20 Small Dining Room Ideas on a Budget

Dining rooms come in all sizes and can be one of the hardest rooms to decorate. Many people think they cannot decorate a dining room beautifully unless they have a lot of money to spend to do it right and make it look luxurious and elegant. This is not the case though. Even if you don’t have a big budget, you can create a beautiful dining room and make your dining experiences feel rich, or casual, classic or contemporary. Even if your dining room is lacking in space, you can make it appealing and inviting just by what you put into your room. The good thing is; there are all kinds of tips and ideas that will help you keep the cost down so you don’t go broke just trying to make your dining room more desirable room to dine in.

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About your small space

Before you jump into putting pieces of furniture in your dining room, you will want to take an inventory on your space to see what pieces you would like to have, where you want to put them, and how big the piece can be before it looks overcrowded or bumps into other pieces in the room. Drawing a rough draft of the room to have on hand when shopping, is always helpful. Having the measurements of the pieces you ant to get, is also a great way to be sure you aren’t misjudging when you go to purchase something. Keep reading to find out some tips on how you can turn your small dining room into a beautiful dining experience while sticking to your budget.

Look for resale furniture pieces

Not everything in your dining room has to be brand new and have a hefty price tag attached. There are other options to look at when it comes to finding furniture pieces that are much more reasonable. If you know what type of piece you, look for a resale piece instead of at a store. You can find good deals on resale furniture items by looking in your local paper for moving or estate sales. There are also yard sales online, or bigger sites that list furniture pieces for much cheaper than retail. You can find some real bargains when you buy resale. You may have to look a little harder or longer, but if you are patient, the right piece for the right price will come along.

Keep your furniture scaled down

One thing you don’t want to do is buy pieces of furniture that are too big for the room. Keep your furniture scaled to the size of the room to avoid an overcrowding situation, or claustrophobic. A smaller dining room table will be functional as well as it can be a focal point of the room. Lighter color woods give the illusion that the room is bigger, as opposed to darker colored woods, which can visually, eat up the space.

Use light colors on the wall

Light, airy colors on the wall will give the impression that your space is larger than what it is. Dark colors will eat-up, or shrink your space and make it feel like tight quarters. Light blues and greens are popular shades today. They work very well with white trim and light, airy draperies and many different shades of wood.

Natural lighting

Natural lighting has the ability to trick the mind into thinking a space is bigger than it is. Let in as much natural light as you can, if natural light is available in the room, and watch your space get bigger. Chandeliers can still be hung, even in a small dining room, however, too large of a chandelier, and you will eat up a lot of ceiling space. This will instantly visually shrink your room. A small chandelier that matches your taste, color, theme and budget is what you will want to stick with. Check with different lighting stores in your area to see if they have any special deals, sales or items they cant sell, that you may be able to go view.

Find knock-offs

If you find something you want, but it is name brand and out of your price range, that’s where copies or knock-offs come in handy. Chances are that on a budget, you probably will not have the money to purchase an original piece of wall art or décor items. Look for cheaper, less expensive replicas or knock-offs and it’s highly unlikely that anyone will ever know the difference.

Take a look at the following 20 small dining room ideas and see if you get inspired to get going on decorating your small dining room.