The Furniture Mistake That's Making Your Dining Room Look Outdated

When it comes to designing your dining room, the social hub of your home, the dining table and chairs are the centerpiece of the space. They require both exceptional functionality for hosting guests and great style for wow-factor. With so many options out there to fit every aesthetic, achieving a unique design doesn't seem too challenging on paper. However, as an interior designer, I'm here to share one mistake you need to avoid in order to create an updated, elegant space.

Though at one time it was the standard for a chic space, there's one dated dining room feature that's lost its luster and is making your space look outdated: showcasing a matching dining table and chair set, or worse, a whole dining room set. Gone are the days where you buy the whole kit and caboodle from the same furniture line. In fact, dining rooms aren't alone in this regard — matching furniture sets in general, whether it's in the bedroom or living space, are going the way of the dodo. 

Instead, today's interiors are all about crafting a curated aesthetic that mixes materials, finishes, and even styles to elevate the space above the generic furniture showroom display feeling of a matching furniture set. Let's break down why the matchy-matchy dining room look will drag down your home's vibes, as well as how to get a more sophisticated aesthetic with mixed materials.

The outdated trend of matching furniture is ruining your home's aesthetic. Rather than enhancing the overall look with exciting, dynamic selections, furniture pieces in a predestined set tend to come off as generic, bland, and utterly predictable. They tend to have the unfortunate and uneventful appearance of a dining room chosen without much thought entirely from a display at a furniture showroom ... or dare I say, discount furniture store. Even if they are top-of-the-line pieces, the idea of a furniture set is so rooted in one-and-done cheap furniture stores (insert the catchy, cheesy commercial jingle from the store in your hometown here), that the result looks inexpensive and unimaginative. Instead, mix up your dining room styling with mismatched pieces to create a design that's much more unique, unexpected, and upscale.

The mixing of materials is another practical and flexible way to get exactly the features you want out of each piece of furniture, rather than being stuck with the default pairings that might not be as suitable for your space. For example, if you're on the hunt for an extendable dining table with a self-storing leaf in just the right dimensions for the room, your pool of options is significantly narrower than average. You may discover the perfect table, only to see that its chairs are uncomfortable or don't fit your style. By venturing away from matching furniture sets, you can snag your dream table, and then invest in the metal arch-top glass china cabinet and exceptionally comfortable upholstered dining chairs with washable slipcovers you've also had your eye on. Win-win-win!

To get the eclectic yet harmonious dining room aesthetic, look for variety to begin building a cohesive color palette, such as different wood tones, a range of metallics, natural woven fibers, and upholstery in solids, prints, or textures. While you certainly don't need (and shouldn't use) every one of these materials, select several that complement each other and speak to your aesthetic. Vary the material for the main pieces in the space to bring texture, such as dining table top, table base, chair frame, chair seats and/or backs, sideboards, and china cabinets. 

Change the color and value of the finishes to create amazing visual contrast, such as black metal or off-white upholstery paired with a warm natural wood tone. Call back to finishes in the space to make them feel integrated, such as a black art frame to tie in the black legs of the chairs or brass credenza hardware to complement the brass table base. Repeating these various materials, colors, and textures in different ways creates a dynamic palette packed with a ton of depth and visual interest.

Don't be afraid to combine multiple styles for an eclectic dining room vibe, such as a more modern, clean-lined table with vintage bentwood cafe chairs or woven round back Louis XIV dining chairs. The combinations make an exciting statement full of personality and charm that you simply don't get from prefab furniture sets. It's time to ditch the outdated dining room trend of matching furniture sets for a more sophisticated, layered, and well-composed aesthetic that features a dynamic mix of materials, colors, and styles.