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6 Modern Dining Room Ideas

You have probably encountered a modern dining room setting before – think of those upmarket inner-city restaurants with designer furniture, expansive wall art and innovative lighting. With a modern dining room in your own home, you might like to channel these ideas – invest in dining sets and furniture that favour clean, simple lines, with a light and airy or bold, atmospheric colour scheme. Read on for 6 great ideas to help you create a modern dining room.

1. Implement a modern colour scheme

Modern dining room ideas should always start with colour. Decide on the scheme for your walls and ceiling, and then the complementary shades for your furniture and accessories will fall into place.

You might like to go dark and dramatic. A deep shade of blue instantly screams modern, and looks fantastic with a wooden dining table and some white dining chairs. Round off the design with a metallic floor lamp and a large silver mirror.

Grey is a very on-trend neutral, and furniture and accents in bolder colours really stand out against it. Try a lighter pastel grey on the walls, then perhaps introduce a dining table in the industrial style and match it with some fabric dining chairs with a charcoal covering to complement the colour on the walls.

Not everybody feels comfortable with painting the walls in an unconventional shade. There’s nothing more modern than expanses of white wall. You could try just one wall in an accent colour, or an intricately-patterned wallpaper for a show-stopping backdrop.

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2. Buy modern dining room furniture

There are some exciting current trends in modern dining room furniture. It’s easier than ever to achieve a designer look, with some eye-catching pieces that are also practical and affordable.

Typically, modern dining room furniture is all about strong, clean lines and sharp edges, and wide, low profiles. There are wooden dining tables that follow this style, which you could pair with a dining bench to continue the look. The on-trend industrial look takes these ideas a stage further, with reclaimed would and bare metal legs for a strong weathered look.

But don’t think that your furniture has to be wood. A modern look favours the unconventional, so consider a high gloss dining table with a lacquered finish, or a glass dining set which is as practical as it is beautiful to look it. A marble or even a concrete dining table will also give you a contemporary feel.

When choosing dining chairs to go with your table, there are many possible designs. Try materials like leather or suede, on a metal cantilever frame, rather than the usual four legs.

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3. Introduce unconventional accessories

Tables and chairs are only the beginning when it comes to contemporary dining ideas. You can bring in a wide range of accessories – some you may not traditionally consider for a dining room, such as rugs, wallpaper, wall art, ornaments, and more.

When we think of a rug, we might consider their natural home to be the living room or bedroom. The right rug, however, can work well in a modern dining room setting, with something to suit every colour scheme. Go for a single colour, or try a design with an eye-catching pattern. An area rug can be used to ‘anchor’ a dining table within a space.

In some modern restaurants, you can often feel like you’re eating in an art gallery. Wall art helps to create a sense of atmosphere as you eat, so try one large piece, or several smaller pieces, to create a gallery wall. Text art can add a modern twist.

Consider other accessories, such as vases and lampshades. Also make a feature of some extravagant ceiling lights.

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4. Experiment with unusual materials

As well as a daring or unexpected colour scheme, try inviting some unusual materials and textures into your modern dining room. The industrial look is very on-trend currently, with the raw materials such as concrete or natural wood with a live edge clearly on display in everything from the décor to the furniture.

In terms of the setting, think bare wooden floors and exposed brick walls. Try to build on the rugged construction feel with glass pendant lights, hanging down from the ceiling on electrical wire. Other metallic accents, stone and wood, will also work well in this setting.

With this in mind, start to plan your dining room furniture accordingly. Look at the various wooden dining sets available, or follow the stone route by looking to a concrete dining table or one made out of marble. An industrial look dining set will seem particularly at home against a backdrop of bare brick and tinted glass.

Try working these materials into every nook, with a stone laminate floor, or wood panelling on one wall. You could even try a metallic effect on the ceiling.

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5. Add dramatic lighting

Lighting should be a key consideration of your modern dining room ideas. This can have a major impact on the space, and completely change the ambience.

It may be that you want to create a focal point over the centre of the dining table, using modern ceiling lights. A chandelier with an intriguing contemporary design can become a design feature in its own right, or for something different try hanging a series of pendant lights over the table instead.

There are other forms of lighting to consider. Look to the various fantastic modern floor lamps available, from a tripod with a spotlight on top, evoking Hollywood glamour, to one with a quirky stand.

Consider modern technology, such as dimmers and eco-friendly bulbs. Also look for LED strip lighting, which can be run under corners or behind wall art to create an exciting effect.

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6. Go with eye-popping accents

It’s good to have a few eye-catching elements in your contemporary dining room, and one of the ways to do this is with accessories of a carefully chosen colour or colours. Bright colours or even metallics can give your modern dining room a real edge.

If you have a minimalist dining room setting, with one particular hue, pick a bold shade and work it through the space. Be daring with a set of yellow dining chairs, and build on this with yellow ornaments, cushions, vases and rugs. Or choose an accent chair in your preferred colour and sit it in the corner.

For metallic touches you could look to a dining table or contemporary dining chairs with metal legs, or just work the effect in with a gold mirror, a chandelier and other lighting, or a huge ornamental metal clock.

Gold definitely adds a touch of elegance, and pops against a dark backdrop. Trying mixing your colours too, with dining chairs in varying shades.

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6 Modern Dining Room Ideas

1. Implement a modern colour scheme

2. Buy modern dining room furniture

3. Introduce unconventional accessories

4. Experiment with unusual materials

5. Add dramatic lighting

6. Go with eye-popping accents

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6 Modern Dining Room Ideas

1. Implement a modern colour scheme

2. Buy modern dining room furniture

3. Introduce unconventional accessories

4. Experiment with unusual materials

5. Add dramatic lighting

6. Go with eye-popping accents

Dining

The simple, minimal beauty of Scandinavian-style furniture

How to host a virtual dinner party

Get the modern country look

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More reasons to shop at Furniture Village

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