Dining room: making the most out of a small space

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Modern Farmhouse
HDB (BTO)
~900 sqft
3 br
Living with Family

Hello! So we are going to introduce our dining room to you this week ☺️ As I mentioned before, our dining space is really small, so we had to put a lot of careful thought into the furniture and layout. Firstly, we needed an extendable dining table that could fit more guests when extended, yet small enough to still fit into the tiny space when not extended. We finally found this in Ikea. Furthermore, the simple woody style fit our theme perfectly and it is also very affordable! However, it was always out of stock. I remember stalking the ikea website diligently and the moment we saw it was back in stock again, we drove down to ikea straightaway and got it. As for the dining chairs, it is also really cheap and we got it from Shopee. Along the way, there were thoughts of swapping the dining chairs to rattan ones which are so popular these days, but we eventually decided to stick with it. These chairs are not only affordable, its also comfortable.
One of the most striking things about our dining room would be the lovely posters on the wall. Initially, we were torn between having these posters or wooden shelves to display either decor or the pretty/aesthetic things in our kitchen. We are happy to have chosen this in the end, as many other dining rooms nowadays have arch displays on the walls so this is more unique I guess? Haha. The rattan lamp here is from Ikea. The dining room is so small that one lamp is enough 😆
To maximise space in the dining room, we placed our snacks in a trolley. They were initially all placed in a large rattan tray on the dining table, but eventually the snacks started spilling out of the rattan tray and the dining table looked so crowded and cluttered! Having a separate snack trolley was visually more appealing and also allowed us to place [read: buy] more snacks and tidbits without having them spill out. The ikea trolley is very good for such a purpose.
However, we eventually switched our snack trolley to a white one [from Shopee] to match the dining room/kitchen aesthetics better. This white trolley is foldable and so simple to set up. No installation is required, and just a simple “unfolding” of the trolley sufficed.
Right at the entrance of our kitchen is our little coffee nook. We were so happy to find this kitchen cart trolley from Ikea. It wasn’t easy to find a pantry island that would fit in this small space. Also really loving this small wooden shelf from Taobao, where we store our tea and coffee needs, toothpicks and pills. This little nook is also home to the coffee machine, the husband’s Nespresso capsules and the Philips blender, which is used to blend/steam baby’s food. The 4 rattan baskets below are used to store more beverages, eg. my favourite green tea 💚
This photo features a recent hosting session, where I finally got to use our table runner and placemats. ☺️
Showcasing all our tableware now! Hahaha we bought all our tableware from many different stores. I think most of the items in this picture are from 3littlepicks!
This was the night we celebrated our first night moving in and staying at our house. Featuring our plates from 3littlepicks once again.
Ah this plate is from Table Matters, which I am sure is not unfamiliar to most of you.
These textured bowls and plates are from Only Till Then. But I don’t think they are in stock anymore.
The terrazzo bowl is from Shopee, the pineapple plate is from Shop Mint Home, the cup with eyelashes is from 3littlepicks and the 7-up & Pepsi cups are from Roomier.
White scallop plate and bowl is from Table Matters.
And the cat plate in the dish rack is from Tangs. [ PS. There are so many nice and pretty plates and bowls at Tangs and Takashimaya!]