5 Tips To Prep Your Dining Room For The Holidays

The end of summer ushers in the return of school, college sports, and a change in clothing, and it also signals the holiday season is right around the corner. Halloween comes just two months after the conclusion of summer, and following that, you’ll have a different holiday popping up every few weeks. All of this means before you know it, the holiday season will be in full swing. If you’re not careful, in the blink of an eye Thanksgiving will be here, and if you’re not prepared, you’ll find yourself rushing to take care of your dining room and updating it for the seasonal gathering. To help get the ball rolling, here are five dining room holiday decorating ideas.

1. Consider Table and Chair Updates

Did you host a family gathering last year? If so, how was the seating arrangement? Was everyone comfortable, or was it cramped? And if you didn’t, but it’s your turn to host this year, how many people typically arrive? How many are you looking to invite? If necessary, the best way to prep your dining room for the holidays is to update your table and chair setup. And even if you currently have a large enough table to accommodate any number of guests, do you have enough comfortable chairs or were some guests forced to sit in chairs that were too hard, too low, or simply not designed for eating at a table?

Now is the right time to update your seating area as you’ll beat the rush of other shoppers, and you’ll be able to work the dining chairs and table into the best space possible.

2. Consider Mood Lighting

Have you ever found that the more people you have in a given space, the darker it seems to be? That’s because more shadows are being thrown over the space and blocking direct light. When it’s just you and your immediate family, the current lighting setup is fine, but you’ll want to bring in additional lighting when you double or even triple the number of guests.

Candles are fine, but they can be a fire hazard when passing food around the table (especially with children). Instead, look at other ways to bring in mood lighting. Small table lamps, wall lighting, or other lamps placed around the room will instantly brighten the space and make it feel warmer and friendlier. And, if you’ve been considering a ceiling pendant light upgrade, now is the time to do it.

3. Declutter the Space

It is not always easy to move around in a dining room when an oversized table and a dozen guests are walking around at once. It’s even more difficult if too many items are inside the space. Now is the time to declutter the area wherever possible. In fact, only leave the necessary furniture and side tables. Anything else should be moved to another room. Every square foot of space you free up will improve the general flow of the room and make it easier for everyone to get in and out as needed.

4. Change Up the Dining Table Decoration

It’s amazing how just a little decoration on your dining room table can make your dining room feel like the holidays. You can keep the standard tablecloth if you’d like, but then add a different colored runner through the middle. Whether this is a burnt orange for Thanksgiving or a green or red runner for Christmas, this simple change of color is fun and will help get the ball rolling when prepping the space for the holidays.

You will want to be conservative with the amount of decoration you place on the table because table space is usually at a minimum. However, you can have fun decorating each table setting. Whether using a small gourd to hold placement cards or adding (fake) snow-dusted pine cones on side tables, you can have fun decorating without going overboard.

5. Fresh Seasonal Plants

Bringing something alive into the space is not only a fantastic decoration but also helps freshen up the space and improve the overall feel of the room. You can invest in small pine trees from any local nursery or home improvement store. You can even take a branch you might have cut off from the bottom of your Christmas Tree, place it in a vase, and set it up in the room. You can have fun with the colorful leaves found outside during the autumn months, and if you have children, you can ask them to go into the backyard and collect the brightest, most colorful leaves. It’s a way to keep your children busy and a great way for them to pitch in. Because most children will see you preparing for the holidays and will want to help out, it’s not always beneficial for anyone to have them assisting in the cooking process (depending on their age), but it’s fun to find bright red and orange and yellow leaves.

Order Your Updated Dining Room Furniture Today

Perhaps you’ve had the same old dining room table for some time and meant to upgrade to something different. Now is truly the perfect time to update the space. By ordering furniture directly through Furniture USA, you’ll have access to a wide selection of pieces, all of which are built right here in the U.S. So, whether you want to switch to a circular table and matching chairs, you’ve moved into a new home, and you want a longer table, or you simply want to upgrade the chairs you use, you’ll find everything you need at Furniture USA. Have any questions regarding stock, or do you need some guidance for selecting the optimal piece for the amount of space you’re working with? Feel free to request a quote or give our friendly Furniture USA team a call to learn more about our products and free shipping!