People tell me all the time that they don’t have a dining room or even a dining area any more – they have transformed the space into a home office and eat at the breakfast bar in the kitchen or in front of the television. For someone like myself who gets plenty of mileage out of my dining set – I have impromptu and planned dinner parties at least twice a month – I can’t imagine being without a dining room. If you have no need for a formal dining table but still would like some place to sit and eat comfortably when you have friends over, it’s easy to create a casual contemporary dining room in a room of its own or as part of an open area living space.
While counter-height dining tables, also referred to as gathering tables, have not replaced formal dining or the standard dining table, they have become more and more popular in recent years. One of the main reasons they have become so popular is counter height tables are the ideal space-savers, utilizing vertical rather than horizontal (floor) space. Another reason they have gained in popularity could be attributed to their inherently casual nature – because a counter-height dining table is typically round or square, there is no “head of the table.” When decorating a dining room in a condominium, loft, apartment or even a smaller sized home, space-saving furniture is instrumental in designing a dining area that will work for you.
Like the Standard Bay Heights Deep Brown Round Glass Dining Table Set, the typical gathering table is 36” high and is usually accompanied by counter-height chairs with a seat height of 24”.
As demonstrated by the Canterbury Home Furnishing Cambridge 7 Piece Counter Height Dining Set, counter-height dining tables are available in a wide range of styles including traditional and country. A typical counter height table seats four to six people.
Some types of gathering tables, just like a standard dining table, include leaves, which will allow you to seat up to eight people. The Jofran 7 Piece School House Counter Height Dining Set in Saddle Brown Oak includes a butterfly leaf that expands the width of the table by 18 inches.
The casual nature of counter-height dining tables can be easily integrated into a kitchen floor plan, as part of the living room or in a corner of a family room without looking awkward, out of place or taking up too much space. By selecting a counter-height dining table such as the Klaussner Stetson Counter Height Dining Table that includes built-in storage, you make your living space even more functional.
A casual contemporary counter-height dining table isn’t just for dining – it can double as the ideal place to gather around to play a game of cards or a favorite board game. It is versatile, flexible and well-suited to a variety of environments, including the kitchen, a breakfast nook and even the family room.
