The dining table is the center of attraction of your living room. The furniture you keep is a reflection of your personality, and the dining table that of the lady of the house. It is the lady who spends most of 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 the façade of the tablecloth is the unassuming dining table, bearing the weight of its stately wares without as much as a grimace.

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. While the Chinese and Japanese have very elaborate dining customs, the 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. The emphasis is clearly on functionality rather than grandeur. The practical aspects of serving a hot meal straight from the kitchen make this a very sensible method of serving food.

Move further west, and we find the people of the Islamic nations generally eat from a common plate. The aim is to show a spirit of one-ness amongst each other. Europe and America, however, have had dining tables 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!

The dining table - a much used piece of dining room furniture 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 dining chairs, 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?

They come in all shapes and sizes. Rectangular and round. Oval shaped v/s square. Wooden, Molded Wood, Wrought Iron, Metal or Glass, just to name a few. The variety of furniture available is vast. You could have a color matching with the rest of the furniture, or a contrast would enliven things a bit. It could even go with the curtains instead. The decision is yours to make. The dining table and chairs will elegantly and quietly do their jobs of making your living room come alive, as well as looking after your family with no strings attached.