Why the dining room is making a comeback in Australian homes

Designers are embracing the once formal dining room as a place for ‘raucous enjoyment’ and social bonding by using these cheap and effective colour hacks.

Today’s dining rooms are a far cry from those of the past.

From singles to couples to families, we have become nomad diners.

It’s become kind of normal to eat standing up at the kitchen island, hunting and gathering in the fridge, while talking to a ghostly presence on ear buds, or watching TV, barely aware of others.

Are we robbing ourselves? Oxford University says we are.

The venerable institution found in its Social Eating Study that eating together was good for social bonding, a feeling of wellbeing and enhancement in our sense of contentedness.

It’s time to elevate. It’s time to raise not the kitchen bar, but the design bar – in the dining room.

Dining rooms can bring families together at meal time.

MAKE A SIGNATURE ROOM

The dining room was in recent history cast aside by designers and architects, in favour of a media room or an office space.

We lost an important social link in the reshuffle of rooms, but things are on the move. There is a groundswell of designers who see the value in having a space dedicated to dining and all the joy that can bring.

“I agree with that 100 per cent,” says Melbourne interior designer Nicole Rosenberg, of Liberty Interiors. She has seen a keen uptake in creating the ‘new dining room’.

For her, the starting point of a great dining room is colour.

They are a must have for dinner parties.

“I feel like when you make a space more colourful, it’s accessible; I feel people will use the space more,” she says.  

Accessible is a buzz word in ‘new’ dining rooms – it’s a way of saying this is not the dining room that your Mum and Dad had. It is no longer austere. This is a place for raucous enjoyment.

STICK TO YOUR COLOUR GUNS

“Painting the walls a colour is the cheapest and easiest way to add an emotion, a feeling into a space without breaking the bank,” says Rosenberg.

And she has tips on getting the right colours for you – the most important one being not to ask everyone’s opinion of your choice.

“It’s lethal!” she says.

“You’ve just got to back yourself, trust your instinct.”

Interior designer Nicole Rosenberg’s dining room transformation.

Narrow your ideas with a good mood board, then test them without any mess.

“At Dulux you can order these great A4-sized sample stickers for your walls. And make sure when you are doing this sampling you put them in places that are always dark, like the mantle area, and in places that get loads of light.”

Plus, she adds, “Check out the test sticker or swatches at different times of the day.”

Another tip for the new-look dining room: use colour beyond the walls.

Rosenberg used the Revive palette from the 2023 Dulux Colour Forecast.

In the pictured project, Nicole added layers of blue and green tones, then punched it up with contrasting pink chairs.

“I think if we didn’t bring colour into the chairs as well it would feel very one dimensional. Either go all the way, or don’t do it, that’s what I think,” says the designer known for great colour choices.

The buffet was painted blue.

Rosenberg says you don’t always have to buy new, either.

“That buffet (pictured) used to be black and then we painted it blue and it has a new lease on life,” she says, advocating for reducing landfill.

Never had a table? Now’s the time to find one.

“You just have to hunt. The search is the best.”

Dining is also enhanced by lighting choices (use warm table lamps) and a beautiful table setting. Save on tablecloths and napkins by going to Spotlight and buying four metres of fabric to make your own – iron the hem if you don’t sew.

Add flowers or quirky items arranged as a centrepiece.

Originally published as Why the dining room is making a comeback in Australian homes