Dining Room
The social patterns of eating used to be pretty clear cut. The well-off ate in formal splendour in a well appointed dining room, their children well out of the way in the nursery. Today, with less room and even fewer helpers, people have to plan to eat as pleasureably as possible according to a vastly different set of of circumstances. We like to have it both ways – a bit of elegance and formality when it is called for, and a cosy place for an easy-going family meal. In either case the eating place must be close to the kitchen.
The chairs must be comfortable for any type of eating, and the table surface durable for the inevitable fall-out from the family meal. When the occassion is a more formal one, the room should at least feel isolated from the practical world of cooking and washing up. With space at a premium, the dining room is usually the first to squeezed out. Whether its a kitchen-dining room or living-dining room, depends as much on the size of the room as on the degree of formality you are after.
The more formal a dining room, the more formal the furniture, and the more formal the deatils should be. Starched white damask goes with mahogany and rosewood, though you might choose place mats (but choose these with care). In either case, however, see that this type of table is well protected from hot plates.
The less formal dining, table clothes may be coloured and pink or apricot or terracotta are very becoming and give a look of warmth in winter. For summer dining, a pale blue cloth with green napkins and glasses can look enticingly cool.
