17 Best Dining Tables 2024: GQ’s Dining Table Buying Guide

Contemporary and chic, Heal’s Madrid is the ideal centrepiece for a contemporary or industrial kitchen, keeping things interesting with splayed metal legs that have varying widths. Adding depth and dimension it draws in your eyes, with the legs being the real stand-out feature here. We’re also loving the fact you can customise the design to your space, whether by choosing the finish or size, something which has been instrumental in why Heal’s is now one of our favourite furniture stores. Each piece is unique, with its own natural grain pattern, and given your home is too, it seems like the perfect fit. From £2,039 £1,629. At heals.com

Dunelm Bryant Dining Table

• Seats: Up to 4
• Material: Mango Wood Effect, Metal Frame and Legs
• Dimensions: H 76.5cm x W 150cm x D 80cm
• Weight: 23.1kg

Industrial-style furniture has really had a hold on us this year, and while it tends to be associated more with office furniture, you needn’t just consider these pieces for your workspace. In classic metal-legs-meet-wooden-tabletop design, Dunelm’s Bryant brings the urban, city-living vibes of the aesthetic to the kitchen. Affordable, at under £250, and well-made, this is a dining table for those who want some subtle style points, but don’t want to splash out on a real statement maker. £215. At dunelm.com

John Lewis Estate 4 Seater Round Dining Table

• Seats: Up to 4
• Material: Oak, Oak Veneer, MDF
• Dimensions: H 75cm x W 120cm x D 120cm
• Weight: 31kg

If you pictured a kitchen table when you started reading this section, this one from John Lewis is probably exactly what you had in mind. The most typical style of kitchen table, it’s got a nice round design with that bright pine colour that feels light and fresh for your morning breakfast stop. The warmer, lighter wood feels more rustic and relaxed and fits into a more countryside-inspired kitchen than a more formal one. Sometimes all you want is just a classic style done really well. £799. At johnlewis.com

What type of dining table is best?

There’s no one definitive style of dining table that’s best. It all depends on your own personal tastes, how big your eating space is, the number of people you need to fit around the table, and whether or not you need it to be extendable for when extra guests appear.

Farmhouse styles can look great for a more subtle, yet still sophisticated look, while in a more minimalist kitchen or dining room you may want something with a sleek contemporary feel. To help, we’ve broken down a few of the design styles to keep an eye out for, and our favourite pieces from each.

How should you choose a dining table?

It can be worth looking at dining tables in person in order to get a feel for the weight and heft of them – as the item of furniture that is often the largest in the room, getting them wrong can throw the whole room out of sync – but if that’s not possible, then consider their weight, size and material. Think about how often you’ll be hosting, and for whom. If the answer is “often, and for many people” then a larger or at least an extendable table is best if you need a 10 seater on a regular basis for example.

And, of course, measure any doorways, lifts or windows that you need to get through in order to ensure the table can actually fit into your house or flat. Dining chairs are pretty useless without a table to match after all, and there’s little more frustrating than spending £4,000 on a table only for it to sit on the pavement outside your house while you decide whether it’s worth chopping it in half to get it up the stairs. As funny as the Friends ‘Pivot’ scene is with Ross and the sofa, it’s not what you want to be doing yourself with your guests.