Photography: Simon Whitbread / Styling: Jamee Deaves
Over the years, the traditional formal dining room has evolved into a more relaxed, multi-functional space that used for eating, relaxing and working—but are the tables turning back again? 2025 is seeing a surprising return of the formal dining room and more intentional meal times.
As we enter 2025, we take you through five of the biggest dining room trends you’re about to see everywhere.
1. Formal dining rooms
According to Neale Whitaker, the formal dining room is back. The interior designer and Love it or List It host recently took to Instagram to share his 2025 interior design trend predictions, where he highlighted the return of the dining space as a separate room. “Separate dining rooms—not dining zones, not little areas leading off the kitchen—but good, old-fashioned dining rooms are back,” Whitaker explained.
The return of the formal dining space seems to be part of a greater shift away from open-plan living, which is seeing more of us gravitate towards more individualised spaces. The shift might be a reaction to our post-Covid-19 era of working and relaxing in the exact same space—which may also be occupied by other members of the household. It may also indicate a desire for a more intentional dining space that isn’t conducive to our phones and other screens that rule our lives. Plus, a separate dining room also keeps the kitchen mess out of view.
2. Round dining tables
Curves are making their way into every aspect of interior design—including the dining room, with the classic long rectangular dining table officially being replaced by more modest round styles. The compact design of round dining tables doesn’t only benefit small spaces (which more of us are living in thanks to the rise in housing prices) but also offer a more intimate setting for group conversations.
3. Textured seating
Weaved textures such as rattan and wicker were identified as one of the year’s biggest interior trends in Home Beautiful’s 2025 design forecast and the dining area is one of the areas we’re seeing this trend really take hold. As a traditionally coastal texture, rattan is well suited to relaxed Australian dining settings, with everything from mid-century inspired teak dining chairs to cosy cane armchairs bringing the material into the dining room.
4. Banquette seating
(Photography: Louise Roche / Styling: Kylie Jackes)
The popularity of banquette seating has been rising for a little while now and it’s not going anywhere in 2025. With it’s space-saving abilities, banquette seating suits all styles and sizes of kitchen and is known to be a family-friendly seating option as well—convincing your kids to sit at the table isn’t hard when it feels like a couch.
5. A pop of colour
As we move away from the ‘sad-beige’ aesthetic that has dominated our homes over the last 15 years, we’re seeing more colour enter our dining rooms. In this space, it tends to be painted wood that reigns, with often a brightly painted wooden dining chair bringing some brightness to our daily meals. A pop of unexpected red or yellow work particularly well but there’s nothing stopping you from branching out to the rest of the colour wheel.
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