| Shop around and you'll find dining-room furniture to suit | | | | delicate veneer from everyday knocks and spills. If you |
| not only the space you have available but the style of | | | | do choose a table with a finish that needs protection, |
| your home and your budget. | | | | buy a table pad you can cover with an easily |
| Dining-room furniture often outlasts other furniture in a | | | | laundered tablecloth for everyday use. For more |
| home - a sofa and armchairs may show the strain of | | | | formal occasions, take away the pad and use a fancy |
| the rough and tumble of family life, but a sturdy table | | | | tablecloth and placemats. |
| and chairs can go on looking good year after year. So | | | | Most modern upholstered dining chairs have been |
| work out your needs carefully before you buy a dining | | | | treated to resist stains but for additional protection, use |
| suite. | | | | tie-on chair covers, or make covers to slip over |
| There's an excellent choice of robust, well-made | | | | upholstered seats. |
| contemporary furniture available to suit all tastes and | | | | Modern Mood |
| budgets, from the elegance of Georgian reproduction | | | | The key to a modern dining room is simplicity. There is |
| through sturdy farmhouse to modern steel and glass. | | | | no shortage of clean-lined tables and chairs on the |
| Folding or extending tables are a good choice if space | | | | market. Favorites for a contemporary room are |
| is limited or to seat extra guests. | | | | materials such as glass, chrome, and steel, but almost |
| A Touch of the Traditional | | | | anything would suit, as long as the design is |
| Traditional dining-room furniture such as a period style | | | | streamlined. |
| suite in solid wood or with a veneered finish is well | | | | A laminate or lacquer which wipes clean and resists |
| suited to elegant formal meals. Before you buy it's a | | | | scratches and scuffs is a cost effective and practical |
| good idea to decide how versatile you want your table | | | | option - especially if the table is going to be used by |
| and chairs to be. Most dining-room furniture has to be | | | | young children or if it doubles other ways, as a sewing |
| sturdy enough to meet different needs. During the | | | | table or somewhere to study or do homework. A |
| course of a day the table may be called on to do duty | | | | modern style of table is best left uncovered, but you |
| as a play surface for children's games and painting | | | | can give a more conventional table a bold new image |
| sessions, a desk for homework, and a worktop for a | | | | with a dramatic tablecloth. |
| sewing machine as well as being used for an informal | | | | Make sure you check out a contemporary suite very |
| family breakfast, lunch, and tea. Yet it still has to be | | | | carefully for comfort and practicality -a glass-topped |
| flexible enough to be dressed up for those more | | | | table may lose its appeal if you are forever wiping off |
| elegant evening occasions. | | | | children's fingermarks. Cast-iron chairs can look |
| Consider this multi-functional aspect of the room when | | | | dramatic in a modern room but they are often |
| you shop for the furniture, and remember it's easier to | | | | very-heavy, which makes them difficult to draw up to |
| use attractive table linen to dress up a tough surface | | | | and away from the table. |
| like solid wood for formal dining than it is to protect a | | | | |