Dining Room Decorating Decisions

One of our fall/winter house projects is going to be painting the dining room. I just can't decide what color I like best.

I saw this photo several months ago, and I really like the green with the cherry furniture and wood flooring. Our furniture and floor are similar colors. But our room faces the north, and doesn't have the sunlight this room has from that giant window. I think it may be too dark, and clash with the light green we've painted our kitchen. The rooms open on to one another.

from Burdastyle.

Another color I'm considering is light blue, as in the photo below.

 

From Domino: The Book of Decorating.

I've seen several dining rooms in blue in decor magazines and books, but they always seem to include white furniture instead of the darker wood stains. While I'd love to trade my furniture for the white version, I can't afford to do that right now. And the blue might clash with the orange tones in our wood floor.

So...the last color I'm considering is a light sand color. It would be a brighter, but still warm, version of our current wall color, which is like coffee. It doesn't seem terribly exciting or different; you know how sometimes you want to do something dramatically different, and yet, it could be dramatically terrible? I'm there. I know it's "just paint" but Chris and I don't enjoy painting, so I try to pick colors that aren't difficult to live with, in case they don't turn out as envisioned.

Here are a few photos of our dining room, minus the summer flower arrangements:

 

We don't have rugs right now because one of our cats has used them to, shall we say, express her displeasure with the other cats on them.

 

The room looks tired to me, and needs some fresh but inexpensive updating. One idea I have is to move some of the bookcases from our living room into the long wall here (to the right of the doorway to the kitchen, in the photo above). I've seen many photos of dining room/library combos lately and I love the idea of making this room more useful when we don't have company.

Sometimes when you live with things for so long, it's hard to be objective and imagine fresh ideas. For that reason, I'm putting this out to those of you (especially Kara and Erin -- I love their homes!) who have not seen my dining room before to ask: what do you think?

Next post: a new knitting project!

Comments

[Kara]

Thanks for the compliment!

Your dining room is so lovely to start with, it will be hard to go wrong. I am loving the colors you have selected. I am really intrigued by that green. It is so lovely. But if you don't get a lot of sunlight, it might be a little much. Hard to say.

I am always a fan of blue. (Both my kitchen and dining room are shades of blue.) I think that the white furniture is not a big deal. Brown and blue are a natural combo. Although, I suppose you could always sand and paint your dining set if you really want a white one. But that seems like a lot of work and your set looks really lovely.

Dining/library hybrid?! Love the idea. Just think you could have dinner conversations inspired by the books that are around.

[sprite]

What about a bluer blue, like a cadet or French blue? I agree with Kara that blue and brown go well together, so I, too, wouldn't worry about the combo with your current dining room set.

[Erin]

Of my goodness...I am in LOVE with the green walls in that photo. I totally get where you are coming from with questioning it though. (Part of me just wants to tell you to risk it and go for it!) I really do think though that any of those colors would work beautifully. And you are lucky you have such a great room to begin with.

[betty]

I'm one of those neutral wall colors people. My house interior walls are all shades of white, but there are about 6 different shades for the different rooms!

That being said, I don't know that my suggestions would appeal to you. However, I would suggest a light color for the walls simply because it would lighten the room up since you have a northern exposure and dark furniture. The other thing you could do that would greatly change the look would be new window treatments. It's amazing what new window treatments can do.

[2paw]

I love the green walls too, but my dining room has mauve/pinkish walls. It is warm and looks nice with candle light, but if I ever paint, they will be green. I have dark wood furniture and dark wood floor and picture rails too.

[Sonya]

Your dining room is lovely! I think any of the colors your considering would look nice. (How helpful am I?) I'd probably lean toward blue just because I love blues. I love the idea of combining library and dining room too.

[Sydney]

I like the green walls the best, but then I've been needing bright colors lately. I moved several bookcases into my dining room. But then my dining room gets used for just about anything except dining. :)

[Dorothy W.]

I don't have much to say about what color will look best, but I'm glad I will get to see the results some day! I hope you are happy with what you end up choosing.

[robin]

I'd go with the blue - if you don't have so much light, the green may be too dark, as you said. My first floor is painted in varying shades of light green, light blue and pale cream/yellow and it seems to blend well. So I think having the light green and light blue rooms open to each other will be a good look.

[Cheryl]

A pale icy blue would show off your furniture and brighten the room on its own. I had that color in my house and found it to be a marvelous "neutral" I was able to use a dark purple rug with oak and the contrast was magical!

[Leah]

Love the dining room photos! I share your feeling that the green in the photos is fabulous. However, if what you want is more light, I recommend a light color. The thing is, you are mostly dining at night, correct? So you might want to go with the color that looks best with the artificial light you have in that room in the evenings.

[Romelda McKee]

Green . . definitely! Use a lot of white curtains, linens, flowers, etc. I had a room like that and I LOVED it! good luck!

[Jenn]

I like the green - especially since you recently wrote that the blue in the guest room is making you feel cold. You don't wanna feel that way in the dining room...

My suggestion would be to get some paint chips - at least three of each color. Hang one on the window wall of the DR. Hang one on the wall opposite the windows in the DR. And hang one where you can see it in contrast to the kitchen color.

Then, everytime you walk through, glance at the chips and choose your favorite. Place that one above the rest. Your favorite may change, depending on the time of day, but eventually you'll find the one that works in all three places.

I do this when I'm going to paint a room and it usually takes a week.

Good luck!