Now that we are slowly getting back to indoor entertaining again, it might be time to take a hard look at your dining area before the fall/winter whirlwind of holiday entertaining season. Does it need a bit of a refresh?
If it morphed into an impromptu home office for the last year, it probably isn’t exactly “company ready” any more! If your dining room needs to do double duty this post has some stylish ideas on how to make that work and still be able to pull off family meals or a dinner party there!
Most people can’t, or don’t want to just throw everything out and and start over. And frankly, unless we are talking about a card table and folding chairs, or furniture you hate, you probably don’t need to at all. Keep what works and alter what doesn’t. Replace judiciously. But please don’t ever try to decorate around something you really dislike - you will spend more money trying to make it work and never be happy with the result in the end.
What makes a dining room look dated?
If you are like most people (including me!), back in the day you bought or inherited a “suite” of dining furniture to fill the room. You have the table, 6 or 8 chairs, a china cabinet, and a sideboard or server. And it is all brown. and matching. As your style has evolved, this matchy-matchy look is tired and dated. While brown furniture has made a comeback with the resurgence of new traditional and grandmillenial style, whole-room suites of furniture still make for dated and boring rooms.
So, what is the solution without starting over?
The best way to have a comfortable and updated room - any room - is to NOT have suites of matching furniture that look like you just dragged the furniture store display room home en masse, but rather to have an interesting curated and collected mix of elements that reflects you and your personality. So how do you refresh the dining room without throwing everything out?
Here are some simple options to break up matching brown wood furniture.
Move some of the pieces to other rooms.
Could the sideboard move to a living room or foyer? Or could the china cupboard be restyled as a bookcase for a library or family room?
china cabinet as bookcase, image via Harp Gallery shop
Alter some of the pieces
Paint the china cupboard, the sideboard, or the dining chairs with an accent color to inject some life into the sea of brown wood. I know, I know…some of you just spiked your blood pressure at the thought of painting over “good wood”. So here is my take on that - if it is a valuable antique, or a beautiful exotic grained wood, maybe don’t. Otherwise, it’s probably fair game. Painted furniture has been around forever, it is not an invention of the shabby chic era, and it doesn’t need to be a distressed chippy finish. A glossy accent color on a set of traditional profile chairs can be a stunning way to update.
The green painted rattan chairs in the image below from Ballard Designs add such a fresh look to the stained wood table.
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Rattan painted chairs from Ballard Design
Remove the doors to the china cabinet to create a more casual open shelf cupboard. Cover the back of the shelf area with a textured wallpaper (you can even use removable wallpaper if you aren’t ready to commit to permanently altering the piece!)
Slipcover the side chairs to cover the wood and create some softness. Check out this post all about the joy of slipcovers.
We updated the matching ladderback chairs from this dining set with paisley chenille slipcovers in this great room dining area and added a new classic natural brass chandelier. | JRL Interiors, Acton MA | photo Carianne Kreml
Skirt the table with a tablecloth to the floor. This can be very elegant. I even used a skirted cheap folding table in my dining room the first few years until we could afford to buy real furniture. This option works best for a round table.
The table and chairs below was transformed with slipcovers and skirting when it moved from a formal dining space to a sunroom area.
Formal dining area with inlaid table and upholstered wood framed round back chairs | JRL Interiors, Acton MA | photo Jan Couch
Same table and chairs as in the above photo, but skirted and slipcovered for their new home in a sunroom | JRL Interiors, Acton MA | Photo Eric Roth
Replace some of the pieces
Sometimes, just changing out the chairs at the head and foot of the table and replacing them with upholstered host and hostess chairs is enough to do the trick. Move those armchairs to another room as desk or game table seating, or living room accent chairs.
Or replace the side chairs with upholstered skirted chairs - This also helps mitigate the “leg farm”. Dining rooms are famously overloaded with legs…4 legs on each chair times 6 - 8 chairs plus four table legs, plus 4 sideboard legs is…a LOT of legs in a concentrated area!
Here are some chairs to consider (click on image for link):
Mix in a new painted storage cabinet, or a stone topped piece, or a metal console, or a linen wrapped piece. This copper sideboard creates a nice mix in this contemporary dining room.
Contemporary dining room with upholstered dining chairs, graphic rug, modern chandelier, and metal sideboard | JRL Interiors, Acton MA
This formal dining room has a traditional inlaid table and a lot of dark stained millwork, so the chairs are upholstered in a variety of patterned fabrics and leathers and twin painted consoles topped with mirrors flank the fireplace.
Other Dining Room Updates to Consider:
Any one of these is a possibility to add a fresh look to your existing dining room. And you could consider slowly implementing other changes over time.
Upgrade the lighting
We refreshed this transitional dining room with a new, larger scaled chandelier, a new bold patterned rug, and a new painted and mirrored storage piece. You can see more about this project here | JRL Interiors, Acton, MA | Photo Emily O’Brien
Lighting cycles through trends all the time and is one of the fastest things to look dated if you chose a popular style. Unless you are going for retro, replace the smoked glass etched chandelier. You can choose a contemporary profile to shake up the look or a classic that won’t date quite so quickly. You can read all about how to get the size of the chandelier right…and how high you should hang it in this post.
Upgrade the area rug
Sometimes adding pattern or texture with a new rug is a great solution. Choosing an organic pattern helps hide the inevitable spills that occur in a dining space, and wool rugs are among the most cleanable and durable options. Most importantly, see this post to get the size of your dining area rug right!
Upgrade the background of the room
Add millwork - molding or wainscoting or ceiling details. Pro Tip: do NOT cut the room in half with wainscoting that goes halfway up the walls - go low or go high with the wainscoting. Exact height will depend on the proportions of the rooms and the ceiling height.
Add wallpaper or paint to the walls or ceiling. Metallic paint or wallcovering on the ceiling reflects the glow of the lights for a beautiful ambience. Color or texture or pattern on the walls or ceiling can dramatically alter the whole feel of the room. If you are shaking your head violently as a hard no because you are scarred from steaming and scraping old wallpaper, rest assured the new wallpaper is SO much easier to remove if you ever need to!
Upgrade or add new window treatments
Add new floor length panels or Roman shades to the windows. Window treatments make a room look finished like nothing else, and in a dining room where so much is hard surfaces, fabric on the windows is a welcome addition adding much needed softness and sound absorption.
Upgrade the decorative accessories
Shuffle favorite artwork from other rooms for a whole new feel. Add a mirror over the sideboard to reflect the chandelier. Add/update a pair of lamps on a console table or chest. Eliminate table runners and dresser scarves and add large trays instead. Add some natural elements - flowers, branches, or plants/trees to give life to the room. Experiment with styling your sideboard, hutch or table with things you already have reimagined in different ways. This post has some console table styling inspiration to get your creative juices flowing!
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