The idea of a dedicated dining room is still relatively new; they’ve only been a common floor plan feature since the mid-19th century. Since then, dining rooms have largely been ignored by designers who would rather focus their attention on the rooms where we spend more of our time. Even so, there are still some truly excellent furnitures to be found for this under-appreciated room. Also check out our complete collection of 90 Creative Urban Furniture Designs.

The Cube 6, from Japanese designer Naho Matsuno, lets you seat a ton of people without taking up your entire dining room. The sides of the cube all pull out to become six individual stools. When assembled, the cube is only a shade under 14 square inches on each side. It’s a simple design that works way better than having six folding chairs stashed in your closet.

If you’ve ever lived in a tiny apartment, you know that “dining room” really means “itty-bitty corner of the living room where you can’t fit a table and chairs.” For small rooms, a space-economizing dining set like this disappearing round dining table from NYIT student designers is a must. The tabletop itself stays stationary while the chairs and eating spaces are pulled out from the column.

WebUrbanist loves transforming furniture, and this transforming chair (which may or may not have been invented by Ben Franklin) is a fine example. You can go from a dining chair to a step-stool in one simple movement, giving you an extended reach and eliminating the need to risk your neck by standing on your tiptoes on a dining chair.

Designer Fumiaki Goto is on a mission to make meal times more musical. This marimba-like table allows you to gorge on beautiful sounds while enjoying a meal. Each time an object touches a bar on the top of the table, a sound resonates in the pipes below.

When you need a lot of seating area but don’t want the table to dominate the dining room, finding just the right dining table is not easy. You could get a table with a removable center leaf, but you’ve still got to figure out what to do with the leaf when it’s not being used and deal with assembling and disassembling it every time you use it. This ingenious table solves that problem by using some very clever accordion-style pieces in the middle of the table. While the expanding middle of the table allows it to become larger according to need, it also serves as an attractive and interesting feature.

Some ideas are so simple and common-sense that you wonder why no one has done them before…and then you realize that it’s because the idea is sort of gross. The Digestive Table from Amy Youngs is just such an idea. It incorporates eating with composting, something that makes a lot of sense. When you’re done with dinner, you throw the scraps into the built-in compost heap inside the table. Then sowbugs, bacteria and worms help the material decompose and turn it into luscious natural fertilizer that feeds the plants kept at the bottom of the table. If you want to lose your appetite (and so have more food to feed the table), watch the attached LED monitor to see live decomposition action from inside the table. The Digestive Table isn’t commercially available, but the website does include a construction diagram so you can build one yourself.

Another space-saving dining room design, Cube Style features a tiny square table with two booths. All three pieces fit together to form a box when not in use. The table top remains available for holding decorative items or acting as a desk even when the benches are in place. This dining set may save you from eating dinner with the plate balanced on your knees.

If you enjoy soft lighting with your meal, this LED-lighted table is perfect. It interacts with your movement above it, creating unique light shows every time you use it. The best part of all is that Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories are giving away for free the plans to build this awesome table.

Creative Urban Furniture 1: Bedroom Furniture Designs

Creative Urban Furniture 2: Living Room Furniture Designs

Creative Urban Furniture 3: Office Furniture Designs

Creative Urban Furniture 4: Dining Room Furniture Designs

Creative Urban Furniture 5: Kitchen Furniture Designs

Creative Urban Furniture 6: Kids Furniture Designs

Creative Urban Furniture 7: Garden Furniture Designs

Creative Urban Furniture 8: Outdoor Furniture Designs