The lady of the house spends half her time in the kitchen preparing delicacies for all to savor. And the results of those efforts are evident in the dining room, with the aroma of those delicacies floating up from the dining table to your eagerly waiting olfactory organs. What quietly lies underneath is the unassuming dining table, bearing its stately wares with a grace and elegance that belies its own very exquisite nature.

The dining table – a much used piece of which never fails to add that touch of class to your living room. Witness to a thousand family get-togethers, the dining table joins its partners, the in making your living room just that – a living place. Who could do away with the family dinners, the birthday parties and the social dos?

So just what goes into making this particular piece of furniture so special? Let us start by examining some of the prevalent methods for dining over various parts of the world.

A number of societies do not use a dining table at all. Meals are served on the ground, with a small mat or a small stool kept underneath the plate. This tradition is more visible in the Eastern countries. While the Chinese and Japanese have very elaborate dining customs, the formality of customs per se are less elaborate in South East Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Here, too, a mat may be all there is to sit on and have your meals, especially in the rural areas where these customs still hold well. Move further west, and we have the Islamic nations. The concept here is generally to eat from a common plate to show a spirit of one-ness amongst each other. Europe and America, however, have had and dining chairs as far as anyone can remember. It is in Europe, perhaps, that the tradition of having a dining table originated in the first place. It is the urban societies everywhere that have taken to this convenient piece of furniture for their daily usage.

So is it just a dining table we are talking about here? No sir, not really- not if you take your mind back to the years gone by in your own house. Used as a study table, discussion table, getting banged to gain attention, having teenagers throwing their plates at it, as a Table Tennis table… what all hasn’t your dining table gone through? Jumping kids, heated discussions, intimate moments, massive spills, chances are your table has seen it all, and more yet!

Since it is such an indispensable little thing, you might as well as go and buy yourself one NOW. Assuming, of course, that you haven’t one already.

Having made your decision thus, you have a choice between choosing a rectangular or a round table. Or an oval shaped one v/s a square one. Wooden, Molded Wood, Wrought Iron, Metal or Glass? Should you buy a color matching with the rest of the furniture, or would a contrast look better? Maybe it should go with the curtains instead.

Spare yourself the agony and hire an interior designer for the best possible advice. Unless, of course, you enjoy the challenge of setting up your home all by yourself. In which case, your dining room furniture is a privileged lot!