15 Small Living Rooms That Make Space for a Dining Table, Too

If you’re hunting for an apartment in any major city — from New York to San Francisco, Seattle to Boston, Chicago to Honolulu — you’re likely coming to terms with the fact that true standalone dining rooms are a pipe dream. After all, small apartments rarely prioritize this formal space; with many floorplans ranging under 750 square feet in these markets, you’ll be luckier to squeeze more room out of your living room. But as anyone living in these cities knows, the best dinner parties are often held at home — in inventive setups that feel truly cozy. 

There are many ways to carve out a dining area seemingly out of thin air. From obsessing over your chairs to discovering convertible furniture pieces, you can fit more than ever into your living room space. Creating a hybrid living-dining space usually starts, however, with your layout. Below, experts share genius layout plans to max out square footage for lounging and eating.

From there, styling tips can indeed help you find ways to fit a full dining table into a small living room. Follow along with ideas straight from the Apartment Therapy house tour archives, where real families have discovered plenty of ways to combine a living and dining room space. So pull up a (dinner) chair and get ready to rethink your living room — it’s time to get creative.

Have an empty corner? That’s the perfect spot for a tiny dining table. Look for a bistro style, which is compact but large enough to fit at least two people.

If you truly don’t have an inch of space to spare for a dining nook, it’s time to go double duty. All you have to do is invest in a coffee table that’s suitable for eating on — you might consider a style with a lift-up top, which can make dining superconvenient. Your sofa becomes like a bench or banquette at mealtime.

Typically, furniture is placed perpendicularly to walls in a room. But sometimes, you can eke out a little extra square footage if you work with more of an angular arrangement. Try putting your furniture on the diagonal to open up an area for a dining table. Using a round table helps with flow, since there won’t be sharp angles to navigate around.

You might not be able to fit a full-size dining table into your small living room. But a long, narrow table? That might be more doable, particularly if you’re willing to use the space right behind your sofa.

This one’s called the behind-the-sofa banquette, and that’s exactly how you pull it off. Place a bench directly against the back of your sofa and float the compact table in front of that. Pull up two chairs for extra seating; choosing styles with low profiles will allow you to tuck them into the table.

It’s possible to create space out of thin air in a living room for a small dining area. Here’s how 15 real-life Apartment Therapy house tour subjects made this magic happen in their homes.

A full dining table fitting into a small living room is a hard puzzle to solve — but a coffee table is usually too low for formal seating. Find a happy middle ground by pivoting to what is known as a bistro table, a circular tabletop that crests 30″ in height and seats up to four. In this 600-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, a full bistro table and seating set is nestled into the corner of a formal living room. The same space could not function with a full-sized dining table, but works perfectly with a kitty-cornered cafe table.

Fitting dining room chairs can be tricky in a living room — but in this blended Manhattan studio apartment, a custom banquette-style solution works wonders. The family created a custom tile frame that’s just wide enough to act as a daybed for guests, but even if you do a standard-sized banquette bench, that’s a smart way to create seating for up to four guests with just a few inches of wall-hugging floorspace.

If there is a will, there is a way. If your living room flows into the kitchen but has a small wall divider, use that partition to your advantage. Carve out a dining room space with accents: Hang a chandelier over your table, add a mirror or painting right in front, and wedge in a petite bar cart into the corner. All of these details (as seen in this gorgeous Barcelona home) signal that this is a separate dining area and not part of the living room.

The general mentality with a small space is “less is more.” But that’s not always the case. If you need to sandwich in a dining table, don’t be afraid to layer your furniture like Tim Thorpe did in this Melbourne apartment. You need to use the space as much as possible, after all. This rectangular dining table sits near a bookcase packed with books and a shelf that serves as a handy place to hang hats. It’s cozy, and it looks just right.

To make your dining area look like a separate space from the rest of the living room, try hanging a sideboard on the wall and accenting it with art as seen in this Brooklyn apartment. Hanging the sideboard takes up less space, and it also gives you a chance to add extra decor. You can also use the floating shelf to hold side dishes or wine bottles during dinner parties.

Loving these suggestions? Design Defined is our insider’s look into the latest style and decor trends — sign up now.

Do you have a sliding balcony door or a giant window? Don’t worry if your dining room setup blocks it a little — it won’t look awkward if done right. Here Heather Knight-Willcock used a low bench on the side that is blocking the balcony door, making it a minimal obstruction in her California condo.

If you have very limited space to fit in a dining table, go where the light is. Create a sun nook for your dining experience (like the renters did in this Brooklyn home) by setting up thin benches along the wall (to take up as little space as possible) and a single chair on the outside.

Rather than picking out bulky seating that will expand the circumference of your table, choose seating that will tuck right in and take up minimal space. These rolling chairs, which are in this stunning historic Charleston home, are great because they tuck underneath the table, but also make a statement with their geometric design.

Sometimes there is no natural place to stick your table, so you have to get creative. In their Hong Kong home, Thierry Chow and Peter Yuill prove that placing a small table with stools next to the stairs is a creative spot to dine, but it also looks right.

Ditch the chairs and go with L-shaped benches to cut back on bulk. This family lives in a 264-square-foot tiny home, and they make do with a small circular table when it comes to meals. Not only does it look airy and roomy, but no one looks cramped when they’re sitting in it!

When you have a small space, you have to allow yourself to get creative and break some design rules. The common thought is that if you have furniture touching, then you have too much in the room. But that’s not the case when there’s limited square footage involved. In this Chicago home, Devin and Chad have their shelving unit pressed right up against their dining table and couch — but the space still flows. It looks cozy and eclectic.

An easy way to say “this is the dining room” is to use a rug to designate the space. Have fun with the colors of the area rug to make your small room pop — just like in this incredible Los Angeles home.

While Cara technically has a traditional, two-person dining table in the galley kitchen of her 405-square-foot Philadelphia studio apartment, if she ever wants to have a larger dinner party, she has another trick up her sleeve. The coffee table — which is actually a bench — in her quaint but stylish living room can double as a place to put food, thanks to a wooden board on top. Guests (or Cara if she’s eating solo!) can rest plates or cups on the sturdy board without worrying about them tipping over or staining the bench below.

Even though Austin Larkin’s New York City apartment is only 240 square feet, that wouldn’t stop him from including a dining table in the space. The West Elm circular table (which has since been discontinued) can comfortably sit two chairs, but Austin purchased a set of four gorgeous, orange, stackable options from Wayfair. They can be placed around the apartment for storage or other seating solutions when they’re not in use.

Professional stager Jason Saft shares this 475-square-foot studio apartment with his daughter, Liora. So it was likely necessary to have a table for her to do homework or to share a meal. His dining area setup, which is right next to the living space, is a great example of how to use walls. What could’ve just been a blank wall was the perfect spot for the banquette and the CB2 Babylon dining table. If you have a free wall, use it to your advantage!