Even as the weather warms, let's face it, it's not practical to dine outdoors all the time (though we'd love to). But one way you can design your indoors to maximize connection to the outdoors is to arrange an eating area next to a window. Meals are often the only time in the day when we sit down with others, take it easy, and really linger in our surroundings. If your table's at a window, you're that much more likely to enjoy the great outdoors in the process. Here are a few dining-at-the-window ideas that might just inspire you to connect with the outdoors even when you have to eat indoors this summer...
FIRST ROW:
• 1 Better Homes and Gardens
• 2 Better Homes and Gardens
• 3 Country Living
• 4 Desire to Inspire
• 5 High Fashion Home
SECOND ROW:
• 6 Apartment Therapy Chicago
• 7 Crown Point cabinetry
• 8 Loft Life
• 9 Veranda magazine
• 10 Coastal Living
THIRD ROW:
• 11 Richie Design
• 12 Willow Decor
• 13 Nibs blog
• 14 Darling Darleen, originally from Better Homes and Gardens May 2007
• 15 Old House Web
Dirty Little Secrets of Tidy Families
Hillary & Michael's Refined Roost
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Nomade Express Slee...
How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa
How to Make Buckwheat Soba Noodles from Scratch
I want a banquet dining table in a window so bad I can (hah!) taste it.
I still prefer the Dining Al Fresco for the summer but it's not always an option for everyone.
In this case I think that huge windows in the dining room can sure help connecting with the outdoors.
Here are two of my favorite dining rooms in NY and SF:
http://www.houzz.com/photos/19565/Connecticut-House-eclectic-dining-room-new-york
http://www.houzz.com/photos/18878/Feldman-Architecture-modern-dining-room-san-francisco
I'm actually willing to "live" in each one of them...
I've been fantasizing about a room like #15 for a couple of decades, now. (Sometimes with, sometimes without the blond.) I'd compromise on *so* much else for a room like that. I'd also settle for numbers 1 and 10. Sigh.
OMG. I meant to say that #10 is the fantasy, 1 and 7 are aksi great.
It's hard to pick a favorite among these. What I'd really like to do is have a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal at each table for a couple of weeks.
It's already getting too hot and humid here (Houston) to eat outside comfortably, and the mosquitoes manage chew us pieces on the days when the weather cooperates. I'm grateful for the windows in my dining area.
Love #8, Loft Life.
Just looks so warm and inviting and comfortable. I wouldn't want my kitchen/dining nook to be a cold, stark place. I want it to be a place I'd want to spend time in, not an uncomfortable place that I want to get out of.
My window seat is usually at a restaurant!
I am in love with the 6th pic. The 2 - tone wall is amazing.
#13 is the breakfast area in Barrie Benson's home as featured in Domino magazine a couple years back -
I love everything about that room (and her house) including those flagstone floors which were original to the house and the dining chairs upholstered in Chiang Mai Dragon.
Thanks to "bepsf" for mentioning the fabric name on the chairs! I've been trying to locate the fabric type on those chairs ever since I bought the Domino book a couple of months ago -that room is awesome! I plan to get two chairs made just like those!!
I have one dining room with NO view....but of my neighbors going up the steps. I just keep the curtains closed all the time.
The dining spaces featuered here either big or small looks ravishing. Very chic and practical.