The breakfast nook is a small area next to or off of your kitchen where most families eat a majority of their meals. It is an informal dining area for everyday use because most people do not want to eat in the formal dining room for every meal. If you have an eat in kitchen or a breakfast nook area in your home then there are some tips on how to decorate it that are important. It is different than decorating or furnishing a formal dining room for several reasons. Kitchen furniture often has style that you would not find in regular dining furniture. There are also some decorating techniques that are useful in a utilitarian room such as the kitchen that you wouldn’t use in other parts of the house.

The first step in decorating a breakfast nook is to pick out your breakfast table. This is usually the largest piece of furniture in the room so it is one of the most important decisions. Of course sometimes the table comes as part of a breakfast nook set, but most people choose the breakfast nook furniture set based on the table because it is the largest piece and the most important in terms of fitting into the room. The first characteristic you need to look at to make sure you find the perfect kitchen table is the shape of your breakfast nook. If the breakfast nook is just a continuation of the kitchen and extends out in a square or rectangular shape, then a rectangular breakfast table is probably your best bet. If, however, the breakfast nook has an unusual shape like half of an octagon or even circular, than a round kitchen table is a good choice. The next characteristic that you must look at is size. Obviously you cannot have a table that is too large in a small breakfast nook space. However, you want to breakfast table to be as large as possible. A good rule to use is to measure the dimensions of the kitchen nook area and then subtract three feet from each to find the maximum dimensions of your kitchen table. The three feet is to allow for eighteen inches of clearance between the table and the walls for chairs or benches to be pulled in and out. Even though most people want to maximize the seating capacity at their table, some homes have only one or two members and they are quite content with a small kitchen table regardless of the shape of the room or how much extra space there is. They can fill the extra space with other kitchen furniture.

Once you have decided on a table, the next most important kitchen furniture decision is the breakfast nook seating. You basically have three choices to choose from including chairs, benches, or a combination of both. There are benefits to both chairs and benches so that is why many breakfast nook sets have a combination. Chairs are good if you do a lot of entertaining because they offer your guests there own personal space. Bench seating encourages an intimacy that many strangers do not wish to share. In addition, chairs are more comfortable for people of a larger size than benches because they offer more support. Benches however, have other advantages. You can seat more people on benches than on chairs. For example, a three person bench takes up the same amount of room around a table as two chairs. The general rule is that you can fit one and a half people on a bench for every chair you replace. If you have a large family, then at least one breakfast nook bench makes sense. Another advantage a benches is that they often come in breakfast nooks with storage. The space under the seat of a bench can be a large chest like storage compartment. You can use the space for storage of anything from table linens to small appliances, to food. Some families even use the space to store board games, art supplies, or school supplies. Because both breakfast nook chairs and benches can be good additions to your breakfast nook set, they are often combined.

Once you have decided on your breakfast nook dining set, there are other kinds of kitchen furniture to consider for the breakfast nook. Depending on how large the space is, you could add several other furniture pieces. For example, you could add a small console table under the windows to hold plants or a small herb garden. The table could obviously not be very deep, but even a small surface is handy for displaying small tabletop decorations or pictures. Another possibility is a pantry cabinet. If your kitchen cabinetry does not include a pantry, then you need a free standing pantry cabinet and often the space where the kitchen bleeds into the breakfast nook is the perfect place for such a piece of furniture. If your breakfast nook is especially large, you might even have room for a sideboard or storage cabinet.

Once you have furnished your kitchen with a breakfast nook set, you need start thinking about ways to decorate the space by adding color and texture. The easiest way to do this is with window treatments. Most breakfast nooks have many windows since that is one of the characteristics of such a room. The window treatments are necessary to block out direct sunlight while people are sitting at the table and they offer a large canvas for a decorator. You can add both color and texture to the room as well as hep tie the breakfast nook to the kitchen easily. First, most homeowners choose blinds rather than curtains for their main window treatments, so they must use valances to add their color and texture. Window valances come in many shapes and you are sure to be able to find one that matches your decorating style in the rest of the house. The other decorating benefit that valances have is that they can help with lines to tie the breakfast nook to the kitchen. If you hang your valances so that they are level with the top of the kitchen cabinets, then the eye can flow easily from one room to the other.

Other than window treatments, there are several other utilitarian items in the breakfast nook that can be used as decorations. Chair cushions and place mats can also add color, texture, and personality to the room. You can change the cushion covers and place mats often with the seasons or holidays because they do not take up much room in storage and small changes can make a big difference in how a room looks. You can also use the breakfast nook furniture itself as a possible decorating outlet. For example, accent tiles in a tabletop or the paint color on wooden furniture can be decorating elements.

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