From the Floors Up

Entertaining: Casual Dinner Party

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In our busy lives it can be difficult to make time for friends and family gatherings. Starting a tradition of weekly family meals is one way to make sure you have quality time together. Another great tradition is to have dinner parties with your friends and neighbors. These parties do not have to be formal affairs. A casual meal in the slow cooker or on the grill is a good excuse to bring together a small group of friends and neighbors.

Open concept kitchens that open onto the dining area are great for these casual dinner parties. It seems at most parties people gather in the kitchen. Allowing the chef or chefs to interact with guests both in the kitchen and gathered at the table is a great thing for the hosts.  Having an open concept kitchen dining area that shares the same floor surface, whether it be tile or wood, will make the two spaces feel like one large room.

For a casual dinner party, you can make it a progressive party where courses are served at different homes. This is a great idea for neighbors or a small block party. Potluck can help keep the costs down for you if your guests bring dessert or appetizers.

Making time for friends and neighbors is a wonderful way to open your home and entertain guests. Dinner parties do not have to be formal or fancy to bring people together over good food, good drinks and good conversation.

Traditional Dining Room Style

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Formal dining rooms often follow a pattern in their design. Many formal dining rooms have a traditional style even if the rest of the home is more casual and comfortable.  In many minds, the dining room should be formal and for many of us formal means traditional.  This is the room where we dress up for dinner and celebrate holidays and milestones.

Achieving a formal feel in the dining room is often done with traditional design elements and furnishings.  Even if your style is more modern, these traditional elements are the foundation of any formal dining room.  You can take the traditional elements and modernize them to suit your taste, but you’ll find that you use the same pieces as a traditional style dining room does.

The dining table is the focal point of the room. Surrounded by a set of four, six, or eight chairs, the table is centered in the room by a light fixture, most often a chandelier.  The chandelier is typically hung thirty-six inches above the table, low enough to relate to the table and high enough not to interfere with the sight lines from the chair.  Other pieces in a traditional dining room include a sideboard or buffet and often a mirror above it.

This dining room has all the classic elements of a traditional dining room. The large area rug ties in the artwork and the colors of the table and chairs.

From the Floors Up

From the Floors Up blog was created with the goal of providing a destination for consumers, designers and those interested in the flooring, design, and kitchen and bath industries. Here you’ll find, current, accurate and informative information that is always just a click away!

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