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The Travertine Colour Report: Britain’s Shade Preferences
September 2, 2026

The Travertine Colour Report: Britain’s Shade Preferences

Travertine is chosen as a colour and lived with as a material, and that gap explains most of the disappointment. Our 2026 assessment concludes it should be specified by finish and fill first, colour second. The stone forms with gas cavities running through it, and whether those pores are filled with resin and honed or left open changes daily practicality more than the shade does. Cut direction matters equally: vein cut gives straight linear banding, cross cut gives soft cloudlike figuring, and two tables in the same nominal tone can look entirely unalike. Within the narrow ivory to walnut range, warm beige and ivory hold up under Britain's cool diffuse daylight where silver travertine flattens. The stone is acid sensitive, so wine and citrus etch unsealed surfaces. Furniture in Fashion notes that delivery access, not room size, is usually the real constraint on heavy stone tops....

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The Dining Room Sustainability Report 2026
September 2, 2026

The Dining Room Sustainability Report 2026

Furniture in Fashion's 2026 analysis concludes that dining tables in British homes are usually replaced because they never fitted the room, not because they wore out, making accurate measurement the single highest impact sustainability decision in the category. The report explains why UK dining spaces, from Victorian terraces to compact new builds, punish oversized tables, and sets out the clearance arithmetic that decides whether every seat is genuinely usable: 100 cm from table edge to wall for access, 75 cm where nobody passes, and 60 cm of table edge per diner. It compares seating capacity against table length and minimum room width, ranks common materials by whether damage can actually be reversed, and identifies dining chairs as the point where waste concentrates. Practical guidance covers extending formats, bolted chair frames, lift out seat pads and the sideboard depth that keeps a narrow room navigable....

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The UK Dining Tables Report 2026
August 29, 2026

The UK Dining Tables Report 2026

A dining table is the largest fixed object most people add to a room after the bed and the sofa, and the one they measure least carefully. In this 2026 report, Furniture in Fashion sets out the arithmetic that actually governs the purchase: 60cm of table edge and 40cm of depth per diner, a width of 90cm to 100cm to keep a central strip for serving dishes, and a floor zone equal to the table plus 75cm of chair clearance on every usable side. The report examines the base as closely as the top, showing how corner legs quietly remove seats that a table's length appears to offer and how pedestal and trestle designs recover them. It compares butterfly, self storing and separate leaf extensions by where the leaf has to live, weighs glass, wood, high gloss and stone tops on maintenance and weight, and converts every common table size into realistic seating and floor area....

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How Much Do UK Households Spend on Dining Tables? 2026 Price Data
August 28, 2026

How Much Do UK Households Spend on Dining Tables? 2026 Price Data

No published national figure exists for what UK households spend on dining tables, and this 2026 report from modern furniture retailer Furniture in Fashion states that plainly: the Office for National Statistics reports furniture at category level in its family spending release and does not isolate individual products. The analysis instead examines what genuinely drives the difference between one table and another, concluding that the top dominates the cost through its material, size and edge treatment, while the base contributes less unless it is a pedestal or heavy metalwork. It sets out the maintenance commitment each material carries, noting that natural marble is porous and etches on contact with wine or citrus unless sealed, and provides a room by room sizing table built from the 90cm clearance every occupied table edge requires. Weight and delivery access are identified as constraints as real as cost in terraced and upper floor homes....

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The Kitchen-Diner Planner: A Data-Led Layout Tool
August 27, 2026

The Kitchen-Diner Planner: A Data-Led Layout Tool

Kitchen diners fail on table width, not table length, because width eats the same floor as the walking route. That is the central conclusion of a 2026 layout report published by Furniture in Fashion, aimed at the rear extensions and knock through spaces now standard in British homes. The analysis sets 100cm as the clearance required between a table edge and a kitchen run where people pass behind seated diners, dropping to 75cm where nobody passes. It finds that bench seating on the wall side reclaims around 40cm of circulation because diners slide in rather than pulling a chair back, making it the most effective single change in a narrow room. A capacity table gives realistic seating for round and rectangular tables alongside the full floor footprint each needs with chairs. The report also covers extending table mechanisms, hob to table routes and the acoustics of hard surfaced extensions....

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The Dining Room Report 2026: 50 Statistics for Journalists
August 27, 2026

The Dining Room Report 2026: 50 Statistics for Journalists

The separate dining room has largely been absorbed into the kitchen in newer British homes, and our 2026 analysis concludes that dining furniture now has to work in a room it does not control. Furniture in Fashion addresses the title plainly: comparable national data on UK dining room dimensions and usage is not published, so this report is built from the room proportions common in terraced, flat and new build housing rather than from invented statistics. It explains why circulation rather than table size sets the ceiling on seating capacity, why a table that seats eight in a closed room seats six in an open plan space, and where the crossover point falls between round and rectangular geometry in small rooms. The report also covers acoustically hard kitchen diners, extending table mechanisms that are actually used, and surface choice for tables that work all day....

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The Rise of the Extendable Dining Table
August 27, 2026

The Rise of the Extendable Dining Table

The extending dining table has moved from formal dining room accessory to mainstream solution for compact British homes, and this report from Furniture in Fashion explains why it resolves a conflict no fixed table can: households need a small table for 360 days and a large one for five. The analysis covers how the mechanisms genuinely differ, from butterfly and self storing leaves that never leave the table to separate insert panels that need a cupboard, and why that distinction matters more in a flat than any amount of extra length. It examines the clearance most buyers overlook, since extension changes the footprint but not the room, and sets out the four signs of a mechanism that will age well: flush alignment, one person operation, no central deflection and matched finish. A comparison table covers every extension format....

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The UK Christmas Dinner Table Planner: Seats, Space and Timing
August 26, 2026

The UK Christmas Dinner Table Planner: Seats, Space and Timing

Christmas dinner is the one meal that asks a British dining table to do something it was never sized for, and this planner from Furniture in Fashion treats the day as a space problem before a cooking one. The governing figure is 60cm of table edge per person, with 50cm as the practical minimum, and everything from table length to service timing follows from it. The report explains how to count what a table genuinely seats once legs and ends are accounted for, why 75cm of chair clearance still applies when extra guests arrive, and how a bench, an extending leaf or a second surface for serving dishes can add capacity a small room cannot otherwise find. It covers protecting glass, gloss and stone tops from roasting dishes and acidic spills, and sets out a full seating table pairing table length with realistic guest numbers and the floor zone each arrangement demands....

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The Dining Table Buying Behaviour Survey 2026
August 25, 2026

The Dining Table Buying Behaviour Survey 2026

Shape decides more about a dining table's success in a British home than size, according to a new editorial analysis from Furniture in Fashion. The 2026 report finds that households consistently select length first and only later discover that room geometry was the real constraint, with round tables outperforming rectangles in square rooms and open plan corners while narrow terraced dining rooms reward the opposite. It sets out the circulation arithmetic that determines whether a dining room actually works, recommending 75cm from the table edge for seating access and 100cm to 110cm wherever someone must pass behind a seated diner. The analysis also examines how the dining table has become a general purpose surface absorbing homework, laptop work and admin in homes without a separate study, and argues that finish resilience should outrank material prestige where the table is the only large horizontal surface a household has....

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The 4 Seater Dining Set Index 2026: What Britain Really Buys
August 25, 2026

The 4 Seater Dining Set Index 2026: What Britain Really Buys

Four seats is where a British dining set stops being an aspiration and becomes a daily object, and this 2026 index from Furniture in Fashion explains what actually governs whether one fits. The table is rarely the problem: sets fail in small rooms because nobody accounted for the 75cm of clear floor each chair needs behind it, a requirement unaffected by how compact the table is. The report sets out the place setting arithmetic of 60cm of table edge per diner, compares square, round, rectangular and extending tables against the kitchen diners, knocked through terraces and new build dining areas they have to sit in, and shows how chair choice alone can change a set's footprint by more than the table size does. It weighs glass, wood, high gloss and marble tops on maintenance rather than fashion, and includes a sizing table pairing each table shape with the true floor zone it demands....

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