Dining Room

Color Guide: Purple Dining Room Decor Ideas

There are only a few areas to think about when styling a dining room. You’ve mainly got the seating area – you can also play around with the wall design and simple decor ideas. In this post I outline purple dining room ideas that will help you style your space.

Styling The Seating Area

When it comes to the dining table, go with a neutral colored one. White, grey, black, or a bare wooden on just like in picture (1). By keeping to a neutral color you can then decorate the seating area with pops of purple. Some ideas include: a purple table runner (4), purple place settings, a hanging pendant light with a purple lamp shade, or how about a purple centerpiece.

The centerpiece could be an arrangement of purple plants (3). Or normal plants but it a purple vase. You could use a purple tray to group together some items.

The chairs you use could have purple cushions, either for the seats, or add some purple back cushions.

The table and chairs can be grouped together by putting them all on top of a purple area rug. Just make sure the area rug is large enough so that when the chairs are pulled out they are still on top of the rug.

What To Do With The Walls

The simplest option when it comes to painting the walls is to have all of them white. This gives you a blank canvas of a room to decorate with pops of purple. Another idea is to paint all of the walls white, but have one wall purple – just like the dining room in picture (4). This one purple wall will stand out in the room making it a design feature.

Then there is the option of painting all of the walls purple, for a bold look. You can always divide up the wall. For example have the bottom section covered in white wainscoting and the top section painted in purple. Or fit white crown molding where the walls and ceiling meet.

Don’t forget that the shade of purple you use to decorate the space can change how the room feels. A dark purple will make the dining room feel secluded, relaxing, intimate, and luxurious. While a light purple will make the room feel spacious, and bright. Pictures (5) and (6) shows the difference the shade of purple you use can have on a room.

For a more luxurious look, see if you can add a subtle texture to the wall design if you are going to have them purple. This can be done by using wallpaper, or by using simple painting techniques – seen in the purple dining room in picture (2) Texture Wall Painting Ideas: From Faux Wood to Linen Effects.

Simple Decor Ideas

Here are a few simple decor ideas you could use in your purple dining room:

To decorate the walls you could always hang up a gallery wall. If you want to infuse purple here, then try and find some purple pieces to frame in black frames. Or a bolder option is to use black and white pieces in purple frames
If you have a small dining room, it would be better to hang up one large purple art piece vs. smaller pieces – as this creates a less cluttered look and makes the space feel larger. You can see the large purple art piece in the dining room in picture (3) as an example of this.
Another way to make a space feel larger is to hang up a mirror. This mirror could be inside of a purple frame

Here are some other dining room posts for more ideas:

image credits 1/2/3/4/5/6

May 27, 2016 in Color Palettes, Dining Room

Stylish Living: Modern Dining Room Ideas and Designs

A modern dining room is a clutter free and well designed space. This means there are only a few areas you need to focus on to create a stylish modern space. These areas are: the tables and chairs, the walls, and the lighting.

Creating a Modern Room With The Table and Chairs

Selecting The Table: The biggest item in a dining room is the table. This means that the style and design of it will really have a big impact on the overall styling of the room. In the modern dining room pictures in the mood board, you can see that a modern dining table is a simple, sleek wooden one. A darker wood will create a more luxurious dining room space – and see if you can get a table with metal legs, just like the one in picture (1).

Another option is a modern glass dining room set with wooden legs, just like the one in picture (5).

Pairing With Chairs: Once you have the table selected, then the next task is to pick out the modern chairs that will complement it. Go with a neutral shade such as white, off white, grey or black – just like the ones in the mood board above. Upholstered chairs are ideal for a more comfortable dining room.

Decor Pieces: Keep it simple with the centerpiece. Plants in a nice container would be the go to choice for a modern centerpiece.

And don’t forget you can add an area rug under the furniture to group the table and chairs together. Make sure the area rug is large enough so that the chairs can be pulled out and still rest on the rug. Go with a neutral colored area rug to complement the chairs and table.

Styling Your Walls

Just like the chairs and table, the paint colors used in a modern dining room are also neutral (grey, white, cream).

Simple wainscoting, seen in picture (4), can be used to break up flat walls. Other ways to break up a flat wall include: crown molding, and hanging up mirrors or framed pieces – like the gallery wall in picture (3).

Modern Dining Room Lighting

A modern home is a well lit space. In a dining room, use recessed ceiling lights for general lighting. These are lights that are fitted into the ceiling, hiding all the fixtures away, creating a sleek and modern look in the room.

Above the dining table, you might want to have a hanging pendant light that brings light down from the ceiling closer to the table. You can see in the mood board above some examples of these hanging pendant lights.

Here are some other dining room posts to get more ideas from:

image credits 1/2/3/4/5/6

April 16, 2016 in Dining Room, Modern

Table Decor: Vintage Centerpiece Ideas

I found that the best place to look for stylish vintage centerpiece ideas is by looking through wedding photographs. There are a few wedding ideas below along with some normal home decor styling tips.

My favourite ideas are the ones where you don’t even need a centerpiece item, like the doily table runner idea.

Simple and Clutter Free

I like simplicity and avoiding using many decor pieces as this just clutters up a space.

Some simple ideas for a vintage centerpiece include a vintage style bottle used as a vase for flowers just like in picture (1). For some mood lighting use vintage style bottles, jars, or a bowl to hold candle sticks (2) or floating candles.

Other ways to house plants and flowers to create table centerpieces include using vintage tins (3), a vintage mini birdcage, or antique mercury style vessels/cake displays (4),

Some other simple ideas for vintage centerpieces include using:

Lanterns
Vintage tin candles
Wire baskets
Vintage bounded coffee books like an old atlas

Focusing on Design Details Instead of a Centerpiece Item

A doily table runner, like the one in picture (5) can help style a coffee table or dining table.

While an elegant vintage tray (galvanized, wicker, wooden, enamel) can help group clutter items (remotes, keys, coasters) together for a cleaner look on the table.

The Coffee Table Itself

If you were to get a statement piece of a coffee table, this could be enough to style the space and you wouldn’t need a centerpiece on the table. Some ideas for a vintage inspired coffee table include:

A gallery coffee table as seen in picture (6)
A reclaimed window DIY
An old trunk
Letterpress draws (7)

More vintage mood board posts:

February 26, 2016 in Design Styles, Dining Room

Dining Room Colors and Paint Scheme Ideas

Wall Color: Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace OC-65

Wall Color: Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter HC-172

Wall Color: Benjamin Moore Bleeker Beige HC-80

Wall Color: Benjamin Moore Kendall Charcoal HC-166

Similar Wall Color: Benjamin Moore Tea 2091-10

Wall Color: Benjamin Moore Terrapin Green 2145-20

Wall Color: Benjamin Moore Caribbean Teal 2123-20

Creating a Living Room Color Palette

You can see from the pictures above that the color palette of the rooms are made up of more than just the color on the walls. You’ve got the floor, the ceiling even, the main furniture pieces, curtains – and the walls. What this means is that you’ll need to look at your whole room (floors, ceiling, furniture pieces, etc.) and coordinate all the dining room colors to create a well designed space.

3 Ways to Create a Color Scheme in a Room

I see 3 ways to go about co-ordinating the colors in a dining room:

Paint all the wall in a neutral color like white, off white, cream or light grey. This creates a blank canvas for you to decorate the dining room with colorful decor pieces.
Paint all of the walls in the color of your choice. One thing to remember when doing this is that your color choice will determine how the room feels. Light colors will make a dining room feel large, spacious, and bright. Dark colors will make the dining room feel smaller and more intimate.
If you feel painting all the walls in a color might be a bit overwhelming, then you can opt for a feature wall – just like the dining room in picture (A) below. A feature wall is one wall that you paint in a color (such as red, blue or black). You then paint all the other walls in a neurtal color (white, cream, light grey). The one wall with color stands out, and becomes a focal point in the room. It also adds color to the space, but in a subtle way.

Popular Dining Room Paint Colors

Neutral shades such as off white, light and dark grey, and cream are popular modern dining room paint ideas. Other popular wall colors include light yellow and light olive.

Color Guide: Purple Dining Room Decor Ideas

Test and Experiment

You will want to go out and get paint samples and take them home. This is the best way to get a clear idea of what your space will look like. It is hard to trust pictures, because the rooms can easily look different in real life (different computer screens show different colors, the camera settings can make the space look different in the picture, etc.). Also the lighting your dining room, or the texture of your walls can play a role in how the paint color will turn out. You’ve also got major furniture pieces, the floor, even the ceiling that you want to consider when choosing the paint color for your walls.

Breaking Up The Look of Solid Flat Walls

If having a flat solid painted wall seems a bit dull or you have a large dining room, you can add some design elements to break up the design of the wall. One idea is to use wainscoting. By adding wooden panels you add depth to the walls and wainscoting also divides the walls into different sections and colors – seen in picture (B). Wall trim is another way to add some decoration and depth to the walls.

Other ideas include hanging up floating shelves, artwork, or planters.

Finishing Touches

Once you’ve painted your dining room walls, you might like to add a few extra design touches such as: