What differentiates a fine dining experience from eating at home? Apart from the food, of course, it’s the ambiance. Furniture and fixtures provide a vibe that helps create an ideal atmosphere for conversation and consumption. Entertaining friends and family over food and drinks is a part of our lifestyle and yet little attention is given to the humble dining sets.

Often, your dining table is used as a dumping ground for books, cutlery and even laundry. In recent times you may even have used your latest dining table as a workstation. We praise and envy good dining sets when we eat out, but we pay scant attention to the one we have at home.

While it may seem far-fetched, you can benefit from some neat tips that can bring a blend of aesthetics and practicality to your dining arrangement. Upgrading shouldn’t cost you an arm and a leg. First, make a ‘must have’ and ‘can-do-without’ list and play around with various permutations and combinations until you find the right mix.

Here are some tips for upgrading your home with the best dining sets to a whole new level:

Budget:

Let’s get this out of the way. Decide on how much you can invest for a durable item that will probably last a decade or longer. Consider the pay off. Sturdy wooden dining sets or a marble tabletop with handcrafted chairs are obviously pricey items.

Whereas an engineered wood table with metal chairs will come at a much lower cost. If you want a mix-and-match dining set, you can invest in a luxurious dining table and budget chairs. You can always change the chairs later as and when you can afford to.

Indoor vs Outdoor:

What type of dining set you choose will depend on where you want to place it. In a dedicated dining room for the average household or next to the kitchenette to fit a modern home? Do you want to keep your dining table in a semi-outdoor setting?

Consider the environmental exposure, indoor temperature settings, and weather conditions while picking up certain varieties of wood, especially engineered woods with metal frames. A repurposed wood table and bench style seating would be appropriate for the outdoors.

Durability:

Elm, Oak, Pine, Beech, and Walnut wood dining tables last a lifetime. Glass or metal-based dining sets don’t last as long, but that depends on usage and maintenance. If durability ranks higher for you, bear in mind that your current choice of aesthetics and home décor will outlive fashion trends and even your taste.

Style:

Our preferences change with time and experience. You probably don’t want the funky, mismatched chairs and folding table now as you did in your twenties. Repurposed wood is a rage these days but a trend, nonetheless.

Sticking to basics, a neutral colour palette and durable materials will go a long way in your experiments with styles, and yet make practical sense over the years. White, grey, and blue usually complement most interiors.

You can play with the fabric of chairs or benches to add colours. You can also match the grains of your marble tabletop to your flooring to maintain consistency and choose a textured fabric pattern to make the look pop.

Material and Maintenance:

Wood is a solid winner for obvious reasons. Wooden furniture speaks the language of class, elegance, sophistication and is timeless. So as the ceramic and marble dining tables. Marble requires resealing and polishing just as wood needs oiling and waxing. Metal requires dusting and sponge cleaning, but nothing abrasive and nothing that will add moisture and allow rusting.

Usage and Need:

Be practical. If you don’t entertain often, invest in a perfect dining table that serves your family’s purpose. If you are in a compact living situation, make your dining table multitask. No matter how Insta-worthy your dining sets are, if you don’t use them often, are they really worth spending big bucks on?

Size and Shape:

Crowding the dining table is never a good idea.  A four-seater or a six-seater works for most urban homes unless you are a big household. Also decide which shape — rectangle, square, round, or oval — suits the layout of your room and the available space. Extendable dining tables are a cool new addition to the Indian market. Do remember to avoid tables with sharp edges with kids around.

Choosing dining sets can be difficult given that the market is flooded with so many varieties and options. Your furnishings not only reflect your taste and lifestyle, but also add to the warmth of the space, making it more inviting. Therefore, you have to be careful to pick the right furniture that enhances the dining experience of your family.

This guide to buying the perfect dining table on which you and your family will enjoy many happy meals for years to come.

The practical way of purchasing the best dining sets in India:

Don’t forget to use the Bajaj Finserv EMI Network Card to shop for the best dining sets in India. The EMI Network Card is a unique digital card that offers a pre-approved loan limit of up to Rs. 4 lakh and enables you to purchase your preferred product without the compulsion of clearing the total product price at once.

You can also get your favourite dining table on No Cost EMI at the Bajaj Finserv EMI Store. The Bajaj Finserv EMI Store is the ultimate shopping platform for all kinds of online purchases. New and registered EMI Network Card users can buy the best dining table in India in a hassle-free manner on No Cost EMIs.

Post Credit: Neha Roy, India