Dining Like Royalty: The Essentials of a Formal Dinner

Casual dining rooms are what’s known as functional dining rooms. These are your usual setup where you can relax, dine, laugh, and not worry so much about how to behave. If you want to dine like royalty, though, or if there is a formal function that you need to attend, then you will need to prepare for formal dining.

Formal dining rooms, simply put, are fancier dining rooms. Their furniture choices, as well as lighting, are very much different from casual dining areas. They also come with a more posh choice of accessories and other decorative elements.

The look of this room determines whether or not it can be considered a formal dining room. How space is used and how it becomes distinct from the usual dining setup will also point as to whether you are going to dine in a formal setup.

Even when pizza is going to be served in formal dining, this is a time when you should refrain from pigging out. With everyone wearing black ties and long gowns, it would be wrong to behave in such a manner.

The Fancy Location

The very purpose and location of the dinner will make a huge difference on whether it is going to be a formal occasion or just a casual tête-à-tête. A formal dining room tends to be separated from the rest of the rooms. It also comes with pocket doors or lovely French doors. It is also common to see double doors opening up to the lavish setup indoors.

A casual dining room, in contrast, often shares a space with the living room or the kitchen. It is also wide open since it does not come with any closable door.

The formal dining room’s purpose is to serve the most elegant dinners. It can also be the hub of classy social get-togethers. You will be served with meals that are ceremonially served by waiters who are also properly dressed for the evening.

Proper etiquette is also expected in a formal dining setup. All these go with the fine embellishments that you get to see everywhere.

The Fancy Ambiance

A formal dining room is more conservative. It tends to have a darker color palette because of the formality that it evokes. Since this is so, you will find that most formal dining rooms have dark wood floors. You will also find rich paneling where the lighting is kept to a bare minimum so that the ambiance becomes more intimate.

You will rarely hear loud voices from the diners. In fact, you are expected to talk in whispers and to dress up in a formal manner.

As opposed to the casual dining room where the room is flooded with light and the diners talking animatedly, in the formal setup, the diners simply need to behave.

The Fancy Furniture

The formal dining room needs formal and fancier furniture pieces. This is one of the most important things that will help you distinguish the formal setup from the casual one. A functional dining room contains a table and chairs that can be exposed to the daily rigors of informal dining.

In a formal dining room, there are only two things that could become the focal point – it’s either the long dining table or the charming chandelier that’s hung right above the center of the lovely table. You will also immediately notice the lovely formal chairs that are gathered about. More often than not, these are made of traditional woods and are possibly padded complete with refined details.

Expect to find a china cabinet, buffet or sideboard nearby. In place of these, you might find a small TV or even a laptop atop a computer desk in a casual dining room.

Tags: formal dining, formal dining room, McCreerys, McCreerys Home Furnishings

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 14th, 2018 at 10:20 am and is filed under Dining Room Design, Interior Design 101, Interior Design Elements. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.