the corners people cannot use. In a room under 10×10ft it is the difference between a dining room and a room with a table in it.