Think you can’t have a stylish and comfortable small dining room?

Well, I say you absolutely can have a gorgeous small dining room, even if it’s a super compact 8 foot square.

I’ll show you the tricks that will make every inch of that 8 foot room work like magic!

In the end it’ll feel like you have tons of room.

Let’s dive right into, Exactly how to style an 8’ x 8’ Dining Room

Parameters

This room is a square 8’ x 8’.

It has a doorway to the kitchen and a doorway to the foyer/entry.

On the wall opposite the kitchen door, there’s two large windows centered.

On the final wall opposite the foyer/entry, there’s nothing, so this this is the only unobstructed wall.

There’s wallpaper on all 4 walls. It’s a textured paper without a distinct pattern, so it’s very neutral. There is slight variation – darker and lighter areas throughout.

The floor is a light gray wash hardwood that is throughout the entire house.

The windows are large, casement stye crank out on the bottom with a mulled clearstory fixed window above each.

The ceilings are 8’ tall.

The first challenge of this space is that the two doorways are different sizes. The foyer entry is centered on the wall and it’s 60” wide.

The kitchen doorway is nearly at the corner of the wall and is 38” wide. That’s quite a difference, but one smaller door means a bit more wall space that could be useful.

Pathways

As always, the first thing to figure out is the pathways into and through the room.

You don’t want to block the doorways with any furniture. Keeping the areas passable will help to make the space feel spacious.

Zones

I call the areas that can hold furniture, zones. That’s because these areas are outside of pathways, not impeding on doorways and furniture placed here will not generally obstruct the natural flow of the room.

There’s really one primary zone for furniture placement in this space.

This long unobstructed wall is prime consideration for storage.

The smaller perpendicular wall could be used for secondary storage or – depending on the size of the dining table – might be a place for art or a shallow piece of furniture.

Anchor

I like to use a square rug in square rooms.

That’s because it mimics the shape of the room and it fills a good portion of the space.

This particular rug is 6’ square. Since the room is 8’ square, it will fill most of the floor space.

My plan is to install a buffet on the long, unobstructed wall, so knowing that I have a 72” square rug gives me a parameter for how deep the buffet will be. It will have to be no deeper than 15” to 20”.

I can scoot the rug closer to the buffet or scoot it down into the room.

This wiggle room is a good thing because once I determine the depth of the buffet, I will move on to the table.

• Tip: Always work from the available floor space. The rug size informs the size of the storage. The storage informs the size of the table. It’s easier to find the right size table because most furniture producers manufacture the same table in multiple sizes. However, buffets, hutches and credenzas are usually available in limited sizes.

Storage

I always like to have my dining room storage furniture off the are rug. I want it sitting flat on the floor so that everything on it or in it is level.

So here, I butted the rug right up to the buffet.

I chose a demilune (rounded edge) buffet because it will provide the length to fill the wall space, 65” and the rounded edges taper back so that the piece is passable and visually ‘lighter’.

A piece with squared off edges would impede the traffic flow inn this area.

Remember, every inch is going to count when it’s all said and done.

Table

The first thing I always consider in small dining rooms is the shape of the table.

In my opinion, a round table works best in a square dining room.

That’s because there are no square edges. Just like the demilune buffet, a round table is easy to walk around.

It’s 48” around, which is ideal because each place setting has enough comfortable elbow room and it doesn’t take up a ton of space.

The chairs, when they’re pushed in, allow for traffic around the table and through the room.

Having the chairs angled toward the corners of the room allows them to be pulled back so they’re still on the rug when they need to be accessed.

Capitalize on the Room’s Height

Bring the eye up with a curtain rod that goes almost to the ceiling and double up the curtain panels on each side so that the space on either side of the window is covered. The fullness makes the room appear larger.

• Tip: Use drapes that are the same color as the wall. This helps to create a layered effect that feels cohesive. A dramatically different color drape would create contrast and only make the room feel smaller.

In small rooms, you don’t want to draw attention to anything that will make the space appear smaller than it is.

Scale

Don’t be afraid to use large accessories and décor in small room. 

I went with a large piece of wall art to fill the space next to the kitchen door.

I chose a large chandelier that’s both grand and sculptural. The color is a matte gray metal, which blends with the overall color scheme.

I chose a large, oval mirror to add reflection perpendicular to the windows.

Finally, a few hints of black always adds interest and punctuation to a room.

Large accessories and accents will make a small space feel grand.

Color Hue

As I touched on earlier, keeping things in the same color family is important for making small spaces feel larger.

More importantly, you want to keep your color palette in the same hue, which is the gradation of the color.

You can go super light in small spaces or super dark. Either way, you want to keep things consistent if your goal is to make a small space feel larger.

Visual consistency is calming and all the elements in the room, from flooring, wall color, furniture and décor, will flow seamlessly.

If you have tons of contrasting colors or different hues of the same colors, those differences will define and bring attention to all the things you don’t want to focus on.

So, there you have it, exactly how to style an 8’ X 8’ dining room.

Focus on:

• The Room’s parameters.

• Understand the pathways in, out, and through.

• Consider the natural zones for the furniture placement.

• Anchor the space with a rug.

• Place storage furniture on the longest wall.

• Determine table size after the storage piece.

• Play up the height of the room.

• Don’t be afraid to bring in big accessories and décor.

• Keep everything in the same color hue to visually expand the space.

Well, what do you think? I’d love to hear if you have a small dining room. Did you struggle with finding the right size furniture? Was there some part of it that just felt off? Tell me all about.

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I write about small space design and decorating, sustainable furniture options, positive self care and a variety of do-it-yourself home décor.

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Michael is Principal designer and blogger at Michael Helwig Interiors in beautiful Buffalo, New York. Since 2011, he’s offered online interior e-design services for small spaces ranging from coaching, product sourcing and full room plans with installation guidance. He is a frequent expert contributor to many National media publications and news outlets on topics related to decorating space homes and awkward layouts. Michael happily shares his experience to help folks avoid expensive mistakes and decorating disappointments. You can follow him on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook @interiorsmh.