Despite their fairly obvious furniture requirements (e.g., table and chairs), dining rooms are a fantastic space to highlight your decorating style. And, because the dining room centers around food, it’s almost a guarantee that people will be able to experience and appreciate that style regularly, if not constantly.

Even more than a main venue for eating, however, the dining room table often plays a major role in the lives of family members. It’s a space for crafts, artwork, homework, projects, board games, and so much more.

Particularly for an active family, the dining table will probably take a beating over the years, which is why it’s important to choose one that can do so gracefully while retaining dignity and style. The farmhouse dining table is a prime candidate for such environments…and opportunities for style:

Elegant & Sophisticated.

Paired with dark sheer drapes, plenty of ambient mood lighting, and nailhead-trimmed leather French chairs, this chunky farmhouse table is brought instantly into the realm of chic and sophisticated. It doesn’t look out of place, though, because of a similarly crafted bench and a partially exposed brick wall. The stone floor also continues the natural elements through the space.

Organically Simple.

Embrace the simplicity that is meant to be, with a farmhouse table. Although there is a lot to be said for interesting juxtapositions in home décor, sometimes when we work with the style that something naturally is, rather than against it, the overall vibe is enhanced into one striking and charming whole.

This is the case here. Paired with simple wooden dining chairs and natural pieces on top, the rugged farmhouse table is inviting…I can easily picture many cozy and entertaining conversations and family game nights held around this table.

Unexpected & Modern.

An enormous spindle-legged plank farmhouse table is probably the last thing one would expect to see in this contemporary windowed dining space, and yet now that we’ve seen it here, it’s hard to imagine any table working better. Bridging the gap between indoor/outdoor, like the room itself, the table provides an aesthetically pleasing blend of warm-toned rustic charm and classic leather-chaired minimalism.

Natural & Airy.

If you can’t beat ’em…join ’em, and make them look great as a result. (If tables could talk, I think this one might chant that regularly.) In this enclosed vaulted ceiling dining room, a mossy wall color immediately brings nature to the forefront.

Antique or distressed wooden chairs, a sliding wood barn door, candle chandelier, and loads of natural light all combine to definitely blur the line between inside and outside. A farmhouse dining table is substantial enough to hold its own in the vast room while helping to tie all the other natural elements (including the great branchy-fabric upholstered chairs) together.

DIY Perfection.

This shining beauty of a table used to be an old ugly tile-topped number. The chairs, too, were similarly unfortunately finished. But a little paint and stain goes a long way in creating a superstylish farmhouse dining table like this one. Styled here with with simple topiaries in natural containers and a beautifully grained hardwood floor, there really is not much that’s more natural-looking than this.

Picture sources: 1, 2, 3, 4,5, 6, 7, 8.