New Homes Raleigh NC
Formal Dining Rooms
Top Trends, Styles, and Ideas for Your New Home
If you're adding decorative touches to at least one room in your new home, consider the place where you meet to eat: the formal dining room.
A formal dining room often sets the tone for the rest of the home, as the place your family, friends and special guests gather for a while to relax while they eat.
It is also nearly always located very prominently near the front entrance of your new home, where your special touches will be noticed right away.

Archway entrances to the formal dining room emphasize sweeping lines and open space, setting the dining room apart as a separate entertaining area.
Multiple color treatments and an unusual darker accent for the crown moulding and baseboard give the dining area a luxurious feel.
Picture frame wainscoating adds more depth and formal appeal, when it uses a deeper tone in the same color range.

The arch theme works especially well when it is carried from the front entrance to the formal dining room.
Chair rail adds another layer of contrast that blends the color scheme.
The paint tones work well with the site finished hardwood flooring.
Watch a video tour of this home - click here.
Dramatic lighting, a multi-dimensional tray ceiling, and lots of openings accent this formal dining room.
The built in Butler's Pantry in painted, glazed maple offers plenty of storage space for china and crystal ware, with a display area above.
A cut out window in your new home adds more spaciousness through natural light, drawing further attention to the dining room.
Watch a video tour of this home - click here.

Grecian pillars add elegance and dimension. Different designs change the dining room's personality. This one features cherry wood inlay at the bottom of the pillars, for a bolder setting.
This dining room features a simple crown moulding, two tone color scheme with dark red contrast, and picture frame wainscoating.
A trey ceiling would add additional depth and complexity.

A well planned dining room can even accomodate for furniture, such as an heirloom dining room chest or a fabulous china hutch you'd like to set apart.
Your builder can add a furniture niche, with angles that really set apart crown moulding and wainscoating.
Even if the rest of your new home is painted neutral, your dining room can be the one spark of color that stands out - even if it's just a darker neutral.
Take advantage of all the possibilities for your dining room in your new home. You may be surprised at how much you can do, without a lot of cost.
Before you build, tour homes and take photos of your favorite ideas.
Bring them to your builder along with pictures from magazines or websites, when you talk about your floor plan.
A good builder can help you plan a perfect dining room that fits your entertaining style and budget, with details that will make your new home a very special place - beginning with your dining room.
More new home design ideas:
Kitchen Islands - New Home Trends and Ideas
Top Trends in New Homes | Smaller, Cozier, and More Cost Effective!
Top 10 Master Bathroom Trends - Ideas You're Going to Love!
"Green" Countertop Options | Green Kitchen Countertops in Your New Home
Golf Course Communities – New Homes on a Golf Course in Raleigh
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Articles copyright Stanton Homes 2006-2011. Unauthorized use is not permitted. Provided for informational purposes only, no claims are made by Stanton Homes regarding the validity of any statements. Please note: all listing information per MLS, and current as of posting date. Information subject to change. Stanton Homes does not make claims to ownership of any lot listings, but can work with homebuyers to purchase available lots and build. Home plans to be approved on an individual basis, subject to neighborhood restrictive covenants and lot restrictions. Ask for further information regarding any community, lot or floor plan. Photos represent typical homes and details of each neighborhood, to help highlight different options available in the Raleigh/Triangle area. No claim of ownership is made to homes or land pictured.







Before we designed our home we had a notebook with 2 sections...The real house has_______and The Real House does NOT have....things we loved and incorporated and things we never wanted...swatches, samples...it was fun !
I like the Grecian feel and butlers pantry and heirloom picture with the subtle wainscotting. Around here, many sellers have turned the dining room into an alternative use room because formal entertaining seems to focus around the big screen TV. Love your pictures, nice post.
We like to entertain, so a Butler's Pantry is a must!
Penny, know you're talking my favorite place in the house!! You do such a fantastic job of describing what is available to folks as they begin their plans to build a new home! You have a great eye for style!
Hello,
Terrific article on formal dining rooms. Your presentation and advice was very nicely done. Thank you for sharing it with us. Your post will be very helpful to buyers who are planning on building a new home & will give them ideas for their dining room.
Rita
Sally & David - I love the idea of what NOT to include too! Half the fun is planning ahead, isn't it.
Kathy - the formal dining room lost some popularity over the past couple of years, but seems to be making a little bit of a comeback as entertaining starts to focus on the home again. Then again, so much of the entertaining still revolves around the kitchen!