There are many possibilities for dining room updates—not the least of which is a good deep clean! Check out the list below for ideas on dining room makeovers, from just a little new gloss to a full-fledged overhaul.

1. Change the curtains.

Pull back those heavy dining room drapes that provided dramatic elegance during the winter months and replace them with sheer, brighter colors. This will maximize the natural light that flows into your dining room.

2. Apply a fresh coat of paint.

Add a new accent color to your current scheme by painting baseboards and moldings, change the texture of the walls, or give your kitchen a true overhaul with a bright, fresh color such as yellow or light blue. Patterned wallpaper is a great alternative to paint.

3. Rearrange furniture.

How long has it been since you repositioned your sideboard or placed your dining room table at a different angle? Moving furniture is easily the simplest way to change things up in your dining room. If you don’t have much room for movement, add fresh color inspiration with a new lamp, table runner, placemats, or tableware.

4. Bring Mother Nature indoors.

Store fake plants, and bring in fresh garden flowers in their place. But don’t stop there—feathers, branches, shells and other outdoor treasures all make for creative seasonal table settings.

5. Remove heavy rugs.

Clean them, roll ‘em up, and store them until next winter. If the area under your dining room table looks naked rugless, consider replacing the thick winter one with a light cotton rug.

6. Add a mirror.

Mirrors are an instant way to make a dining room appear larger.

7. Recover or slipcover chairs.

Don’t shy away from color! Spring and summer are perfect opportunities to recover dining room chairs with the playful polka dot or bold striped patterns you’ve been eyeing.

8. Pick a new table shape.

If you’ve been holding on to that dark wood trestle table for many years, a new glass dining table may be just the change you’ve been looking for. Hit the furniture stores to see what new dining room furniture is out this season.

9. Stain or paint furniture.

Instead of replacing the dining room table you’ve already got, consider sprucing it up by adding a new stain or using paint to create a rustic vintage piece.

10. Clean, clean, clean.

We weren’t kidding—this is a MUST on the spring makeover list!

This mentality is more often the case with wood dining room furniture, not its glass counterparts. When you see a glass dining table full of scratches, your thought process goes more towards, “How can I fix that—fast!?”

Bye Bye Glass Scratches   

In our last blog post we talked about the attractiveness of glass-top dining room tables and how easy they are to clean. But what we didn’t mention was how you should fix the scratches you will inevitably get on your dining table. Follow these simple steps:

(1) Repair or replace? Run your fingernail across the scratch. If your fingernail catches in the scratch, it’s too deep to repair without consequences (such as making it worse!).

(2) Clean the glass dining table thoroughly using a commercial glass cleaner or homemade vinegar-based solution. Dry the glass surface using a lint-free cloth.

(3) Apply gentle abrasion. Rub whitening toothpaste (paste or cream works better than gel) over the scratch, then continue to work it into the area and buff it out using a soft cloth. This step requires a lot of elbow grease and a lot of patience! If you’re lucky enough to have a sheepskin buffer (the smoother the better), put it on a medium setting and let it do the work for you.

(4) If the toothpaste doesn’t do the trick, try a stronger abrasive such as metal polisher or jewelry cleaner. Alternately, apply a mixture of equal parts dry mustard and vinegar and buff it out it just as you did the toothpaste.

(5) If you can still see a scratch, leave the removal to a professional!

Keep It Scratch-Free

What’s the easiest way to fix a scratch? Don’t let it happen in the first place! Rough towels and vigorous scrubbing can scratch glass dining table surfaces, so make sure you are using soft cloths. It’s a shame to cover up a thing of beauty, but tablecloths, mats and coasters will go a long way toward protecting the glass top from scratching.

There are endless styles to choose from—both contemporary and classic—among glass dining room tables. First, find the shape that fits your space best, whether it’s round, square, or rectangle. Next, focus on the details. Slate accents or metal frames foster an elegant feel. You could also keep things modern with a chrome base and trendy leather chairs. No matter what base you choose, its character will shine through and won’t be a mystery beneath the tabletop surface.

Make it Sparkle

Here’s some great news—glass dining tables are easy to care for. With these easy tips, your glass-top table can stay streak-free and sparkling clean year-round.

Start with a cleaning solution. Many commercial products will work just fine, but homemade glass cleaner recipes are so simple that it’s easier to just make your own. Here are a few recipes to choose from, depending on what ingredients you’ve got on-hand.

Note: Be sure to spray only the glass. If you accidently spray a wood or metal frame you may damage the materials (many glass cleaners dry wood out).  

Recipe 1: Combine 1 cup of water with 1 cup of white vinegar.

Recipe 2: Combine 1/2 a cup of household ammonia, 1 teaspoon of liquid dish detergent, 2 cups of isopropyl alcohol, and 5 cups of water.

Recipe 3: Combine 1/2 cup lemon juice and 2 cups water.

Recipe 4: Combine 4 cups of warm water, 1/4 cup of white vinegar, and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch.

For each recipe, mix all ingredients together in a spray bottle.

Cleaners are only part of the equation. The type of cloth you use makes a difference, too. Your best bet is to use lint-free cloths, such as microfiber ones. These also don’t over-saturate too easily and leave streaks. Out of cloths? Use newspapers or coffee filters. Newspaper restores shine to the glass and leaves behind no lint. 

So when is the best time to buy dining room furniture? There are a few different times of year when dining furniture deals abound. Keep your eye out for sales on national holidays and in the months of January, July and October.

The Pre-Thanksgiving Clearance

October is the best month of the year to buy a dining room table. Retailers know that you’ll be expecting company during Thanksgiving and Christmas. During this time of year you’ll be in the holiday planning stages, thinking about where your guests will sit at your formal Thanksgiving dinner party and where you’ll lay out food buffet-style at your annual Christmas cocktail party.

In addition to ensuring the comfort of your guests, the sales make it an ideal time to replace those threadbare dining room chairs that have become an eyesore in your dining room. Retailers will run sales and promotions on dining rooms and dinettes around this time. Look around for free extras such as chairs, servers, and china cabinets.

Holiday Sales

You’ve got the day off work and there’s nothing pressing you have to do, so you might as well go shopping. At least, that’s the mentality that retailers are hoping for on a holiday weekend. You can expect to find alluring dining room furniture deals on most national holidays, including President’s Day, the 4th of July, New Year’s, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.

Out with the Old, in with the New

There are two months of the year that you are guaranteed low prices: January and July. Each of these months represent times of the year when we start thinking about making changes—such as spring’s bright colors and fall’s darker hues—to freshen things up a bit. This time of change holds true for dining room furniture retailers, too.

Stores will debut their new dining room furniture lines on showroom floors in February and August (in anticipation of the upcoming holiday season), so January and July are prime opportunities to get rid of old dining room inventory through sales and make room for new goods.

This is a setup that has changed considerably over the centuries. Historically, most meals were taken in the dining room, which was often located on an entirely different floor level from the kitchen. In the Middle Ages, you’d be most likely to locate the standard long trestle table (which is described in detail in our last blog post) in the Great Hall—the main room of a royal palace. Well, that is if the home actually had a Great Hall. This room tended to be a notable feature in castles or large manor houses owned by upper class Britons or other European nobility.

The Great Hall was a multi-function room with large chimneys and high ceilings that could comfortably seat the whole household. The family sat prominently at the head of the table on a raised platform, and the rest of the household was arranged in diminishing rank away from them. The typical seating for the long table was benches or unarmed chairs on either side.

The style of the dining room table itself is one thing that hasn’t changed drastically over the centuries. The most common type of table in the days of ‘ole was a large rectangular one with two armed end chairs and an even number of unarmed side chairs along the long sides. These days, there are a plethora of dining room table shapes to choose from, yet the standard rectangle is still what you see the most.

As for the atmosphere in the Medieval dining room, it’s safe to assume that this setting would rarely if ever be silent and formal. With this many people gathered around the table, it would have been a busy, bustling room.

But this all began to change around the 14th century, when property owners developed a taste for more intimate gatherings in the parlor off of the main hall. This increasing desire for smaller gatherings stemmed from a change in the social and political climate. There was a shortage of labor in households, signaling a breakdown of the feudal system. Also, religious persecutions were rampant during this era (under Henry VIII). It became unwise to talk freely in front of large numbers of people; the fewer ears to hear what was being said, the better. So the parlor began to function as the primary dining room, leaving the Great Room to be used only on formal occasions.

Let's start with the centerpiece of any dining room, new or old: the table. This word was introduced in the 12th century in its Latin form, tabula, and with the original meaning "a board or a plank." It is believed that the Egyptians were the first people to have tables. Theirs were made of wood and were short like our modern-day coffee table, but were pedestal-style rather than having legs. Egyptians took their meals while sitting on the floor, though, and most references indicate that they did not actually use the table when eating. Rather, the table served two main purposes: (1) a place to offer foods to deceased relatives and (2) a place to keep things off the floor.

The table first became the dining room table—and thereby purposed primarily for eating—in the homes of Greeks and Romans. Tables of this era were called trestle tables and were made of stone, marble, wood, or metal. The trestle table is characterized by four legs linked by two beams in the shape of an "x." Many dining room tables of this time period were large and round or semicircle in shape.

The trestle table was the most common form of table until the 16th century, when stronger frame-based structures such as refectory tables took over. A refectory table is likely what you picture in your mind's eye when you think of a Medieval banquet-style table. These elongated tables were originally used in monks' dining halls and were made of oak or walnut, using the trestle-style "x" support beams positioned very low to the floor for strength and durability.

A "food for thought" factoid to leave you with:
Soldiers of the Middle Ages used their shield upon their lap as their plate and their sword as a knife. 

Reclaimed Lumber

The demand for reclaimed lumber gained momentum in the 1980s and has yet to slow down. This was a natural avenue for dining room furniture makers to take due to growing concerns about the environmental impact of wood harvesting (which you don't need to worry about with the Malaysian rubberwood Dinette.com uses, as mentioned in our last blog) as well as the declining quality of much new lumber. The "deconstruction movement," as this cottage industry has been dubbed, involves the careful dismantling of old bridges, barns, warehouses, and other wood structures. All aspects of the buildings—from the flooring to the windows—can be reused to make kitchen furniture. Wood reclaimers also salvage wood from river and lake bottoms, where many logs sank years ago as they were floated from the forests where they were cut to lumber mills.

It's easy to understand the popularity of reclaimed wood furniture. All dining room pieces created from it will have a unique appearance. Also, companies within the industry claim an assurance of strength and durability. They say that the wood's previous exposure to changes in humidity ensures its stability over newer woods.

The down side to using reclaimed lumber as a material for your dining room set is its increasing expense. In addition to the ever-diminishing supply of this product, rescuing reclaimed wood requires a lot of work. It must be dismantled, sorted, and prepared for reuse (including removing embedded metal, etc.).

Stainless Steel

Environmentalists claim that stainless steel is a sterling example of a recycling success story that just keeps getting better. Most stainless steel sold in today's market is made up of at least 50% recycled stainless steel material, and it is expected that this percentage will continue to rise. In looking around at your dining room furniture, consider that the stainless steel legs on your kitchen table probably had a previous life as a sink or silverware. Neat, huh?

If there comes a time when you decide that there's no more reuse in your home for your table, you don't have to take the steel to a landfill wasteland. This versatile, durable metal is 100% recyclable. Even more good news: stainless steel products require little to no toxic chemicals like paint, cleaners, solvents, and protective coatings throughout their lifetime. These are just a few of stainless steel's planet-friendly stats that make this metal take on a whole new shine for furniture buyers.

We mentioned the use of rubberwood to make dining room furniture. Rubberwood has become a much-used product in today's furniture market for a few key reasons:

• Potential for sustainability. Rubberwood takes a fraction of the time most trees take to mature (20 years vs. 50-70), and can be replanted as soon as it's harvested.
• Leading alternative to traditional woods. Rubberwood doesn't play second fiddle to more traditional woods—it competes head-on. It is similar to American oak but denser, allowing for excellent carving and shaping. And, of course, the good-lookin' factor is important—its natural light color and attractive grain are versatile enough to accommodate any dining room decor.
• Natural durability. Since it's grown in a tropical environment, rubberwood sustains moist environments better than other woods and has low resistance to shrinkage (however, it is intended only to be used for indoor furniture). This makes for stable and sturdy construction. Its denseness also ensures a high resistance to dents and scratches.
• No waste. The production of rubberwood serves a dual purpose. The tree's sap is used to manufacture latex, and trees are harvested only after they've reached the end of their latex-producing cycle.

In addition to using renewable resources such as rubberwood, dining room furniture manufacturers can also take environmentally conscious steps such as using water-based finishes on dinette sets. And let's not forget the wrapping: Using packaging made of recycled paper products goes a long way towards protecting our planet. 

In outfitting your home, you picture yourself shopping for something that's shiny and new, which you will take home in its attractive and secure package. If you were to ask key questions about the production of this product, you might be surprised by some of the answers you get. Where did the parts come from? What was the manufacturing process like? Is the packaging recyclable? Without too much pressure or demand from consumers—yet—for environmentally friendly dining room furniture, the burden is currently on producers to keep the planet in mind.

Facing Deforestation

A select few businesses out there—including Dinette.com—are progressively leading their industries in environmentally friendly practices. Since it is the key to their livelihood, dining room furniture manufacturers understand the importance of buying wood that is sustainable.

Like-minded thinking about sustainability can't come quickly enough: Deforestation is happening at lightning rates. Forests still cover about 30% of the earth's land area, but swaths the size of Panama are lost each year. That equates to an area the size of a football field being chopped down every two seconds. At this current rate of deforestation, it is predicted that the world's rain forests could completely vanish in a hundred years.

Using Renewable Resources

So what do we do? One answer is to make products from resources that are renewable and easily replenished. All of Dinette.com's solid wood dining room furniture is manufactured with 100% plantation-grown, sustainable rubberwood from Malaysia. Malaysian rubberwood is abundant and should stay plentiful, thanks to the strict logging and harvesting policies the national government has put in place. It is also an ideal renewable resource—rubberwood matures in just 20 years and can be replanted as soon as it's harvested, whereas most trees require 50-70 years to mature.

Come back soon for another visit! In Part 2 of our eco-friendly dining room furniture series we'll talk about packaging and manufacturing without waste.

What is a sideboard?

A typical sideboard stands a little higher than a dining room table and features a flat display-top surface (like a table). The base often looks like a long, low chest of drawers, but can vary to include wine racks or shelves for cookbooks.

The original sideboard was designed to be a one-stop-shop when preparing for mealtimes. It was a place to store all the tableware needed-such as cutlery, crockery, napkins, table linens, candlesticks and glasses-in close proximity to the dining room table.

Modern Uses

In addition to being used for functional storage solutions, nowadays sideboards are often the stand-out item that adds character to dining room décor. But don't assume that sideboards are a dining-room-only piece. A sideboard's long, lean look makes it a natural low partition between living room or kitchen and dining areas.

On the practical front, a sideboard's flat top lends itself to a variety of uses, such as a drinks bar or buffet table for social gatherings. Alternately, at a more formal sit-down meal, its best use is as an area to place food before serving.

Shopping Tips

In choosing the right sideboard for your dining room, make sure you've measured the space you're putting it in. You'll need to leave room for people to get past, as well as room to open the cupboard doors. If space is tight, consider sliding doors or doors that open upwards.

What's the main purpose your sideboard will serve? If it's as a place to serve food, make sure you get a sideboard with a tabletop at a convenient working height. There is bound to be splashing when carving and serving food, so the top will need to be made of a robust material. If your sideboard is mainly a storage space, think about what you want to store-from wine to glassware to cutlery-and what kind of shelving you'll need to accommodate your needs.