What size dining table? Seats, the space around it and your room

Start from your room to find the biggest table that keeps the walkway, or from the number of people to find the table and the room it needs. The plan redraws to scale as you type, with a chair at every place.

The rule, in two numbers

Every dining table guide comes back to two measurements. One sets the table's size, the other sets the room round it.

1. 60 cm of table edge per person. IKEA and furniture.co.uk both give 60 cm. The NKBA (the US kitchen and bath trade body) asks for a place 610 mm (24 in) wide. At the end of a table, IKEA says 40 cm is enough, so a table about 90 cm wide seats one at each end.
2. About 90 cm from the table edge to the wall. That is room for a chair pulled out, with a diner on it, and for someone to edge past behind. The NKBA's figure is 914 mm (36 in).

The dashed line is the clearance, 91 cm out from the table edge all round. Its corners are round because a corner of the table is a point: the walkway only needs to keep 91 cm from that point.

How much space behind the chairs

The NKBA's Kitchen Planning Guideline 8 gives three figures, measured from the table edge to the wall or the nearest furniture. Designers use the same figures in dining rooms.

Choose by what happens behind each chair. Against a wall that nobody uses, 81 cm is enough. On the route from the kitchen to the garden door, allow 112 cm. Measure to the front of a sideboard or a radiator, not to the wall behind it.

Table sizes for 4, 6, 8 and 10

The smallest UK stock table of each shape that seats everyone, and the least room with 91 cm on every side. Seats follow the 60 cm rule; a round table seats one diner per 70 cm of its edge, because the chairs crowd together towards the middle.

A round table needs a square room: 272 × 272 cm for a 90 cm table, 317 × 317 cm for 135 cm and 362 × 362 cm for 180 cm. In feet, a 6-seater rectangle with 36 in all round needs a room about 11 × 9 ft.

The biggest table for your room

Common UK dining rooms and kitchen-diner zones, with the biggest stock table that fits. The first figure keeps 91 cm on every side; the second keeps the tight 75 cm.

In a room under about 2.7 m wide, push one long side of the table against the wall and use a bench there. That side then needs no clearance, and the room only needs the clearance on the other three.

How to measure

1. Measure the room wall to wall at skirting height, both ways.
2. Where a sideboard, radiator or kitchen island stands, measure to its front instead. That is the real wall for the chairs.
3. Mark the doors. A door that swings into the dining area needs its swing kept clear, or the walkway runs through it.
4. For an extending table, check the room at the extended length too, with the tight 75 cm if it opens only at Christmas.
5. Mark the table's outline on the floor with masking tape, put the chairs on it and pull one out. You see the walkway at once.

Four common mistakes

1. Measuring the table, not the chairs. A 160 cm table fits a 3 m wall with 70 cm to spare at each end, but a chair pulled out takes most of that: furniture.co.uk allows 45–50 cm for it. Size the room by the table plus the clearance, never the table alone.
2. Forgetting what stands at the wall. A 45 cm-deep sideboard takes 45 cm from the walkway on that side. Measure to its front.
3. A round table that is too big. The middle of a 180 cm round table is 90 cm from every seat, out of reach for passing dishes. Over about 150 cm, an oval seats the same people with a nearer middle.
4. Chairs with arms on a short table. Carvers (chairs with arms) are wider than side chairs and often cannot tuck between the table legs. Measure one, add 10 cm for elbows, and count it at that width, or put the carvers at the ends.

Where the sources disagree

The NKBA wrote its figures for kitchen seating. They are trade guidelines, not building regulations, and no study has tested them in dining rooms.

The rug and the light

Under the table, a rug must reach past the chairs when they are pulled out. IKEA's rule is 60–80 cm of rug beyond each side of the table, so a 150 × 90 cm table needs a rug at least 210 cm wide: 240 × 340 cm. The rug size calculator lists the UK sizes. Over the table, hang the light 75–90 cm above it, and make it about half the table's width: the pendant light height calculator works out the drop for your ceiling.

Getting a new table into the house? Check it through the door first with will it fit. For the gaps in the rest of an open-plan room, see every living-room clearance in cm.

Try the table in your own room

Snuug, the iPhone room app, rebuilds your room in 3D from one slow walk round it. Put a table in it at its real size, pull out the chairs and watch the walkway: Snuug shows how many centimetres are left behind each chair as you move the table in 5 cm steps. Paste a shop link and the exact table you are looking at stands in your own dining room, before you buy. Your room comes to within about 3% of its real size in our tests of ten homes, and our team checks every room by hand.

Questions

What size dining table seats 6?

A rectangle 150–180 cm long and about 90 cm wide, or a round table about 135 cm across. At 150 cm, two people sit on each long side and one at each end. At 180 cm, three sit on each long side with room to spare.

How much space do you need around a dining table?

About 90 cm from the table edge to the wall or the nearest furniture. The NKBA's guidelines give 81 cm (32 in) when nobody walks behind the chairs, 91 cm (36 in) for someone to edge past, and 112 cm (44 in) to walk past. 75 cm is the least for a chair to pull out.

What size room do I need for a 6-seater dining table?

About 3.3 × 2.7 m for a 150 × 90 cm table with 91 cm on every side. With the tight 75 cm all round, 3.0 × 2.4 m will do. A 135 cm round table needs about 3.2 × 3.2 m.

How many people does a 120 cm round table seat?

Four comfortably, five at a squeeze. Our calculator gives one diner per 70 cm of edge on a round table: π × 120 ÷ 70 = 5.4, so 5. Most UK shops call 120 cm a four-seater. For six, choose 135 cm or more.

What size dining table for 4 people?

About 120 × 80 cm, a 90 × 90 cm square, or a round table 90–110 cm across. A 120 × 80 cm table with 91 cm all round needs a room of about 3.0 × 2.6 m.

How wide should a dining table be?

80–90 cm for four to six, and 90–100 cm for eight or more (furniture.co.uk). At 90 cm or more, a diner can sit at each end. Over about 110 cm, people cannot reach the middle to pass the dishes.

Editorial notes

Written by the Snuug team and checked on 1 November 2026. A number with no source beside it is a designers' rule of thumb, not a study.

1. NKBA, Kitchen Planning Guidelines, Guidelines 8 and 9 (traffic clearance at seating; 24 in per diner), read 31 Oct 2026
2. furniture.co.uk (Amy, 14 Mar 2026), Dining table size guide: what size seats 4, 6, 8, 10, checked 31 Oct 2026
3. furniture.co.uk (Amy, 29 May 2026), Round dining table sizes: what diameter seats 4, 6 or 8, checked 31 Oct 2026
4. IKEA Switzerland, How much space per person at a dining table (60 cm; 40 cm at an end), checked 31 Oct 2026
5. IKEA Indonesia, Ideal dining table height (75–90 cm to walls; tables 73–76 cm high), checked 31 Oct 2026
6. Castlery UK, Round dining tables (size guide), checked 31 Oct 2026
7. Oak Furniture Land, Dining table sizes: how to choose the right table (70 cm per person, 50 cm at a squeeze), checked 31 Oct 2026
8. IKEA UK, How to choose the right rug size (60–80 cm past a dining table), checked 31 Oct 2026

Use this from an AI assistant

This answer as JSON, or as one paragraph with format=text: https://snuug.app/api/v1/tools/dining-table

MCP server: https://snuug.app/mcp · OpenAPI · llms.txt. Every rule cites its source.