Planning Your Dining Spaces

Eating is, of course, something we must do every day. Many of us have hectic lives so eating becomes a quick-and-easy thing, and often we don’t even eat at a dining table.

It’s still important, however, to consider dining at tables, whether in a formal dining room or as part of a great room, to allow for those special times when you need something nicer than just eating in front of the TV. Let’s take a look at planning your dining spaces as part of your new house design.

Planning basics

Let’s start with tables. As we know they come in a variety of styles, shapes, and sizes. The number of people you can sit at a table depends on its shape and the comfort widths for eating, which is around 2 feet. Additionally, tables can be enlarged with inserts called table leafs.

A dining space should comfortably accommodate a table with people seated at it with enough room to circulate around it. Other pieces of furniture should be accounted for such as side tables and hutches. Following are a few general guidelines:

• Provide at least 3 feet from table edge to a wall
• Provide at least 4 feet clearance at an opening into the room.
• Provide at least 4 feet from table edge to a hutch or side table to allow for their door swings and to provide more space when serving off of the side table
• Provide 3 to 5 feet from other furniture when the table is part of a living/family room or great room, depending on how the chairs relate to the furniture.
• Provide 4 to 5 feet for circulation through a dining space connecting other parts of the house.

These dimensions provide comfort for people dining at the table and for easy circulation when the table’s in use.

The information below show how many people you can sit at a table given some sample sizes and shapes. As table sizes vary greatly by style, shape, design, and manufacturer we can’t cover every table. However, these will give you some good options for planning the room you want.

# People	Round	Oval	Racetrack	Rectangle	Square
2	2′-6″	2′-6″ x 3′-6″	Use round	2′-6″ x 3′-6″	3′-6″
4	3′-6″	2′-6″ x 5′	Use round	3′ x 4′	4′
6	4′-6″	3′ x 6′	3′ x 6′	3′ x 6′	5′
8	6′	4′ x 7′	3′-6″ x 8′	3′-6″ x 8′	6′
10	7′	4′ x 8′	3′-6″ x 10′	3′-6′ x 10′	7′
12	8′	4′ x 10′	3′-6″ x 12′	4′-6″ x 12′	8′

Table height

Most tables come in a standard height of 30 inches, plus or minus. However, there are tables available that are taller at 36 inches, matching the height of counter tops. These taller tables can be useful as an added preparation surface when placed in a kitchen. It can also allow for improved views out of windows and be easier for someone to get out of the taller seat as opposed to lower standard chairs.

Service options

Preparing food has a few well-known basic steps: first you need to obtain the ingredients, second you need to prepare the food you’ll cook, third is cooking the food, and finally you serve the food.

Serving the food can involve three methods:

• Table serving: Placing the food on serving plates and in serving bowls which are then set on a table where people can prepare their own plates.
• Buffet: Setting up a buffet-style service where people prepare their plates before taking them to the table for eating.
• Formal: Preparing each person’s plate beforehand and then serving them to each person at a table.

These options can occur in a variety of ways and different spaces:

• Table serving uses the kitchen to set up the serving plates and bowls before being taken to the dining table.
• Buffet’s can be set up in the kitchen using the counter tops, on a kitchen island, or in a dining space using a sideboard.
• Formal service can be prepared in a kitchen, or the serving dishes are set in a butler’s pantry between the kitchen and dining room, where someone then prepares the plates before serving each diner.

A butlers pantry is usually a separate connecting space between a kitchen and dining room, but can also be an extension of the kitchen. They’re typically found in more formal house designs. Sometimes they’re used when dining rooms are a bit farther away from the kitchen than typical, as an interim location to carry and place food before table placement.

A butler’s pantry typically has cabinetry similar to a kitchen and is where more formal dinnerware is stored.

Proximity to the Kitchen

Having a dining room or dining space close to the kitchen is an obvious thing we consider when planning a dining area. However, there could be cases where the dining room or dining space might not be immediately connected to or adjacent to the kitchen. The plan above is an example of such a dining room.

Formal versus casual

How we eat day-to-day versus how we eat on special occasions often define the dining furniture we use and where they’re placed. Many people in the U.S. today rarely need or use a formal dining room. If you have one it’s likely only used for special events such as holiday meals or dinner parties. Even families who mostly eat at a dining table don’t need the formal room, but rather have the table as part of the larger day-to-day living space.

We might also have other eating spaces that we use day-to-day more than an actual dining table. Eat-in kitchens often have a smaller table that the family might use most of the time, or a “breakfast” table in an extension of the kitchen area. These smaller tables often double as the activity table for playing cards or board games or for arts and crafts projects.

Another popular place for eating is the kitchen bar or island. The kitchen bar, sometimes called a peninsula, is an extension of the kitchen cabinetry that’s open to an adjacent space and at which you can sit to eat, help in preparing food, or visit with the cook. These became popular and common starting in the last half of the twentieth century.

A variation on the bar is the kitchen island, which is an independent series of cabinets with a large counter top. The island is accessible on all sides and often is sized to allow for seating on one or two sides. The island has become a very popular and common element of kitchens since the late 20th century and is one of the most common items asked for in kitchen design.

Eat-in Kitchens

Eat-in kitchens have been a common element of smaller homes for many centuries, saving on the size of house to be built and thereby making homes more cost-effective. These kitchens typically have cabinetry on one or two sides of the room with the table placed near the other walls.

Today’s eat-in kitchens are planned as larger spaces with more cabinetry but with the table placed off to one end of the room, acting as a casual eating space.

Dining rooms

Dining rooms have been a common part of houses, especially larger houses, for centuries. Even more common houses had separate dining rooms even in the late 1800’s.

Dining rooms in more traditional large formal homes are fully independent of other rooms, accessed from an entry foyer and with a connection to the kitchen, often via a butler’s pantry.

Dining rooms have also been separate rooms but open to the living room, often acting as a circulation route from the front of the house to the kitchen at the back of the house. This can be seen in bungalow floor plans as well as in homes built around the turn of the nineteenth to twentieth centuries located on narrow lots.

The dining room open to the living room became a common element in post-war housing of the twentieth century and then eventually began to be integrated as party of the living space itself.

Living/dining rooms

The dining table located in the larger living space has become a very common element of today’s house planning. The challenge with smaller to moderate-sized houses is to make sure the space is large enough to accommodate the table size you desire in conjunction with the seating furnishings you want in the space. This is an often overlooked element of such designs, especially with plans purchased through a plan service.

Breakfast spaces as part of a kitchen

A variation on the eat-in-kitchen is the breakfast nook, which is an extension of the kitchen space but beyond the cabinetry, often separated by a peninsula counter. In most houses such a space is typically smaller than a dining room and often allows for tighter clearances along the walls. This space often becomes the primary day-to-day eating space for all meals and becomes that place for most family gatherings for card and board games and small celebrations.

Some breakfast spaces have been enlarged to allow for a seating area, acting essentially as a secondary family room.

Breakfast rooms

Breakfast rooms are independent rooms connected to but not part of the kitchen space. These rooms are often enclosed with glass on two to three sides and often located on the east side of a house to allow for early morning light to fill the space. Such a room can also act as a solarium.

As with the breakfast nook, these spaces are smaller than formal dining rooms and house smaller tables. However, some rooms are larger to incorporate small seating areas and act as a secondary family room.

Dining nooks

A dining nook is a fixed-seating dining area, with banquette seating on two or three sides of a table. These spaces provide a charming and cozy area for breakfast, small meals, and for visiting, and are usually part of the larger kitchen space.

The challenge with fixed seating is accessing a place to sit if more than one person is on two opposite sides, causing the seated person to have to scoot over or stand up to allow the other person in to sit.

Some dining nooks can have fixed seating on one wall only, allowing for chairs on the opposite side or all three other sides of the table.

Dining at kitchen islands

As stated earlier, islands have become a popular and much-requested item for kitchen design. Islands can come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes and have become a popular element on which to eat meals and snacks as well as a place to visit and to help in preparing meals.

Most islands have seating along one side opposite the primary kitchen prep area, seating anywhere from two to several people depending on the length of the island. Larger islands with greater depth can also have seating on a second or third size.

A newer development with kitchen islands is a variation on the kitchen peninsula. With this setup the island has an extension that essentially acts as a table where people can sit together around a common point.

Eating in the living room

Let’s face it. A lot of us rarely eat at a table anymore. We’ve become so enamored with watching televisions, movies, and sporting events that we’ll eat at the sofa so that we won’t miss anything. With this in mind you should carefully consider the furniture pieces you want for your seating group. Let’s take a look at two items: the coffee table and the ottoman.

Coffee table: Make sure you have a coffee table large enough to work for the number of people who regularly eat with you and the type of seating you have. A large square coffee table works well when you have seating on two or three sides, allowing it to be used as a spot to set down plates and glasses.

Ottoman: today there are a number of sofas and sectionals that can come with a large ottoman that is the same height as the seating and covered in the same material. Such an ottoman can be used in conjunction with a serving tray to act as your dining surface as well as enlarging the size of the sofa or sectional when you’re not eating, allowing you to spread out in comfort while watching your favorite show or snuggling with your loved one.

All photos and graphic images are by Cayl Hollis unless otherwise noted.