A dining set is a few matched or coordinated pieces of furniture for your dining room, much like a bedroom set or a drawing room set. If you have a separate dining room or large dining area, it makes sense to buy a dining room set consisting of a dining room table and chairs, perhaps a hutch, sideboard crockery cabinet, buffet, dresser or chest of drawers or a display cabinet to go along with it.

Buying a dining room set can be beneficial for a couple of reasons; for one the pieces of furniture are coordinated and match each other, thereby giving an attractive and harmonious appearance and for another you may sometimes be able to avail of a discount since you are buying more than one item of furniture. Matching pieces of furniture in the dining room gives a more complete and stylish look to the room or area.

While the most basic requirement for your dining room is obviously the table and the chairs, it helps to make the area more organized by adding certain items like a crockery cabinet where you can house your precious china and keep is safe from dust and breakage. A hutch or a side board, or even a chest of drawers will give you sufficient storage for your cutlery, table linen and other dining related items when not in use. These other items of dining room furniture can also provide the surface to display your decorative pieces or any objet d'art you may want to display, such as a focus lamp, or some photo frames, vases or, antiques. It also gives you the luxury of space when entertaining, so that you can keep extra glasses or plates or a cold salad etc. on the sideboard for people to help themselves as and when they please.

A dining set need not necessarily be very elaborate and ornate and it need not have too many pieces of furniture. However, for a large, formal dining room, there may be a requirement for several pieces of furniture lest the area is left looking bare and incomplete. Traditional furniture also gives the aspect of formality to a room so that should be taken into account when you decide what kind of dining room furniture you want to buy and how many pieces of furniture. A formal dining area can also carry off the 8 seater dining table and chair concept; either a square dining table with 2 chairs for each side of the table or a rectangular table with three chairs on either side and two chairs at each end.

For a more informal dining area, say if your kitchen is open plan and blends seamlessly into the dining area, more casual furniture may the appropriate. For the more casual dining area, such as a dinette or similar, you may want to consider a square, four seater table rather than the usual six. Then perhaps the only accompaniment to the dining table and chairs that you need is something like a drinks trolley that is both portable and practical as well as versatile enough to be wheeled from one to another room as per your requirement.