Choose the right dining set for your home

An attendant walks past a dining set in the Danube Homes showroom recently. Photo by Promise Twinamukye

What you need to know:

  • The right dining set will not only give your family a good meal time experience, but also enhance the beauty of the room.
  • The feel will be as that of the temperature in the room or place.” Joseph Leo Felix, a store manager and retail home furnishing expert at Danube Homes says.

When you are going to buy a dining set, there are several things you need to consider. It is better to buy a narrow dining table with enough space for extension than buying a wider one with not enough space and people have to literally squeeze themselves out of the chairs.

Therefore considering your dining area space is vital for having a comfortable dining time.
One also has to put into consideration the height of the chairs they are going to use on the dining table.

This removes the uneasiness of having to stuff your legs when you sit or having to stiff your neck to comfortably eat your food at the table. This is mostly common when you buy chairs and the table separately, that you find the table too low and the chairs too high or wide and do not match. For example, if you have a three feet table, the chair has to be two feet from the ground to the chair seat and one foot from the chair seat to the table.

Therefore, three primary things one should look at keenly are the chairs, table and the dining space for a perfect dining area. There are different makes of dinning sets and they include the following;

Marble
In the market, you will find genuine marble and artificial marble tables. The difference is simple.
“When you touch the real marble table in an air condition free room, you will get a chilly feel on your hands. This is not the same with artificial marble.

The feel will be as that of the temperature in the room or place.” Joseph Leo Felix, a store manager and retail home furnishing expert at Danube Homes says.
A six seater real marble table with suede chairs all with metal legs go for about shs10m upscale price in Kampala city centre.

The six seater artificial marble with leather chairs and wooden legs goes for Shs6m upscale price.
Along Hoima road, marble table sets including 4, 6 and 8 seater tables set range from Shs3.5m to Shs8m.

Wood
There are two types of wood here; solid and medium density fireboard that looks like wood but manufactured. While the “artificial wood” can be long-lasting, it solely depends on the maintenance since it can easily crack and can eventually give up as more hot foods are served from it, making solid wood more reliable.

A lacquer coated solid white wood extendable dining table that accommodates six to eight people goes for an upscale price Shs10.7m and comes with leather seats with metal legs gives your dining area an elegant look.
General upscale price for wooden dining table sets range from Shs2m to Shs11m along Kampala road.

A full set of these start from Shs800, 000 from different online shops.
Wooden sets range from Shs900, 000 to Shs2.5m in shops along Hoima Road. In that price range, you can get a 4 seater, 6 and 8 seater dining table set.

Glass
Glass tables look classy and shows more open room feel since they are transparent or flashy. They need high maintenance too because as they get scratches and wear out and leave fingerprints especially when cleaning, they do not look attractive anymore. A good dining table though can stay up to 10 years with proper maintenance or without clumsiness.
The upmarket price for a glass dining table set is from Shs1.5m along Kampala road. Dining table pieces range from EUR80 (about Shs340, 000) to EUR1900 (about Shs8m) from online shops.

It is always a better choice to buy a complete set of the dining table and seats especially when you are starting a new home or making a restructure. However, if you need to change seats for your table for a change of environment and look, you can always reach out the market to buy that furniture you need. Another option you have is that instead of chairs, get a pair of benches for your dining table and the area would look equally great.

The places

In upscale market, when most of the sets are imported as one set, it is hard to get single pieces unless they were imported as such.
In our local market, you can get yourself customised dining tables or chairs for your dining area.
Note that the above types are the more common types of dinner table set, there are other types like plastic among others.