Design Guide: 7 Expert Tips for Pairing Dining Tables and Chairs

When it comes to dining room furniture, the most important pieces are chairs and tables. But how do you choose the right options for your style? Even more challenging, how do you pair dining tables and chairs together?

It’s a common conundrum without a simple and straightforward answer. After all, style and design are full of nuance! But don’t fret, with a few simple guidelines, pairing dining tablese and chairs becomes an easy (and even fun) task.

1. Start with the Table

Your dining room table is the foundation of your dining room and everything else is decorated/decided around it (figuratively and literally). It’s much easier to pick chairs to match your table, not the other way around. And, because this is a larger piece of furniture, it’s more important to get it right based on your functional needs.

First up? Decide what size and shape of table you need. If you have a smaller dining room, a round or oval table might be just the thing. Need to fit six or more around the table? Opt for rectangular. And if you love to host large gatherings, perhaps an extendable table is right for you!

Then, consider dining table materials. Wood dining tables are the most common, but you can also go for something more decorative, like marble or glass, or a material that’s easy to clean, like a composite wood.

Finally, you’ll want to choose a dining table style that matches your personal interior design style.

2. Avoid Matching Sets

A room looks best when the furniture is coordinated but not overly matchy-matchy. That goes for dining rooms as well as living rooms and bedrooms!

Sure, if you buy a complete, matching dining room set, you don’t have to worry about what chairs to pair with your table. But this look will also appear a bit one-note and can make your dining room design fall flat and feel dated.

On the other hand, finding chairs that coordinate with your table without perfectly matching them will allow you to create a unique look that highlights your personality and style.

3. Go for Different Colors

When picking out chairs to go with your dining table, an easy rule of thumb is to invite contrast. Since dining tables and chairs take up a lot of visual space in a room, you don’t want them to be one solid block of the same color. This will make your dining room feel visually heavy and make the room feel unbalanced. (One more reason to avoid the matching set!)

Instead, break up all the sameness with different colors. This is an easy way to ensure your room feels curated but still layered and interesting. Just look at the dining nook above: the dining table is a light pine, and the black frame of the chairs adds contrast to the arrangement. And, while the chair’s seats are a similar tone as the wood of the table, they’re a different material, which helps add texture and depth. (More on that, below!)

One other curveball: if you go for wood tables and chairs, make sure that neither one is the same color or tone as your flooring! If you’re running into this problem, consider layering in a dining room rug.

4. Pick Different Materials

Mixing colors is great—but you can take it a step further and add additional contrast through different dining chair materials! How different you go simply depends on how much of a statement you want to make. Generally, the less similar your materials feel, the bolder or more eclectic your space will look.

For example, a wood table with cane chairs will feel cohesive and add a pop of visual contrast, because both materials are natural and have a similar vibe. Meanwhile, a marble table with chane chairs (as in the dining room above) will bring a bit more contrast and create a bolder statement in your space.

5. Balance the “Visual Weight”

Did you know objects, like furniture and decor, have visual weight? This is an interior design principle that basically says larger, darker, and more solid objects will feel “heavy” in a room, while slim, open, and clear objects feel “light.”

What does this have to do with your dining room? Well, if you have a visually heavy table, you’re going to want to balance it out with “lighter” chairs—and vice-versa! For example, if your table has skinny metal legs and a glass top, you’ll want to avoid chairs that are also clear or have tall slender legs because the overall arrangement will feel unbalanced and too light. Instead, balance it out with a lighter table with more solid-looking, visually heavier chairs. Or consider the dining room pictured above. When you have a substantial pedestal dining table like this one, it has a lot of visual weight. To balance this, pair it with chairs that feel airy and light, like these white chairs with slender legs and cane backs.

6. Think Outside the Box

Of course, like tables, you need to consider types of dining chairs so you can choose dining chairs that match your style. But there’s no need to limit yourself to a set of fully matching chairs when figuring out how to pair dining tables and chairs in your own home!

When it comes to dining room seating, you can think outside the box. You can go for mismatched dining chairs—either swapping out the two chairs at the head and foot of the table, or going full-speed ahead with all mismatched chairs for a more eclectic look. You can even nix chairs all together on one or both long slides of a rectangular table and use a dining bench instead! This is a great option for homes with kids or if you just need to add extra seating in a pinch!

7. Measure Everything

A surefire way for a dining room design to go sideways? Not taking measurements before purchasing furniture. Not only do you want to make sure that the size and scale of your tables and chairs will suit your dining room, but you also want to make sure the actual tables and chairs will work together.

So, make note of the table height, then make sure the seat height of your chairs will allow you to sit comfortably at the table. And, of course, make sure the backs of the chairs are high enough that they won’t slide under the dining table when pushed in. (Unless you have a bench!)

You’ll also want to measure the width of the chairs in comparison with the size of your table. It’s most comfortable to have about six inches in between each chair, in addition to allowing about 24 inches of eating space for each person at the table. So, do the math on how many chairs can comfortably fit around your table given the width of your chairs!

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