The dining room table is a place where family and friends convene to eat, talk and entertain. In the Middle Ages, the size and positioning of the tables were used to denote social class among nobility in the "great halls" of castles. Before you take the trip to a furniture store to buy your own table, make sure you know the maximum size that will fit comfortably in the room.
Instructions
1. Measure the dining room's length and width. Let's assume for the purpose of this example that the room is 15 feet long by 12 feet wide.
2. Allow for enough walking space on all sides of the table so that an average size person can turn 360 degrees comfortably, which is about three feet. That leaves nine feet lengthwise and six feet width-wise for your dining room table.
3. Subtract about six additional inches from each side of the room to allow for your chairs. Even when pushed in, the chairs will likely jut out slightly from the table. Now you are working with eight feet lengthwise and five feet width-wise in this example.
4. Subtract the depth of any other items you plan to line the walls with in your dining room. For example, if you have a china cabinet that is one and a half feet deep that you plan to rest up against the wall behind the long side of the table, your remaining space for the table would be eight feet lengthwise by three and a half feet width-wise. That is your target size for the dining room table.
5. Use a percentage measurement as a guideline when shopping for a dining room table as an alternative. Ideally your dining room table should take up no more than 25 percent of the room. So if your room is 180 square feet (15x12 feet), the table should be no more than 45 square feet in size.
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