A dining table plays host to numerous activities in the home from entertaining friends and family to providing a family workspace. As a valuable piece of furniture, taking your time to choose a dining table that suits your space and lifestyle is a must.

We share our 7 top tips when choosing a dining table for your home so you can ensure it meets your needs and withstands the test of time.

1. Determine your size

Determining your desired size of dining table is your first point of call before you go shopping. Taking a guess will always backfire in the long run.

An insider’s tip is to measure your entire space, including features such as doors, windows, cupboards and power points. Measure existing chairs also, allowing 20-30cm from the chair seat to the tabletop.

Once you have your room size, tape out different dining table sizes, ensuring you accommodate your dining chairs. We recommend you allow about 60cm behind each chair. This will help you visualise different dining table options within your space.

Take your plan and ideal table size options with you to Aspley Homemaker City so you can find the perfect dining table.

2. Identify your needs

How you use your dining table may inform the size and shape you need. Does your dining table need to provide space for homework, crafting or playing board games, as well as dining? Do you entertain large crowds or just a few people?

3. Consider shape options

It’s easy to default to a rectangle table, and generally speaking, there are more dining tables of this shape on the market to choose from.

However, don’t discount other shapes. A round, oval or square dining table may suit your room size and style as well as your needs. Small spaces, for example, can benefit from a round dining table. Ovals can also be a great option if you need to squeeze a lot of people around the table.

4. Judge the materiality

When choosing a dining table, be judgmental of the materials as not all materials are equal. Consider how durable the material is and how easily it is to clean. Your budget will influence the options you have, but you want to aim for the best quality your money can buy.

Hardwood dining tables such as those made of teak or oak will withstand the test of time. Engineered or composite timber dining tables are more economical and durable but are not as strong as hardwood.

Glass is another durable option for a dining tabletop and a great choice for small or dark spaces.

5. Take note of its transportability

When shopping for a dining table, it’s easy to get lost in choosing one that looks great and forgetting exactly how you are going to get it in and out of your home.

If you’re renting or plan to move within the next five years, considering a table that is easily transportable would make life easier.

A heavy hardwood or metal table may prove a challenge when moving. An engineered table or one that can be dismantled would be a much better option for apartment living or those who want to be able to easily transport it.

6. Think about your chairs

If you’re using chairs you already own, measure them using the tips above and take photos to help you visualise them alongside the new table.

If you’re struggling to choose between table designs, we recommend you take one of your chairs with you on your shopping trip. This is particularly important if you’re looking to match your timbers.

7. Check the quality

Finally, when buying a dining table assess the quality of the workmanship and componentry by taking a look underneath the table. Give the table a good wobble to test the stability and check any moving parts.

This is particularly important if you’re choosing a dining table second hand. There is nothing more annoying than realising the tread has gone in a screw fitting or the metal parts are jammed on an extendable table

If this is your first time buying a dining table or you’re making a substantial investment, take your time and seek further advice. Our stylist can help you find your ideal dining table that will suit your design tastes, lifestyle needs and interior. You can book your consultation here.

Open-plan living with it’s free-flowing layout has become highly desirable due to its benefits for modern-day lifestyles. While there is much to love, open-plan homes can be surprisingly challenging to decorate and result in many design mistakes.

Here, we share some of the most common mistakes along with 6 open-plan living design tips:

1. Create zones

One of the most common mistakes people make when decorating their open-plan home is a lack of zones. Interiors tend to be filled with furniture and accessories without a conscious thought of how to anchor the settings and create a feeling of rooms without walls. As a result, the large space resembles more of a hall without connection or cohesion.

To avoid this open-plan decorating pitfall, you need to define zones within the home that have a distinct style or mood. If you’re building from scratch or renovating, consider how you can use materials and surfaces to define each space such as reserving hard surfaces for kitchen, utilitarian and high traffic areas, and softer materials for spaces designed for relaxing.

Furniture and decorating items such as rugs and artwork are your tools to visually and physically form individual areas. Think about positioning your sofa across the room to create a divide between your living and dining areas or lay a rug under your dining setting to define the space.

Don’t forget about using your vertical element to create a divide in a similar way to a wall. A well-styled open shelving unit, for example, is a great way to define an area and create a cozy feeling. Other vertical elements such as pendants help to add further interest.

2. Be cohesive

Walking into an open-plan home can create a feeling of awe as the scale and openness of the interior is revealed. At the same time, it can totally overwhelm the senses, particularly if there are a number of different styles featured in the one space. A coastal living area opposite a modern dining room will feel at odds with each other rather than a complimentary space.

This is not to say you can’t mix more than one style into your open-plan home, it’s just best to do so in a cohesive manner. Ideally, choose one overall theme or design aesthetic as your base. This is what will be used to help connect one area of your home with another and create cohesion.

For example, coastal with its crisp whites and natural materials might be the underlying design theme of which you layer on top decorating accessories and art works that complement the aesthetic but add further interest and personality.

3. Light like a pro

Have you ever walked into a newly finished open-plan home where the lighting resembles an airport runway rather than a warm, inviting home? This is due to the common mistake of continuing the same lighting design all the way through the open-plan interior.

This mistake is often made in new builds but can also be made when renovating and opening up walls in an older style home. It’s often easier to use the same light fittings throughout the home or to avoid installing dimmers and putting them on different systems.

It pays to invest in a lighting plan right from the beginning so that you can use light to help define and enhance your interior. Think carefully about how you are going to furnish and use the open plan space. This will help to inform the type of lighting you will need.

Don’t discount the effectiveness of dimmer switches and the ability to turn off or on some of the lighting to create mood. One or two switches for the lights in your entire living, dining and kitchen area is restrictive and will create a feeling of a shopping centre rather than a home.

And finally, make sure you consider where you are placing your outlets to allow for standalone lamps. Installing power points in the floor is a great way to avoid cords running from the middle of your living area to the nearest wall.

4. Encourage flow

One of the benefits of open-plan living is the feeling of more space. You no longer have wasted areas such as hallways and pokey rooms. But this doesn’t necessarily translate into more square footage. There is a tendency for people to purchase larger furniture when the walls come down to fill the interior.

This can, however, result in an overcrowded interior with a lack of circulation space. The home becomes difficult to move through and the space between zones feels tight.

Ideally, you want to allow about 1.5 – 2m between your open-plan living, dining and kitchen areas. This may mean looking at a smaller modular sofa or a different shaped dining table, particularly if you’re furnishing an apartment.

You may also want to consider the layout of your furniture. For example, two occasional chairs adjacent to the dining table may be less dominating than a large sofa. Likewise, if you’re planning your kitchen, rotating your island bench may allow for more circulating room around the kitchen and between your dining area.

5. Highlight sightlines

Open-plan living means views from all angles with everything on show for the eye to see. This is especially dramatic when you have an incredible view, whether that’s the cityscape, expansive body of water or rural outlook. It also means you don’t have walls to hide behind.

A common oversight when decorating an open-plan home is forgetting that furniture and objects can be seen from all angles and the sightlines aren’t considered. Think about how the back of your sofa looks. Consider upholstering it in a different fabric or placing a narrow credenza behind it to make it more appealing.

If you’re using open shelving as a room divider, style it from both sides to add interest from all angles. Take note of how decorate objects such as floor lamps, sculpture or art look from every side as you walk around them.

It’s also worthwhile considering how you can highlight a particular view. It may be tempting to install floor to ceiling glass around most of the perimeter of your living space but that can be restrictive and you can lose impact. Instead, consider how you can frame a view, just like you would an artwork to draw the eye to it.

6. Maximise storage

Open-plan living means views from all angles with everything on show for the eye to see. This is especially dramatic when you have an incredible view, whether that’s the cityscape, expansive body of water or rural outlook. It also means you don’t have walls to hide behind.

A common oversight when decorating an open-plan home is forgetting that furniture and objects can be seen from all angles and the sightlines aren’t considered. Think about how the back of your sofa looks. Consider upholstering it in a different fabric or placing a narrow credenza behind it to make it more appealing.

If you’re using open shelving as a room divider, style it from both sides to add interest from all angles. Take note of how decorate objects such as floor lamps, sculpture or art look from every side as you walk around them.

It’s also worthwhile considering how you can highlight a particular view. It may be tempting to install floor to ceiling glass around most of the perimeter of your living space but that can be restrictive and you can lose impact. Instead, consider how you can frame a view, just like you would an artwork to draw the eye to it.

Creating a cosy and inviting home not only allows you to feel relaxed and at ease when you arrive home at the end of a busy day but encourages your family, friends and guests to feel the same. There is something about the feeling of walking into someone’s home and immediately feeling a sense of welcome, ease and comfort. Everything from the lighting, scent, soft furnishings and small thoughtful touches make a huge difference. Read on, to find out our top tips and tricks for creating a welcoming and inviting home and where you can pick up a few items to make your house feel like the ultimate cosy sanctuary!

Inject Personality

There is nothing more welcoming than coming home and seeing items that are nostalgic, comforting and reflect your personality. Although display homes are beautiful, they are often missing the added element of personalisation and individuality. There are many ways you can style your home to ensure it is reflective of you and your family’s personality in a tasteful way. We love adding books with beautiful imagery and stories on topics you are interested in to your coffee table, console table or floating shelves. These create great talking points when guests are over too! We also recommend using gallery walls in spaces such as the dining room, hallway or living room to inject personality and bring you joy. These could be a collection of artworks, photographs of your family and friends or any other pieces you desire. We recommend using frames of the same material to create a cohesive and elevated look. Pick up some beautiful frames from stores such as Freedom or Provincial Home Living.

Lighting

Well-considered lighting options can make a huge difference to a well design home as they can completely change the atmosphere of a space. Use lighting to not only offer a variety of options and uses, but to create a feature and focal point of a room. We love adding a beautiful pendant light above the dining table or a collection of two or three over an island bench. Floor lamps and table lamps on side tables allow for more dimmed lighting options in areas such as the living room to create a cosy atmosphere. We love adding dimmers to light switches in the bedroom and main living areas to allow for different moods depending on the activity or time of day. Head into Andrew’s Light Up to see their amazing range of lighting solutions from pendants to task lamps and much more!

Guest Room Touches

If you have a guest room or have friends and family stay over often, it is important to make them feel welcome and create an inviting space for them to feel at ease. Here at Aspley Homemaker City we love making our guests feel like they are on holiday by adding thoughtful touches to their bedroom. We recommend choosing beautiful bed linen that is cosy and soft in bright and welcoming colours. Pillow Talk have an amazing range of new season quilt covers, sheets and throw blankets, so be sure to check them out on your next visit! We love the idea of having a beautiful tray of thoughtful and practical items on the bedside table such as a phone charger, eye mask, hand cream and notepad and pen to ensure they have everything they need and aren’t caught off-guard. You can pick up a beautiful tray from stores such as Freedom, Pillow Talk or Provincial Home Living.

Soft Furnishings

To create the ultimate cosy and welcoming abode it is essential to add soft furnishings to elevate your space. Not only do cushions and throw rugs add a pop of colour and texture, but they allow you and your guests to relax and unwind in a comfortable and inviting space. We recommend using soft textures such as linen or cotton and avoid anything with embellishments. Head into Pillow Talk and Freedom to check out their gorgeous range of cushions and throws! Rugs also fall into the soft furnishings’ category, and we recommend adding them to rooms such as the living room, dining room and bedroom. Rugs help to ground the space and create zones whilst also bringing warmth and comfort under foot. We have a number of retailers here at Aspley Homemaker City such as Deco Rug and Provincial Home Living that offer a wide variety of rugs in different textures, shapes, sizes and colours, so head in for a browse today!

Scent

Scent is one of the most important attributes when creating a cosy and inviting home but can often be forgotten. Scent has the ability to completely transform a space and allows you to create a different vibe depending on the season, time of day or event you are hosting. We love using diffusers, candles or room sprays and adding them to all common areas such as the kitchen, living room and bathrooms. Opt for a fresh scent during the Summer months such as coconut and lime or fresh linen and create a cosy vibe during the Winter months by adding the scent of caramel, sage of woody notes to your home. Stores such as Rice Furniture, Freedom and The Sheridan Outlet stock a beautiful range of scents for every mood you wish to evoke.

The first question so many of us face when it comes to styling our homes is: where to start?

Some of us think we need to get builders or professionals in to do a renovation. Or we need an interior decorator to give us all the inside tips. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

Styling your home might mean changing the décor and furniture and adding some personal touches that weren’t there before. If you aren’t happy with the way your home looks, it may be down to that different rooms are styled in different ways which brings everything out of balance. Styling not only creates a more harmonious look, but it can bring out your personality – which is part of how we’d like our homes to look.

Adding style and beauty to your home should not cost the earth. You can start small and work your way up – and it doesn’t have to cost five figures or more.

Our guide is practical, and you can start with what you have on hand – or what’s in store at Aspley Homemaker Centre.

Easy Styling Tips

Display things in threes

Three is the magic number – when decorating with accessories, be careful not to overload the space. Group accessories with similar themes and varying heights to create beautiful displays and choose quality over quantity! A trio of items on a table or in a corner brings balance to a room. The items don’t need to be uniform either; try different heights or widths, textures and materials, and eclectic objects.

Layering on rugs and sheets

This is often used by professional home stylists to create depth and a more “lived in” atmosphere. You may even notice it when you’re at a swanky hotel next. Layering a colourful or snazzy rug on top of a neutral or earth-toned carpet enhances the look of a bedroom, living room, or dining area.

Flowers light up your home

Flowers instantly bring a fresh feeling to your home. Adding vases of fresh flowers in corners or on benchtops – out of the way of your usual food prep or vanities of course – can bring warmth and vibrance to your home in virtually every room. It’s an effortless look and can put visitors more at ease. For a more cost-effective option, you can use fresh or dried flowers to get the same effect.

Dust regularly

Nothing kills style than a fine layer of dust. This tip is free – just grab a duster or vacuum cleaner and make sure your nooks and crannies are free of dust and lint. Don’t just leave it to your regular cleaning regimen – make sure you do a light dusting every few days or so, just in case guests decide to breeze in unannounced.

Styling Your Bedroom

Cushions and soft furnishings

Adding cushions and soft furnishings to your bedroom – such as ottomans, poufs, or small armchairs – are excellent pieces for bringing texture to your bedroom and a unified finished look.

Stand-alone racks

Keeping clothes in wardrobes or chests of drawers are outdated – high-street boutiques now use “open racks” that are considered decorative furniture. Add a standalone rack to give your bedroom a burst of colour and have your most-worn clothes right within reach.

Not just for sleeping in

Though the English word for “the room we sleep in” is “bedroom” (the German word is “Schlafzimmer”, literally, “sleeping room”) we often make it pull double duties as a relaxation haven or even an office. Zoning your bedroom with a reading nook replete with comfy chair next to a window, or a standing office space on top of a chest of drawers helps you concentrate on the only thing you should be doing in bed – sleeping. It’s also compartmentalised and helps reduce clutter.

Fairy lights and eclectic lamps

There are so many options when it comes to lighting a room these days, having one light in the ceiling seems so last century. Fairy lights, LED strips, and metallic lamps that you can hang over the bedhead are not only bold statements but popular ones too. Internet connected lamps and LEDs can set lighting according to your mood and help wake you up by gradually raising the illumination. RGB (multi-colour) lights can even add ambiance for music, reading, or relaxing.

Adding Style To The Living Room

Use your coffee table as a centrepiece

Having a bold coffee table as something that ties the room together is a great idea to style your living area. Have candles, books, flowers, photos – anything that shows off your personality. Place décor on a flat plate or bowl to create texture and as an easy way to clear the table when you’re entertaining. Have the coffee table atop your rugs and carpets for even more of a pop.

Seating is styling

Even if you live alone, having more seats than necessary in your living room is a fantastic element of style. Using colourful or patterned cushions of all shapes and sizes are an effortless way to create a homely space – and useful for those long nights of binge-watching Netflix.

Use lamps, not the main lights

Floor lamps and table lamps can express your style even further and create subtle lighting instead of using your main lights for everything. The more lamps you have, the more options open up for lighting of your choosing. With new Wi-Fi connected LED lights, you can dim or brighten the room to your liking – or even create swirling colours that suit your mood.

Art, prints, and colour

Hanging artwork or prints of your favourite photos can really enhance the look of your living room and can complement the textured look. Bare looking walls look boring – use the space to bring out your personality and make it yours.

Adding depth with hanging shelves

Along with art and prints, you can add depth with hanging shelves affixed to the wall that are both decorative and practical. Add pot plants, trinkets, or framed photos on there for a stylish look, or use it to house books, music, or movies (or memorabilia from those three, if you’re physical media free.)

Remember scale

Keep everything proportionate in terms of scale. For example, use a low coffee table, half-height couches or seats, and a tall floor lamp. If you’re going for plants, make sure they’re medium-sized and don’t crowd anything out. Consider adding a decorative lampshade or pendant light to bring things together – even if you aren’t using the lights for illumination.

Bathroom and Kitchen Ideas

Uniform soap bottles and dishes

If you use liquid soap or hand sanitiser, ditch the store bottle, and store it in one of your own. Purchasing a special purpose soap bottle or dispenser is a small touch, but it can feed into your larger colour scheme and style. A sleek monochrome bottle might suit a modern design; something with patterns or rustic touches lend itself to a more organic design. Use these bottles for shampoo, washing up liquid, and anything that you use to clean with. It also saves on plastic waste since you only need to buy refills.

Candles and artwork

You can add a bit of luxury to your bathroom by adding some simple artwork in a frame or a few candles around the bath. All give your bathroom a high class feel – even if you aren’t big on taking long baths.

Adding green

Indoor plants like Fiddle Leaf Figs or succulents are understated greenery that can add life to any room but look great in bathrooms or kitchens without being too showy or hard to maintain. Fiddle Leaf Figs are ideal as they’re slow-growing and can be trained to grow in braids and standards. Make sure it’s in the corner or out of the way and gets some light from time to time. Succulents can be kept in candleholders or old glass water bottles under a wall niche or next to your soaps and hand creams on a vanity shelf.

Add textures

Much like in the living room, you can add textures with fluffy bathmats, high thread count towels, and plant pots with ribbed or stone finishes. It can really stand out in rooms that are usually flat and lifeless by nature.

Outdoor and Balcony

Whether you have a backyard or a balcony, you can follow some easy tips to make entertaining look and feel like an extension of your home.

Extend the indoors to outside

Just like the colours and textures of your home, you should extend the indoors outside. If you are using neutral tones in your lounge, use them outside. Remember this when buying accessories and seating for your entertainment focal point. Just remember to remember the scale of your space and style accordingly. Eating up all the space with a massive table on a smaller balcony can make you and your guests feel cramped, for example.

Outdoor furniture

Eating al fresco is becoming popular for people with decks and balconies and you should consider having a complete dining suite to match. Outdoor-centered tables and chairs are great for entertaining, serving as a place for all your snacks and drinks during stand-up parties, and even the main event for an outdoor dinner party. If you’re more into relaxing than entertaining, a comfortable lounge chair or two might be the perfect fit.

Create a sense of ambiance

Drinks and nibbles long into the evening are a staple in Australia and setting a mood with fairy lights or string lights help bring a subtle yet cosy mood to any outdoor event. You can also use lanterns on tables or around your deck or entertainment area. Using citronella can also help with keeping the mozzies away.

Accessorise, accessorise, accessorise

If you want to have your outdoor entertainment area good for all seasons, consider adding accessories such as standing heaters or fire pits. Bringing the greenery to your seating or deck is also a popular option, with free standing potted plants blurring the line between outside and inside even more.

Decorative screening

If your balcony or your backyard backs onto a garage or other kind of wall, you can add some personality and colour with decorative screening. Bamboo, wooden slats, steel – there’s something to match your tastes and make exposed brick or render become more alive. Try adding a mirror to your balcony or courtyard which can instantly lend your area the illusion of space.

 

To get started on your home styling projects, find all the stores that have everything you need at Aspley Homemaker City – we promise not to disappoint!