For a fun twist on a traditional place card, how about a Polaroid snapshot of your guest? Snap a photo of your guests when they arrive, and then prop the pictures in glasses as place cards. (A few cranberries add a festive touch.) At the end of the night, your guests can either take their picture home or leave it for you to make an album. More

I just picked up a few yards of remnant burlap for next to nothing. In a search for how to put it to use, I came across the burlap Thanksgiving tabletop ideas shown here: More

Emily's cozy home is full of her own creative projects, and the shiplap wall in her dining room is one great example. As she tells Apartment Therapy, she loved the texture and interest that the paneling brought to her bedroom, so she "went wild" and also installed it in the dining room! She says "it's warm, easy to install, and an affordable way to dramatically transform a drab space into a primary accent wall." More

Dining rooms are a place to get dramatic. They're often used for entertaining and they're a room where we might take risks we would't dare elsewhere. That's where eggplant comes in. It might a a vegetable (a fruit, actually), but it's also a dark, rich, sexy color that would make a bold statement in the dining room: More

Otomi fabric is handmade by Otomi Indians of Hidalgo, Mexico. The Otomi patterns (which are hand-embroidered in the traditional fabrics and printed in the manufactured facsimiles) are said to come from the ancient cliff drawings of the region. We love the bright colors and bold geometries of Otomi fabrics and would welcome such a lively print to the tabletop in our otherwise plain-Jane dining room: More

What makes a dining room eye-catching? If you're in the process of remodeling or designing your kitchen or dining room, this expert advice from architect Cass Calder Smith of CSS Architects in San Francisco is good to keep in mind: More

What do you think of gold flatware? I never gave it much thought until recently, when it suddenly struck me how warm and beautiful it looks, especially when paired with a simple table setting. More

It's all fun and fancy in this remodeled Austin kitchen! Before the remodel, the space was divided into two rooms - a tiny kitchen, and a larger, underused dining room. Loop Design (the architecture firm hired for the redesign) knocked down a few walls to create one spacious cooking and dining space, while the owner, an interior designer, brought it to life with a bright, fresh color scheme. See more photos below: More

So, you have a tiny kitchen with nary an extra foot for a standard dining table. Take a cue from this Swedish kitchen and build in a pull-out table extension. Add legs (more on that below) and you've got yourself a sweet table for two! More

Well, that's one way to make a statement! Clytie and Claudia didn't shy away from colorful accents when designing their Belmont, Massachusetts home. Their bright green Thonet chairs—painted in Behr's 'Caterpillar'—are the focal point of the dining room. More