Dining Room Meals
With the Thanksgiving holiday fast approaching, let’s enjoy a virtual meal together! I love to imagine how people use spaces to entertain, spend time with their families and friends, and relax. And what better way to look at how to use a dining room than to think about different types of meals and how to serve them! So, let’s eat!
Home Cooked Meal
![Dining room with light hardwood floors, white walls with small wood rails as mini-shelves holding art, photos and collectibles, plus a horizontal mirror shows a peek of the entranceway shelves on a cornflower-blue wall. The dining table itself is steel and reclaimed redwood, cut at an angle as if it was recently hewn, featuring a wood sculptural centerpiece. The chairs are very dark wood with square backs and square cutaways at the lower back. A square pendant overhead echoes the shape and color of the table. The space is refined and understated, emphasizing natural elements.](https://kimballstarr.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Kimball-Starr-Interior-Design_Dining-Room-Meals_Home-Cooked-580x387.jpg)
Design by Kimball Starr / Photo by Eric Rorer
This homeowner likes to make everything from scratch whenever possible. Using healthy, natural, home grown and locally-sourced ingredients, you’ll spend time making sure it all looks amazing, tastes great, and is good for your family. Your kitchen and dining room reflect this care, with personal touches and everything just so for a delicious, delightful family meal, seated around the formal dining table.
Take-Out & Delivery
![Portrait view into a modern bachelor condo of white walls, dark hardwood flooring, and very dark wood cabinetry without handles, around a black refrigerator and freezer unit. In the short end of an L shape, a black countertop and kitchen sink features a graceful swan-necked faucet. At the front of the scene, a modern white dining table is surrounded by clear lime-green plastic seats on silver metal legs. The table is dressed with grass growing in a long, low silver planter and empty glass bottles, plus knicknacks that look like doorknobs in turquoise blue and orange porcelain. The whole space is lit up by a large frosted window at the rear, unadorned by any window dressings.](https://kimballstarr.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Kimball-Starr-Interior-Design_Dining-Room-Meals_Take-Out-Delivery-580x870.jpg)
Design by Kimball Starr / Photo by Eric Rorer
An ideal meal for the bachelor, or the perpetual entertainer! The main investment in time is spent selecting the restaurant or type of food desired. Having food delivered to this city pad means you can spend more time getting to know your date or your friends. With little to no cleanup afterward, you can forget about doing the dishes and get down to dishing on each other.
Vintage Traditions
![This dining room has light aqua-blue walls with white trim, orangey hardwood flooring and a green-and-turquoise-blue patterned rug. The vintage mid-century modern dining table and chairs are the same orangey tone as the flooring, ranging to a little darker, and the chairs are upholstered with multicolored striped fabrics on seat and center of back. The table is set with several geometric-shaped vases and bowls. A sideboard sits in front of a window at the back. On the wall to the right hang some collectible plates, near the open doorway through to the entrance hall, showing the front door in a dark wood and white trim.](https://kimballstarr.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Kimball-Starr-Interior-Design_Dining-Room-Meals_Vintage-Traditions-580x425.jpg)
Design by Kimball Starr / Photo by Marija Vidal
If this dining room tickles your fancy, I bet you have a sentimental vintage serving trolley that you would use to wheel your meal in from the kitchen, don’t you? And of course the plates, bowls and silverware are all vintage, and they match your traditional stemware. The only thing you wouldn’t use is the matching ashtray – how gauche! Fill with candy instead.
Artisanal Hors d’Oeuvres
![Looking into an open-plan dining and living area with hardwood flooring throughout. The dining area is at the forefront, with vintage mid-century modern table and chairs in a medium brown color. The chairs are upholstered on seat and back with multicolored patterned fabric. To the left you can see a bright blue sideboard table and lamp and sculptural wall art with live plants. Further into the living room, you see a blue rug under a pair of chairs and a 3-seater sofa, with a large plant at the back wall next to a seat of windows and French doors.](https://kimballstarr.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Kimball-Starr-Interior-Design_Dining-Room-Meals_Artisanal-Hors-DOeuvres-580x387.jpg)
Design by Kimball Starr / Photo by Eric Rorer
As a lover of art, sculpture, and color, this dining room will be perfect for you. Serving artisanal hors d’oeuvres matches your artistic flair! Present a delicious Italian crostini layered with a slice of mozzarella, tomato, and topped with a fresh basil leaf, plus peppers transformed into edible bowls of spinach dip, all beautifully featured in this stylish mid-century modern dining area.
Cocktail Party
![Overhead view of a dark wood dining table with a centerpiece of green apples, surrounded by matching dark wood chairs with mismatched fabric seats, two in turquoise blue, three in lime green, and four in a coordinating multi-colored pattern with a light tan ground. On the wall at the left, a diptych pair of canvases show colorful abstract art. The flooring is a warm, light-colored wood, running up a set of stairs off to the right. We are partially looking through a textured ball of glass that forms a pendant light fixture, and a wide window lets light stream in at the top.](https://kimballstarr.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Kimball-Starr-Interior-Design_Dining-Room-Meals_Cocktail-Party-580x425.jpg)
Design by Kimball Starr / Photo by Eric Rorer
Who could imagine a holiday season without a cocktail party? Not this dining room, that’s for sure! Colorful and cool, if you love to select just the right music, prepare cocktails in drink-appropriate glasses, and offer appetizers on special serving ware, then a dramatic high-ceiling dining room like this might be the one to raise a glass to! Cheers!
If you know what meal you’d like to serve in your dining room, but your surroundings don’t live up to your fantasy, why not ask Kimball Starr to be your maitre’d? She creates beautiful, functional, stylish dining rooms throughout the Northern California and Lake Tahoe area. Give Kimball a call today!