Fall Dining Room Inspiration For a Simple Gathering

Our dining room is finished!! It’s been quite a while since we last shared this space, and a lot has changed… more on that in a minute! Today, we are sharing our dining room styled for a simple gathering- with Thanksgiving right around the corner, we hope this post inspires you to create something beautiful for your friends and family!

By making just a few simple changes in here, we were able to create a welcoming space with balance and contrast that is a perfect foundation all year round.

Get the Look

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Warm Wood Tones

First, we sanded down our two-toned table (if you followed along in Instagram stories, you know this was quite the process haha!) You can read about our dining table process here.

We also added the same combination of stain to our DIY console table so now the two pieces of furniture seamlessly blend.

Contrast

We knew we wanted to bring in contrast to this space with our dining chairs, with so many wood tones going on with our floors, table, console table, and stacked firewood, we chose to go with a modern black dining chair and we couldn’t love these more! We love the matte finish on them and how beautiful the wood grain is… they are also really comfortable with their curved back and substantial in weight so the boys can’t knock them over!

We also brought in contrast by adding a large vase on our console table to tie in the black dining chairs.

Balance

Since our table isn’t centered with this wall in our dining room, we needed to bring balance into the space. We chose these candle wall sconces to hang on either side of our propped mirror… we love the warmth they bring and how they also tie into our pendant. Does this frame look familiar? We swapped out the artwork for a mirror we had made at our local glass shop- adding a mirror into this space helped open up and bring this wall to life by reflecting the outdoors.

Place Settings

Don’t get overwhelmed with thinking you have to have a formal place setting… beautiful dinnerware and linens can add so much to your tabletop and by keeping thing simple, you can create a layered and welcoming setting by just sticking with the essentials. We love the organic feel to this dinnerware set, and by layering the linen napkin in between the plates, we are creating contrast that ties in with our fall-inspired centerpiece.

Notice how the gold flatware ties in with the tea light candle holders, taper candles and the leaves in the centerpiece.

Menu, a simple meal for an intentional gathering

To keep things more casual, we opted for a simple meal- a fig pizza. We elevated the place settings a bit by creating a really simple menu at home. We designed the menu, stained card-stock paper with coffee, printed the menu at home after the paper dried overnight, tore the edges for an organic feel, printed name cards on velum paper that attached to the menu with a small gold paperclip. Stay tuned for the free printable and a more in-depth DIY coming soon!

I love incorporating seasonal fruit into a centerpiece. Here, we added fresh figs to a small bowl which serves as practical decor that also allows your guests the option for additional toppings on their salad or pizza.

While this time of year tends to bring more family gatherings, we replaced the books on our console table shelf with overflow dinnerware- I love how the white dinnerware pops against the wood tones.

We balanced the black and brown vases by adding fallen pinecones to a small black bowl- nature really is the best decor.

Candlelight

There’s nothing more calming than enjoying a meal together around candlelight. Use varying heights by incorporating both tapers and tea-light candles.