Dining Room Furniture – Come Dine With Me

Anybody who has seen the TV show Come Dine With Me will know how crucial dining room furniture can be for hosting a dream dinner party. To find out more visit  http://www.housetohome.co.uk/product-idea/picture/statement-sideboards-our-top-10 

We have become a nation obsessed with dinner parties. Dining room furniture used to consist of a simple table with rickety chairs, and if a mate joined you for dinner then you'd have to pull out the fold up chair from the attic. At Christmas time, there are thousands of families across the land who are thrown into a panic over their dining room furniture, which never seems adequate enough for the hordes of extended family descending for the festive period.

But as cookery shows and food programmes proliferate, more British homes are reinvesting in dining room furniture. For many families, dining room furniture is already the most important furniture in the home – the table is where families congregate, eat and communicate. Countless studies and research have been conducted into the importance of eating around a table (and not in front of the TV) for family life. Having solid dining room furniture in a family home is indicative of the family's attitude, suggesting they make time for sitting and eating.

The Dinner Party

But even couples and singletons are investing in dining room furniture to tap into the dinner party culture that has gone from strength to strength. In the eighties, dinner parties were slightly mocked as being the domain of the somewhat dull middle classes, discussing property prices. But cookery programmes and celebrity chefs have ensured that dinner parties have had something of a renaissance. After all, what can be better in life than good food, fine wine and great company?

Having sufficient dining room furniture is crucial if you want to squeeze all your friends around the table. Which begs the question – who would you invite to your dream dinner party? It's a regular question in celebrity interviews as it's so revealing of their tastes, interests and outlook. Here are a few answers from the pages of The Guardian:

l  Actor Pete Postlethwaite's dream dinner party would include: Tommy Cooper, Tina Turner, Hunter S Thompson, Harold Pinter and his late brother.

l  Comedian Simon Pegg would invite: Lennon and McCartney, Shakespeare, Dickens, Nick Frost and the Philharmonic Orchestra.

l  Author Jay McIrney would invite Zelda Fitzgerald, Jane Austen, Mark Twain, Madame de Pompadour, Oscar Wilde, Marlene Dietrich, Chrissie Hynde, Orson Welles and John Lennon

l  Talk show host Jerry Springer chose: Family, Churchill, Lincoln and, even though he's Jewish, Jesus.

l  Comedian Paul O'Grady would slurp soup with Marlene Dietrich, Brendan Behan, George Melly, Gypsy Rose Lee, Catherine de' Medici. To cook, Rosa Lewis from the Cavendish Hotel (the Duchess of Duke Street), and to provide the music, Henry Hall.

l  TV presenter Fern Britton would invite The Queen, Bette Midler, Richard Gere.

l  Singer Lily Allen opted to dine with Jesus, Sarah Palin, John Peel, Pol Pot, Frank Sinatra, Dolly Parton, Steed Malbranque.