Look for sets at resell shops. Not sure where you live, but I sold 3 sets of great china (mad collector, which I finally broke the habit) thru a re-sell store here in Fl. On any given day I can go in there and see 20 sets for sale at incredible prices. Also try eBay, I sold a couple of sets on there also.

Beautiful dining room. I am smiling at the red solo cups on that gorgeous table : )

Go with your gut of a classic white. Use fabrics with pattern that are easily changed with the seasons or your mood. Centerpieces, napkins, table runners, placemats... You can always add in salad plates that meet your needs but are easily changed out as well.

@tgb1 thanks! Yeah we just had a dinner party over the weekend and thats when we decided we should invest in a set of plates because the red cups just stood out. To be honest, I didn't want to buy any and see how long we could hold off with old dinnerware but as holiday season nears, we'd be using the dining room more often.

I was thinking white but didnt want plain dinnerware. I was thinking mix and matching textures like this dinnerware set from West Elm:

http://rk.weimgs.com/weimgs/rk/images/wcm/products/201540/0226/textured-dinnerware-set-mix-match-o.jpg

you'll be on trend buying anything from west elm or crate&barrel. and when you are ready to express yourself you'll have a good start.

I'd get red to match the solo cups.

We have a wonderful store in Toronto - William Ashley. If you went shopping locally (I assume you are in the U.S.?) and find the dishes you like, you may be able to find them on WA's website and with the U.S. $ being so strong right now, you could save a lot of money. By going white/colored trim - they are so easy to work with. Just to give you an idea of how to begin building your set - the set below for example is by Villery-Boch and you can purchase place settings and then add white platters, serving dishes, etc as you go along using any brand. The other option is just purchasing a salad plate and coffee cup..then look for regular white plates which are really easy to find. http://www.williamashley.com/dinnerware/villeroy-boch-anmut-rock-grey-4-piece-place-setting

I recommend plain white as food looks best on white plates. You are caught between elegant and casual. Elegant dinnerware is usually a fine porcelain or china. The thinner elegant dinnerware tends to have smaller coffee cups with saucers rather than mugs. But it's dainty and can chip easily with a lot of use. It is also best hand washed. Daily dinnerware is usually earthenware or stoneware. It's a bit heavier and usually deeper soup bowls and mugs rather than formal coffee cups/saucers. It is much more durable and dishwasher safe. There are several more casual sets, like the ones you linked us to from West Elm. I recommend getting a sturdy daily set that's not terribly expensive. You can get several sets at Kohl's for larger dinner parties. Just be sure to get cups with saucers and this can go more formal too. Consider something like these.

You'll also need some serving pieces, plain white pieces don't have to match, yet will blend nicely.

Glasses - while the red cups are cheerful, opt for clear glass with a modern cut. You can have champagne glasses; wine glasses; water goblets all in the same design. While stemmed glasses are more formal, they can easily be bumped and spilled.

As for dressing up the table with color, add centerpieces, napkins, table runners. Once you add some colorful pictures in the room, and maybe an area rug, you'll have a beautiful welcoming room guests will be very happy to spend time in.

One caveat about buying from Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel, West Elm, etc is that the colors and styles can be discontinued after a year or two, or sooner. Therefore, buy extra if you go that route. I would definitely mix and match. Find the bowls that work for your pasta, stew or soup dishes and then build the other pieces from there. Generally you do not have a soup bowl and a salad plate on the table at the same time. Sometimes a dinner plate is placed under a soup bowl to provide more presence on the table (and catch drips), so you want those to coordinate - but they don't have to match. You should also consider whether you want gold or silver on the pattern - those items can't go in the microwave.

I'd suggest looking at the Juliska website. There are many patterns that would look great in your room - such as the Berry and Thread pattern in its many colors. If you were in the States, I'd recommend Steven Provence Pottery in Bend, Oregon. Great patterns trending toward mid-century modern, the perfect soup/pasta bowls and large plates with a sufficient lip so that they can be used for stew.

I second the idea of buying on the secondary market. For years, I used an "every day" set of ceramic dishes, and put up with chipping. Then one day I had the chance to buy a set of Noritaki porcelain dinnerware from the 1960s for such a good price that I decided to make it our every day dinnerware. It is wonderful! It doesn't chip like ceramic does and it takes up less storage space than the heavy ceramic dishes I had been using. The only thing that is happening after several years going through the dish washer is the gold banding is fading away. But I don't care. We now rarely use our very best dinnerware that has a platinum band because I don't want to hand wash it. Our everyday set looks great on a "dressed up" dinner party table, along with our silverware and crystal.

Thank you everyone for their suggestions and comments!

@Barbara Almandarz yeah, we're most likely not going to get those dainty cups/saucers. After your description, we decided will just get casual dinnerware, the only people we will be entertaining will be close family and friends. Just having dinnerware outside of paper plates and red solo cups would already be "formal" for our parties, haha. We won't be hosting dinner for acquaintances, bosses, etc.

@lolokz good idea, I will perhaps buy some an extra set in case I do happen to break any of the plates because you are right that they might discontinue it and I won't be able to replace it

@jagood I ultimately just want one set, Im not a believer of having a separate ANYTHING just for guests, etc. I'm practical and want to use everything I buy and not just on special occasions :) We try to use our dining table as much as we can on a daily basis and one of the reasons why we paid for a durable finish

@notadumbblonde I was checking The Bay recently, we saw a nice Mishka set on sale from $600 to $249, unfortunately it had a grey or blue design and might be too busy for our table since the table itself has a lot of depth in it already but I will keep an eye out for it!

JJ... I was at Costco today... they had a great white set similar to the Sophie Conran set.