11 festive dining room ideas
Of the hundreds of beautiful country homes we've photographed over the past three decades, those we visit in the run-up to Christmas are always magical.
We've seen farmhouses festooned with vibrant streamers, converted barns that can welcome 4o guests, and hallways, bedrooms and even bathrooms strewn with ribbons. "I want to cast a Nutcracker-like spell on everyone who walks in through the front door!" says Cathy Bullen, the owner of a cottage in Suffolk that we visited in 2023 – should you ever wonder just how magical these homes become.
Nothing sets the mood for a Christmas gathering quite like a beautifully bedecked dining table, and we've taken a nostalgic dip into the Country Living archives to find our favourite festive dining rooms with oodles of decorating inspiration and clever tablescaping ideas...
Primary colours
In the open-plan kitchen-dining room of this 19th-century house in Berkshire, a branch from the garden's magnolia tree is hung with baubles, pinwheels and paper lanterns. The table is set with crackers from Cambridge Imprint, and there are little wrapped gifts at each place.
The celebration
Set the scene for a real celebration with colourful silk streamers suspended above the table, vibrant glassware and foliage tied with ribbon to the back of each chair. Scalloped dinner plates, paper decorations and a centrepiece of ferns and flowers make it feel abundant.
The scene stealer
Filling a space of this size is no mean feat, so it helps that homeowner Sarah has long collected furniture and decor, including the mid-century chairs lining her dining table, a total of 50 place settings of wooden-handled cutlery, sought out at car-boot sales, and the 1950s Christmas decorations covering her tree.
The artist's take
The dining room in Molly Mahon’s East Sussex family home is a joyous showcase for her vibrant block-printed homewares (have a look at mollymahon.com).
The tablecloth is in Molly's plain linen, trimmed with a generous frill of her Lunar print. Gleaming brass lassi cups from India and candlesticks add atmosphere. Her Patti and Lunar block-print designs hang at the window, the internal curtain is in Bagru and the cushions are in Lunar and Buti.
The tablescape
Fashion journalist Louise Roe knows a thing or two about a good tablescape – her homeware brand Sharland England focuses on beautiful tableware with a distinctly English flair.
Her own Christmas table is dotted with bowls of fruit for colour, antique Italian candleholders and a tablecloth from Lisa Corti. ‘I love a traditional colour palette at Christmas but I like to include a twist such as purples,’ she says.
Christmas breakfast
In this 18th-century house in Bath, simple table settings work for the family’s Christmas breakfast.
'We have something substantial, such as pancakes with fruit, or smoked salmon and cream cheese on bagels. Only then do we go and open our presents around the tree, with a glass of fizz,' says homeowner Annabel. The cheerful kitchen cabinets are painted in Ho Ho Green by Little Greene, with Setting Plaster by Farrow & Ball on the walls.
DIY decorations
Paper mache stars are covered with pretty floral fabrics and strung on the rafters above the dining table. Colourful illustrated paper, wrapping paper or even wallpaper samples would work too. A craft project to keep little ones busy in the run-up to the day...
Tips from the professional hostess
Skye McAlpine, food writer, hostess extraordinaire, and founder of tableware brand Tavola, has a wealth of brilliant ideas for the decorated table – read more in her 8-step guide to festive tablescaping.
"I like to decorate with fruits that are in season – pomegranates, pears, apples, grapes or clementines," says Skye. "I either scatter them down the table, or use a small cake stand piled with fruits as an accent piece. If I'm getting really carried away, I'll decorate the fruit, particularly pomegranates or pears, with small flecks of edible gold leaf, which you can buy online. It creates a lovely sense of occasion."
The open-plan kitchen-dining room
From the first week in December, the Georgian farmhouse owned by Leah and Rupert Lane becomes a hive of making, baking and creating.
In the open-plan kitchen-dining room, at the back of the house, natural foliage hangs from original beams – which stays up all year – while windowsills and corners throughout are dressed for the season.
The working table
Dining rooms often become a hub of making, crafting and wrapping in December, and nowhere is this more evident than in the home of artist Sam Duffy.
Sam makes stationery, lavender bags and placeholders, available online via Paper Sam, but as Christmas approaches her focus is angels – whether they're to adorn a tree, perch on a mantelpiece or liven up a table setting. “It’s lovely to think I’ve made something that will become part of another person’s Christmas story,” she says.
Dining outdoors
This 15th-century mill cottage in the Cotswolds has a pavilion in its garden that acts as an open-air extension to the main house. If the weather is mild enough on Christmas day, the long rustic table is set with lanterns and homeowner Christina serves jugs of hot chocolate.
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