In particular, designers and homeowners alike can’t seem to resist the pull of mismatched dining sets. Dining tables with varying seating, from benches to different style chairs, add a real charm to dining areas. Perhaps it’s the nearly limitless possibilities or the fact that you can create a practically bespoke arrangement in your dining room that adds to its pull.

Photography credit to Pinterest.

This trend offers home owners and interior designers the opportunity to experiment within their own boundaries. However, this limitless freedom can seem quite daunting. 

Try matching dining chairs in pairs. Two sets of alternating chairs have enough of a variation. This method is distinctly less overwhelming and chaotic than buying four or more individual chairs and ending up dissatisfied with the finished results. 

Photography credit to Pinterest

Photography credit to Pinterest.

When starting out try and design a scheme for the whole room first, especially those with kitchen-diners. The organised chaos that works so well around your dining table is overwhelming when applied to the whole room. Use the design scheme or statement features such as the dining table and kitchen cabinets that have already been implemented in the room to educate decisions about which chairs to use. The table itself, in particular, is a great indicator of the kind of materials that might be used for seating, a marble top, for instance, may not lend itself so easily to wooden chairs.

Mismatched dining is exciting because it’s both slightly chaotic and yet cohesive. Everyone likes to add a bit of disorder to their life and with mismatched dining, there are almost no stringent rules. Except for one. The singular rule to stick to is to keep your chair heights consistent.

Ultimately, these stylish features still need to serve their intended purpose: to be comfortable for dining, and if they make the dining experience feel socially awkward then they certainly aren’t achieving that purpose.