5 Dated Dining Room Features That Have Lost Their Luster

Dining rooms deserve more love. While most people are excited to put their decorating stamp onto bedrooms and living rooms, they often stop short when it comes to the dining room. Maybe they have a small dining room or a grand one that is rarely used. Maybe they inherited a formal dining room set that doesn't match their style and don't have the budget to swap it out. It could be that the pre-arranged setup of the room makes it hard for them to think outside the box (light fixture in the middle of the room, table and chairs underneath — not much room for interpretation). 

These days, the dining room should no longer be ignored. This is the year you should finally give it a redesign and infuse the space with personality. Dining room trends you should embrace for 2025 are mismatched furniture, "biophilic" design (which pulls design cues from nature), architectural details, and moody color palettes. Of course, the design choices you shouldn't embrace are as important as the ones you should. Dining room features such as overly formal furnishings, china cabinets, lackluster lighting, matching furniture sets, and a lack of fabric can make a dining room look outdated — or simply sad and ignored. 

The formal dining room had a good run. Long ago, it often had a ridiculously long table with chairs at either end, forcing you to scream across the room at your partner. If you had guests, everyone dressed in formal attire, and footmen were on hand to serve your dinner and frequently refill your wine. 

In modern times, the formal dining room has remained – typically as a child and pet-free zone, only to be entered on holidays and birthdays. But unless you regularly host black-tie events, there's no reason to have an overly formal dining room in 2025. And when you do hosts guests, the dining room should be a place they gravitate towards; where they feel comfortable staying put long after the meal has finished.

Most people don't want to give up prime space on a room that's only used four times a year, and many dining rooms are now doubling as a home office, craft room, or homework station. Some dining rooms are even disappearing from homes altogether, and being replaced with eat-in kitchens. To tolerate a constant and varied range of uses, dining rooms need to become less precious and more durable.   

Since formal dining rooms are on their way out, formal furniture pieces like china cabinets, hutches, and console tables are too. The china cabinet is also becoming outdated because fine china itself is outdated. According to The Knot Registry Study, only 11% of couples registered for fine china in 2024, and that number is going down every year. Since china cabinets are meant to store and display fine china, they are no longer necessary. 

If you have a china cabinet, do not despair. While you may not need it to display china, it's still a useful piece of furniture for displaying a beloved collection or to hold your everyday dishes if your small kitchen can't contain them. To make your china cabinet less formal, try upcycling it by painting it a fun color, swapping out the knobs, and wallpapering the back of the shelves. You can turn this piece of furniture into a bar by storing wine and martini glasses below, and your liquor or wine collection above (this GeLive under-cabinet wine glass holder is easy to install and frees up storage space). Take your china cabinet out of the china storage box and make it work for your real life, whether that means turning it into a library for homeschooling or a display case for LEGO sets.  

Designers and TikTokers alike have been moving away from the "one big light" in most rooms, opting for layered task lighting instead. The dining room is the one exception. It is the best room in the house for one big statement light, and the light fixture is arguably one of the most exciting parts of a dining room.

As such, it is a huge mistake not to update your dining room light fixture. Maybe you left the one from a previous homeowner because it was "doing the job." Maybe it doesn't match your decor style, but you've been decorating around it, like you would a light socket or air vent. But just like any other decor, light fixture styles come and go, and an old light fixture can immediately date a room. Even contemporary dining room lighting that is small, unassuming, and would look at home in a hall or closet is a missed opportunity to elevate the room and show some personality.  

Of course, it could be budget holding you back. Fortunately, a cool statement light fixture doesn't have to cost much, and instantly transforms a room — giving you more bang for your buck than any other dining room feature. Case in point, this modern black-and-gold Sputnik chandelier from RUIYEY is less than $100 on Amazon. 

The move from matching furniture sets has been happening room by room. You were told not to match your bed frame to your nightstands and dressers, and to adopt a "collected" look in your living room. You may have already moved away from a full matching furniture set in your dining room, opting not to purchase your hutch, banquet, and table together. But in the last few years, it is even going out of style to have a matching table and chairs — items that seem made to go together. 

It makes sense. The table and chairs are such a focal point of the room, you want them to be interesting, not boring. A matching set can be heavy with nothing to break up the eye, especially if you have a long table with an abundance of chairs. Instead of looking carefully curated, it screams "show room."

If you are currently on the wrong side of this 2025 design no-no, don't chuck out your expensive table and chairs set. Leave your table as-is and revamp your chairs with a little paint and new fabric. If your seats lack cushions, try these memory foam seat cushions that tie to any chair. It will give you added color and comfort! 

Other rooms are made for comfort. The bedroom has the bed, the living room has the sofa, and the den has the recliner with the optional massage function. Even the bathroom has towels, a bath mat, and a shower curtain to add color and warmth. But many dining rooms suffer from a lack of softness. The dining rooms from 30 years ago were filled with oversized wood furniture. The popular farmhouse dining rooms of more recent years scaled back the furniture pieces, but placed wood shiplap to the walls and added little in the way of fabrics. In 2025, sterile, cold furnishings look dated. Layering different fabrics and textures can add much-needed warmth to a dining room. As a bonus, they are a chance to add in color and pattern as well.  

This is not to say you should avoid wood. After the recent obsession with plastic, lucite, and "fast furniture" (which offered a degree of trendiness but lacked craftsmanship), 2025 is seeing a return to more substantial furniture. However, bringing in various textures is important to maintain a proper balance in the room. 

Add a table runner, curtains, a rug, and seat cushions (or swap out your hard chairs for some upholstered ones) to bring warmth and beauty to your dining room. The current design trends call for warm color palettes and indoor plants, both of which create additional warmth even if fabrics are lacking.