Dining Nook Design

Our renovation has reached the pointy end where the fun decisions are made. Last week we went antique shopping for pieces to fill what will become our unfitted (semi-fitted) kitchen. I’m now considering how the dining area will look. The best way to solidify my choices was to see them on a mood board. After all, the kitchen design has changed so much since its inception in my head, the dining nook desigin will most likely change too.

Our eating area will be in the west facing corner of the kitchen. Our guests will have full view of the views over the bay. This was a non-negotiable when we came up with the open plan design. I could not see the point in having a view if I only enjoyed it when standing at the sink. As the room has many funtions, we I thought a dining nook would make the most of the space, instead of a table and chairs.

Coming up with a Dining Nook Design

I had a list of essentials to include and decided on a simple bench seat that spans the corner of the room. The width of our windows dictated the length of the corner unit. At 1.2m from end to end of each window and with the added corner piece, the bench will seat three or four people comfortably. This means that when we add two chairs, we can seat six people around the table. The seating needs to have easy access for people to slide in and out too. To make the bench appear more built in, we will add skirting round the front that matches the rest of the room. However, as you can see from the picture below, we continued the skirting and tile inside the bench. If we ever tire of the look and wish to remove the bench, we have a completed area behind it. It’s important to get the height of the bench seat right too. If you build it too high, your guests cannot put their feet on the floor. Our dining bench is 50cm which I think is too high but some men in the house wanted that.

Decor in the Nook

The country cottage theme of the kitchen will carry through to the nook. I’m also repeating our scallop shade over the table to bring the design of the rest of the cottage into the space. The shade will be bigger and hang low over the table. This will add some variation and texture to the room. An injection of texture will stop the kitchen from feeling flat. I would also like to add some rattan dining chairs.

The bench seat needs to be comfortable. Recently, I had the wallpaper we found recreated as jpeg images so I can use it for textiles or print it onto homewares. I’d love to make the bench cushion from one of these fabrics. This will incorporate pattern into the space and we know I love pattern. I’ll also add cushions in patterns of the same colour way of green, cream, mustard yellow, and a touch of blue. The room has many hard, square edges and fabrics will soften them.

For the moment, the wall next to the nook and the windows will remain bare. Seeing the furniture and soft furnishings in place will show me what I need to add, if anything.