Finished Dining Room

A dining room is one of those rooms everyone says you never "need", and while I agree somewhat, a dining room was also a must for me when we bought our first home. Growing up in the south, gathering around the dining table with all of your family was basically a requirement at holidays, and its grown into something I really cherish, so having that staple room in our house was very exciting for me.

That being said, it was the VERY LAST room to be decorated when we moved in this house, but completing it was super exciting for me, because now we can finally host family dinners.

Figured I would lay out some of the staple items that I think make a good dining room, and were some of my first grabs when setting it up.

a table and chairs (sorry this one is blatantly obvious but still has to be listed) - I love the look of a bench on one side, but I wasn't feeling brave enough to try that yet. So we went with a big farmhouse wood table, and to avoid too much wood, upholstered chairs (all linked below)
Some sort of console table - This may not seem important to you, but as soon as you start collecting serving trays and platters (do I sound old yet?), it comes in handy for storing all of that. I also keep all of my table top decor inside our console as well (hint: you can hide lots of themed holiday decor from your husband in here and he will literally never know because I can guarantee he will never open any of the drawers on a console table.)
a rug - For obvious purposes is to cover the floor, totally not a requirement, but we have hardwood floors and it was too much wood to have a wood table on a hardwood floor. It also helps a ton with dust, because wood on wood floors collects dust in what feels like seconds. We always go with a low pile rug option in areas with food or high traffic areas, as it is way easier to clean.
Stuff on the walls - I cannot stress this one enough, not even for decor purposes, but for the gosh dang awful echo. Nothing is worse than having friends over for dinner and feeling like you're sitting in a school classroom because of the terrible echo. The more you load on the wall, but less things will echo, large wall items work best.

Maybe Im just an old lady but decorating my dining room table for holidays remains to be one of my favorite things to decorate :)

Listed below are some of the things I picked out for our dining room.