Dining Room Celebrations....Table Sizes, Room Sizes and Number of Guests to be seated

Changing Seasons…Homecoming, Fall Harvest, Family Gatherings and Fire Prevention Month…What does this mean for the Architect and Interior Designer in me and to you the Home Owner.


The kids are back to school, the air has a bit of chill in the morning and I am starting to see some color on the leaves. So it is only right that I should see the overflow of magazines in the mail all with beautiful warm settings for welcoming friends and family to gather around and take part in the Harvest Bounty. There are candle lit tables, jack-o-lanterns and lots and lots of cooking being discussed in these product magazines and on line. It is no accident that this is the retail season for Tables and Table Settings when it comes what is on the shelves in the stores right now. Fall is Celebrating the Harvest with Cooking, Dining Room Sets and Table Settings.

NYC Upper East Side Dining Room by Clawson Architects

From the dishes to dining room tables the stores are trying to sell a gracious lifestyle. They offer new ideas along side their products on how to add a little something extra to your apple pie with this pretty new pie pan or a Roasting Pan with “how to Turkey 101”. You are reassured that if you just buy their table and wares you will become the best entertainer that ever was. Your family members will gather with smiles bringing you the most thoughtful hostess gifts (also available in their stores) beautifully dressed and very good looking too. However, very few articles ever address the challenges of the season like enough room at that table, or how many people can actually gather to eat at that table.


So some tips for the Season and what will fit….
Table Sizes and Shapes & Other Things Considered: 

The Chair backs are high and the ceiling is low in the tradition of Frank Lloyd Wright centering the attention in on the Table and the conversations.

Conversation:
The Room:
The smallest dining room size of any use is:
 12 feet by 12 feet and will accommodate six nicely and eight if your friends and the table expands.


To insure good conversation and easy passing, tables that are rectangular in shape and about 36” wide work the best.

Round tables are great especially if you are into being equal as there is no “Head” of the table. A 48 inch round table seats six. A 60 inch round table seats eight to ten depending on the style of the chairs used. The bigger the round table and depending on how that table expands, the more you may want to consider a “lazy susan” for the center of the table or setting a buffet. If the table becomes an oblong shape you can typically squeeze folks a little closer around the end as the “head” of the table is not as predominate.


This Dining Room was designed by Clawson Architects with flexibility in mind.  See one of the alternate entertainment setting below (White Table Cloth)

When looking at tables that extend, take the time to analyze weather or not you really get more seating. In some cases, the legs from the table interfere with the seating and additional settings are not actually gained. Consider a Pedestal base to avoid this. Often the table is featured in the store and catalogs with chairs on the end when if fact there is no over hang or the table is too narrow to have guests on both sides and someone sitting on each end. For a table to have a seat at the ends it often must we wider than the 36 “ as the depth of the table will take up the place settings on both sides. Don’t be afraid to try things out. Get some blue painter's tape and mark out the table on your floor. Take place mats to the store with you or grab some of theirs and put them around on your prospective table. Keep in mind that to be able to walk around someone that is seated at the table you will need 42” clear from the edge of the table to the wall, 48” is more gracious and means no one has to turn sideways or scoot in.


Lighting:
Lighting really sets the tone. If you are installing an overhead fixture consider the following:


The Multiple lights hung closer to the ceiling gives the room more flexibility for entertaining

Do you ever entertain and move the dining room table to the side? If so, you may want to make sure that the fixture is retractable or hung high enough that your taller guests don’t hit their head on it. If you never plan to move the table or have a standing cocktail style party, it should be installed so that the bottom is 36” off the table surface. Wondering how big the fixture should be, add the length and width of the room together and then exchange the word feet with inches and the diameter of the fixture should be in inches. (i.e. 14 feet + 18 feet = 32 feet so your fixture should be 32inches in diameter.  And always choose to have the fixtures on a dimmer switch. 
Candles are a great way to set  light, decorate and add glamour to any event. Using glass chimneys to them will keep them a little safer …just keep in mind that with all the cooking, entertaining with candles and a fires in the fireplace it is no accident that the National Fire Protection Association has made the Fall "Fire Prevention Awareness Season"….humm.

So Celebrate.
Enjoy the season and the feasts and channel your best Martha whether you are the host or the guest.


For more guidelines and considerations about buying wood dining room tables check out the Amish Direct Furniture web site. They offer diagrams and information about the construction of quality furniture and even more things to consider.

Now I need to get back to work helping clients with those final details on their newly designed Clawson Kitchen as they have all graciously offered to host their Family's Holidays.

....oh! one more thing ...change your batteries in your smoke detectors!!! actually two and keep those gutters clear  oh wait...and have your chimney cleaned so you are ready for the cold.

Kitchen Addition for This Old House

Beautiful houses were built in the the early 1900's and they were built to last. In meeting with people to discuss their homes and the potential for adding on, the conversations often go in the same direction. "We love the character of the house, we love the neighborhood, we love the details and charm, but there is no family room, and while this dining room is huge, there is only a tiny old kitchen." Often the homeowner has come to some sort of a conclusion to add a family room and to renovate the kitchen.

As Architects we often see opportunities that have not revealed themselves to the homeowner yet. We see space and potential in the existing foot print that perhaps just needs to be re purposed.

Just because you bought a home with a large room that has a chandelier hanging in the center of the space does not mean that it has to be your dining room. We often hear 'we don't want to lower the real estate value' and to that I say, you are not getting rid of the space your are re purposing the space, if the next buyer wants it to be a Dining Room, they can rehang the chandelier.

One of our more creative out of the box clients came to us because they had done just that, they used the existing Dining Room as their Family Room. This space was just off the kitchen, as is typical with most traditional homes. For this family, with three young boys, the 'Dining Room' offered a play space they needed. As the boys grew, the breakfast table in the kitchen was not quite big enough and they felt they would like to have a more formal Dining Room back and add a family room addition onto the house. After looking at the spaces and recognizing the creative side of the client, I suggested that instead of adding a family room that we add a Kitchen to the rear of the house off the Largest Room in the house, the under utilized Living Room. In doing so, we re purpose the existing kitchen as a Dining Room and made the original Dining Room turned Family Room into a formal Living Room. The largest room, that under utilized Living Room, became the Family Room opening up into the new Kitchen. The other benefit to this idea, was that this busy family was able to continue using their existing kitchen until the new one was completed, and then we went to work on creating the Dining Room in the area where the original Kitchen was.

The end results are a home with better circulation, a cozy intimate Living Room, a dramatic Dining Room, a new Butler's Pantry that leads to a new sun drenched Kitchen with views of the back yard, the Family Room, the Sun Room/Home Office and the Front Door. We gained a first floor Powder Room and Laundry Room and one very happy client.

Recap:

Old Kitchen has been re purposed into a new Dining Room

A New Butler's Pantry connects the New Kitchen Addition to that Dining Room.

Original Dining Room Turned Family Room, is now a Formal Living Room.

Old Formal Living Room is now the Family Room.

Addition includes:

New Kitchen, Powder Room and Laundry Room and if that is not enough, the addition structure was designed to receive a second floor Master Suite above, should the owners decide that this is something they would like to add in the future.

Kitchen, Home and Bath Renovations ...could be in the Box!

If you are considering an addition to your home, you may want to stop and think for a moment. As professional architects working on older homes in the tri state area, we find that quite often the answer is "in the box".

Whether it is the need for a larger Dining Room...Achieved by removing a wall and relocating mechanical and structural componets into decorative beams and columns.....

Or a New The Master Bedroom Suite enhanced by relocating closets to the front of the room freeing up the area adjacent to the existing Master Bath so that a once very compact master bath is now spacious with framed views of the city that can be enjoyed from the shower and the rest of the bedroom suite. Pocket doors with antique glass can be used to close off the bathroom while still allowing natural light to filter into the bedroom.

Kitchens can present a real challenge. Relocating doors to redirect traffic away from the 'work triangle' can free up space for the cook while adding storage and comfortable seating within the space at the same time.

Before

Bigger is nice...but in these economic times,

Better may be the right answer for you.