Karen Heffernan I love my square dining table in my square dining room :)

A. Peltier Interiors You hit all of the major points, good article! When I'm working with a client I like to add an extra chair or two that will work at the dining room table but also for seating in other parts of the house when entertaining large amounts of people. Dining chairs are also expensive so this helps them justify the costs when they feel they have more than one use. BTW Karen, I love square tables too!

Sigrid Um, just how does "Having an arched entrance like the one in this picture stops the awkward bunching of people at your door when you announce that dinner is served"? Because they bang their heads on the arch?

Or maybe having a wide entryway is the point and the arch is merely a nice, but irrelevant architectural detail?

ellinac63 We have an awkward space for our dining and only a square or round table would work. We went with this square table and it has worked out perfectly. When it's just the two of us we place the chairs as pictured. But for a party of eight we add in two chairs and each couple can see and converse with every other couple. And it has a leaf to extend it to accommodate a party of 10. Square tables are great!

ellinac63 Table is from a company in Canada called Canadel. Even though it's wood you clean it with water, not wood cleaners or polishers. Very easy maintenance. They have lots of options to choose from.
http://www.canadel.com/

scarbowcow This is definitely a BWI: Bookmark-Worthy Ideabook. Too much good information in this ever to lose track of it! Thanks!

peggle Excellent article. This is exactly the information I have been looking for. Bookmarked.

JAN MOYER Through much of the 90's and early 2000 decades, many builders shrunk the dining room to postage stamp proportions in an effort to boost the size of the kitchen. Don't be afraid to remove the labels from your room plan, because dining rooms are a bit like ovens... you need a roomy one, or you don't need one at all. Feel free to "switcheroo" a living and dining space! The police will not come! I very recently turned a claustrophobic dining space into a "room of her own" for a client, and gave the dining room wonderful space in an unused living room. We added french doors to both, gave the new dining space a lovely fireplace and capacious sideboard. The table is a large sleek english farm table, and is just as suitable for homework and gift wrapping, despite it's glam lighting above. The room is cozy, warm, roomy, easily accommodates a large crowd for a formal setting or an after soccer pizza. My client has her computer/ a.m coffee/run family life space in the old dining room complete with a small sofa, two chairs, writing table... and her kitchen directly behind was cleared of the flotsam devoted to tracking family.. Nobody notices there is no longer a formal "living room", Including my client, who was a very difficult sell on the concept : ) but loves the result.

astraea Jan - So true! I had a separate formal dining room in my previous house, but there was a large opening into the living room, so it seemed even larger than it was. I was sure I wanted separate rooms when I went house hunting, until I saw my current home, which had been remodeled in an open concept by a previous owner. I've arranged the furniture so that a buffet & the sofa act as dividers between the living & dining space, but visually it's a much larger space than if there was even a partial wall between them!

kadodi Great article!! Thank you so much!!

Fine Art & Portraits by Laurel Test drive your dining chairs for at least 45 minutes in the showroom, once you've found the look you want. You can use the time to read contracts, ask the salesperson questions, establish the terms, etc.
In one of my apartment art studios I only had room for a counter height dining table and chairs; no couches for guests! So those chairs had to be upholstered and comfortable for long, slow meals. It is possible.
Some French antique tables have a deep, beautifully carved apron, which makes proper chair height impossible. I don't recommend these tables for actually dining, pretty as they are. They're better for display of smaller antiques.

somecookie There's no way that square table will work with all those chairs. You can see that they can't be pulled up any closer to the table because of the chairs on the corners, put people in them and where are their legs supposed to go? I love how it looks tho'.

lisazuchowski Love the chairs pictured in all these pictures. Anyone know where to get good dining room chairs at a bargain?

einportlandor Watch the weight of those upholstered chairs. Heavy, bulky chairs are awkward to move -- nothing worse than trying to wrestle/wiggle your chair up to the table while seated. Or push it away from the table after a couple of glasses of wine.

patscats2 The manufacturers of dining sets should take comfort into consideration. I wouldn't want to sit in any of the chairs featured for more than 5 minutes. Then again maybe you want chairs like that so your company doesn't overstay their welcome. Not sure why they make chairs that aren't comfortable tor sit in for prolonged periods of time.

frenchdecor Who has plastic or vinyl covered chairs, do you feel damp backside if you are seating for a long period of time (dining)? I would appreciate an honest reply. Thanks.

Muebles San Jose I like this extensible circular table with chairs that we mounted in a house two months ago.

JAN MOYER Regarding dining chairs: It isn't just for style that so many seen to be fully upholstered, it's a less expensive manufacturing process as well, costing less to produce, and giving the consumer a feeling of "more". I am not speaking of those highly styled, ala high end furniture makers, but a more basic parsons type chair. Beware those ala Pottery Barn, those you find in a discount store, as they are nothing but foam on a wood board seat/back and will disintegrate pretty quickly into discomfort. For better quality, Designmaster has a million variations, with webbing, springs for guts and are comfortable and will hold up and they offer more options. The french " Louis" knock off chairs you find at Restoration Hardware, with some "wood" exposed ...... order one, sit for a couple hours, then decide if you want six or eight. Cute, stylish, well priced junk, and a very small, short seat for anyone but a child. But if you dine "in the dining room" infrequently, may be fine for you.
Traditionalists for all wood, might find a happy price and comfort medium in Nichols and Stone, or something from Arhaus. If your tastes run to modern, Nuevo has some very well priced, and equally comfy chairs in leather or vinyl with zippy chrome legs and a lot of style.Their "Jack" armchair is super in black or white. PS.. if your groups tend to smaller, know that EVERYONE loves an armchair, and will linger longer at the table in one. In any case, we are thankfully past the boring matched dining set, so consider how often you use the room, how large a group, your style, and go from there. Also check out !st dibs.com. You can turn up the retro, the traditional, and a huge variation in style and price. But unless you are near the seller in location, you won't be able to test drive. But you will get a chair education!
A word on dining table height: 29/30 is best. Don't even think about 32 inches unless your family is a professional basketball team. In any chair, the top of the table and your boobies will be having a conversation.Not kidding.

astraea @frenchdecor - Boy, "plastic seat covers" brings back memories .. and not good ones! Unless someone has a baby or small children, I wouldn't recommend them! One problem I remember, is that the plastic can get brittle & crack, resulting in ripped pantyhose for the guests .. NOT pleasant!!

JAN MOYER If you do upholstered chairs, even just the seats, get EXTRA fabric to do at least two of them over at the time of order, if it is critical to your total scheme. A chair seat requires only 3/4 yard in most cases. Three yards on an armless parsons style approximately. Or for smaller children, yank in a hard chair at the last minute. By the time folks go to sit down, nobody is paying ANY attention to the chairs. Same applies for the very elderly as they are more often most comfortable in a less cushy chair, and yes...... stuff will dribble. : ) Failing that, indoor outdoor fabrics are super, so is leather and Ultra Suede. All forgiving..... and then the red wine will be on the rug anyway. Life happens!!

frenchdecor @astraea sorry i guess I wasn't clear, I didn't mean "plastic cover", but plastic chairs or vinyl covered chairs. In short, my daughter is about to buy new furniture and they want contemporary stylish plastic chairs or vinyl covered because their baby (now 2 month) in near future will mess up fabric upholstered chairs in eat-in-dining room (apartment). I remember also my schooling time and a quick glance if there no wet spots left on dark plastic seat. I'm afraid they will spend fortune compromising comfort to easy maintenance and look.

Charmean Neithart Interiors, LLC. Just wanted to second that 29 or 30" is best for table height. Anything over 30" feels awkward for actual dining. Also, don't forget the option of using two different fabrics on a chair. For stain prevention, consider a textured or faux leather on the seats with a pretty fabric, maybe less stain resistant, on the inside back and outside back of the chair. This will allow for easy clean up of spills where they usually happen, on the seat, while allowing for a nice design statement on the back and inside back of the chair. Great article!

astraea I learned 3 years ago, that it's not just table height that matters, but the difference in the height between the table top & chair seats! I bought chairs separately from my table, because the chairs that came with the set weren't available with casters. Imagine my frustration, when the table felt a little "high", when sitting on the chairs I got! I'm not sure what simple solution there is, other than a seat cushion in a matching fabric, to add to the chair height.

JAN MOYER astrea,
You probably very unwittingly purchased chairs specifically designed for a game table which is usually 28 inches high, and often a chair with a game table is lower and employs casters. Yes! Add a two inch high density foam loose cushion/w wrap to the seats!

astraea Shame on the store - which is called "Dinettes Unlimitted" - for not making that distinction very clear to me!! Interestingly, years ago I bought an additional 4 chairs on casters that were for a game table that matched my dining room set .. and those chairs' seat was the same height as the dining room chairs .. so I never thought twice that there would be a difference this time!

tessaweinrath I bought a big gorgeous wooden table from Crate and Barrel. Then(I thought very cleverly) juxtaposed it against gorgeous orange and chrome Kartell chairs. Looks fabulous, but yes you feel a little bit like a 10 year old sitting there. If I put them with my Saarinen table, it's no problem. Lesson learned!

lindleyanna @sigrid: i think the arch detail "stopping the awkward bunching of people at the door" is probably a psychological effect. by opening up the view into the space, you are more comfortable entering in without pausing at the door. i love when a seemingly superfluous element actually turns out to support a deeper need.

mrice1987 As for kids in chairs....I have 3 girls & I bought 3 faux leather chairs from Home Goods for our table to make my life oh so much easier!! I don't care what kind of fabric you have, you will always be cleaning it with kids. I want to wipe & disinfect quickly. Spilled milk is not fun with fabric.

aheatherington What size of light would you use with a 60 or 70" round Saarinen table? I am trying to get the scale right. The table is in an open concept room.

JAN MOYER @aheatherington
The rule of thumb on light size is approximately 60% of table diameter. That means on a 60 inch table you can go as large in diameter as a 36 inch light. Do note!! that a shaded, hanging pendant type will have much more visual mass due to the shade. Not so say you can't do something intentionally overscale, just know they read larger in general. The more open and airy.. ... the less bulky they read.

jenberry72 Re: Fully upholstered chairs (seat and entire back) can be difficult to keep clean because people have to grab onto the upholstering every time they get in and out. If hands are dirty (oily or with food) the fabric will get soiled very quickly.

dy123 I have a very small dinning room and am thinking of using a settee pushed to the wall ((since it is stationary, it should save some space). I am trying to figure out how much space to leave between the edge of the table and the edge of a settee (in other words, what would be a comfortable space for people to squeeze in into the space, yet comfortable enough to reach the plate:)...) Thanks a lot!

Pat Slack What is the blue color on the walls in the first photo?

La Lune Collection This is a beautiful ideabook, Gabrielle - thank you for creating it. It inspired us to post examples of all three dining table shapes you discuss - round, rectangular, and square - and throw in one more, octagonal, for good measure:

http://www.lalunecollection.com/collection/tables/table-3089-3093/
http://www.lalunecollection.com/collection/tables/trestle-table-3119-3125/
http://www.lalunecollection.com/collection/tables/table-3138-3140/
http://www.lalunecollection.com/collection/tables/octagonal-table-3102-3112/