Small Dining Room Ideas: Tables and Chairs That Fit

A small dining room does not need a folding table and stools. It needs furniture chosen with a tape measure in hand, so that every centimetre of table and chair earns its place.

Below are the ideas that make the biggest difference, with our own most compact tables and chairs as the examples, and their real dimensions so you can check them against your floor.

1. Start with the smallest table that seats you every day

It is tempting to buy for the four times a year you host. In a small room, buy for the daily meal and borrow a chair or two when guests come.

Our most compact table is the Pimlico, at 80cm by 80cm and listed as seating four. It comes in black, walnut effect and oak effect. Each side is 80cm, which gives one diner more than the 60cm of table edge usually suggested per person.

The next step up is the Aaronsburg, a 120cm round table that also seats four. It needs more floor, but in the right room its round top makes the space easier to move through. Our full Pimlico guide covers the square table in depth.

2. Check the floor space before anything else

The usual guidance is to leave about 90cm between the table edge and the wall on any side where someone walks behind a seated diner. For the Pimlico, that works out as:

• 80cm + 90cm + 90cm = 260cm in each direction

If your room is smaller than that, it does not rule the table out. It means one or two sides go against a wall, which brings us to the next idea. For the full method, including the Aaronsburg and the Dakota, see what size dining table for your room.

3. Push a square table into the corner

A square table against a wall, or tucked into a corner, gives back a whole walkway. You lose one or two seats for everyday use, but you can pull the table out when a third or fourth person joins.

This works well with the Pimlico because its angled metal base sits in from the corners, with a base width of 43.5cm. There are no corner legs to fight when a chair is pushed in, and the table sits neatly square to the wall.

4. Choose narrow, armless chairs

Chair width matters more than people expect. Two wide chairs on one side of a small table will clash; one narrow chair per side leaves elbow room. Arms add width and often stop a chair tucking fully under the table, so in a small room armless is usually the better choice.

Here are our narrowest chairs, by listed overall width:

Chair	Width	Depth	Seat height
Camden	43.5cm	47.5cm	47.5cm (grey)
Dany	46cm	47cm	47cm
Cheer	46cm	51cm	46cm
Nora	47cm	not listed	45.5cm
Elara	47cm	54cm	47cm
Roscoe	48.5cm	45.5cm	47cm

The Camden, in grey or cream faux leather, is the slimmest chair we sell. The Cheer, in charcoal, olive or blue, is described as a compact armless design, and the Dany is armless with a minimalist outline.

If walkway space is tighter than width, look at depth instead. The Roscoe is the shallowest in the table at 45.5cm, which helps when chairs back onto a wall or a kitchen run.

5. Let the eye see through

A room feels bigger when you can see floor and wall through the furniture. Solid, boxy chairs block the view; open frames let it pass.

• Cane and rattan backs. The Nora has a woven cane backrest in a walnut-finish frame, and the Elara has a rattan panel set into a natural wood frame.
• Cantilever frames. The Roscoe stands on a chrome-plated cantilever base, so there are no back legs, and the Vienna pairs a cane back with a polished chrome cantilever. Our guide to cantilever dining chairs explains how they work.
• Central table bases. Both the Pimlico and the Aaronsburg stand on a central base rather than four corner legs, which keeps the floor under the table edge open.

6. Keep the palette light, or keep it consistent

Light finishes reflect more light, which helps a room with one small window. The oak-effect Pimlico with cream chairs, such as the Dany in cream or the cream-seated Nora, keeps things bright.

If you prefer darker tones, the trick is consistency. A black Pimlico with the black Dany or the charcoal Cheer reads as one calm block rather than several competing pieces. Mixing two chair styles can work too, as long as you keep the seat heights close; see mixing dining chairs around one table.

7. Use slim wall furniture for storage

Deep cabinets steal walkway. A console table gives you a surface for serving dishes, a lamp or post, while staying close to the wall. The Beaumont is 29cm deep with two drawers and a shelf, and the Fitzroy is 30cm deep with sliding tambour doors. Remember to measure your walkway from the front of the console, not the wall. There is more in using a console table in the dining room.

8. Let the table do two jobs

In a flat, the dining table is often also the desk. The Pimlico is square and compact enough for a laptop by day and dinner by evening. If you work at it, check the seat height against the 75cm tabletop so you are comfortable for more than an hour; our seat height guide compares every chair we sell.

Putting it together

A worked small-room set: the oak-effect Pimlico, four Camden chairs at 43.5cm wide, and a Beaumont console on the nearest wall. Every piece is chosen on its listed dimensions, and the table can go against a wall on busy days and come out when friends arrive.

Browse all our dining tables, dining chairs and console tables. Delivery is free to mainland UK, most orders arrive in 3 to 5 working days, and you have 30 days to return anything that does not fit the room.