Choosing a Dining Table Size
While a dining table is the centerpiece of many homes and dining rooms. It is where family and friends gather, for large meals or a couple has their romantic date night dinners by candlelight. Choosing the right size of table is key to allow the table to be the centerpiece of the room with out overpowering the look and feel.
The first step is to measure out your room and any other furniture that may be in the room with your table. This is what will determine how large your table can be at its max.
Once you have this figured out, you can plan for the table. Around the table you should have 3 feet of space from the edge of the table to the wall for people to slide their chairs in and out of the table comfortably. This may change slightly depending on the shape of your room as well. If you think you could live with a couple inches less of space so that you can squeeze in one more person, then it might be worth it! Everything is a rough idea for measuring and it comes down to your preference.
What next?
From there you have three other things to think about in terms of size of your table. Shape of your table, height of your table and table base.
Shape:
Do you want a round table? a rectangle table? a table with leaves? All of these are valid questions.
Rectangular Tables:
If you go with a rectangular table, standard dimensions for how many people you are looking to fit may apply. We have a handy chart just below for reference. As you can see a 5 foot table fits 4 - 6 people on by having 2 people on wither side with about 2 - 2.5 ft of space person but, if you move up to a 6 foot table you could potentially squeeze in 8. A good rule of thumb is to have 2 feet of space from elbow to elbow per person. This makes sure everyone has enough space while eating and wont be knocking their dinner mate all night.
The width of the table typically increases as the table lengthens to keep proportions correct but once again, this can be tweaked to fit your space as well as what slabs are available to be used. If you have a skinnier room then maybe your table needs to be narrower to be accommodated. Everything is custom to your space and how it will look once put in place!
Round Tables:
For a circular table are great space savers for smaller rooms or oddly shaped kitchens in nooks or condos. They allow many people to be at a much smaller footprint of a table.
The same things you should be looking at as a rectangular table is, how many people you want to fit at the table, the size of the room, what furnishings will be around the table.
One thing to note for round tables is that as the size increases the price jumps exponentially due to the amount of material needed to build.
Table Height:
Typical table heights for dining rooms are 28”-30” inches tall. The can be taller or shorter depending on the user but the majority of people will find anything other than that range to be uncomfortable and awkward to sit at. I build all my tables to 30” tall unless otherwise specified.
Table Base:
The table base will be mostly determined on your preferences and the shape of table you have choses. A round table will get a pedestal in the majority of cases while a rectangular table could have a trestle base, steel legs, custom bases and more. This is largely a design preference on the customers end and is a great way to bring in some originality to your build!
We have a few standard bases that we find people like but we love to have custom bases either made from steel or us to custom make some wood bases for you!
Final Decisions:
In the end its really up to you, the client, to decide what you would like , your design preferences and how the table will fit in the s pace. I am here to help guide decisions and offer suggestions of course.
Once all of the above details get sorted, you then get to move on to decide the more fun part of the design. Choosing what type of wood you use! You may want live edge or a more standard look, walnut or maple or a combination of it all. Please refer to our Choosing you species article to help guide your decision on this! If you have any questions please Get Started here to discuss your custom table today!