Devine Decorating Results for Your Interior

Dress Up Your Dining Room for Delicious Dinners…

Posted by Ragan Corliss on November 10, 2010 · 4 Comments 

These are the photos and text to correlate with my radio interview on the Pete and Brenda radio show…

As major dinner holidays are approaching, this is a great time to think about dressing up your dining room for delicious dinners.   You may not use your formal dining room very often, but it’s an important place to provide great memories around eating memorable dinners, whether it’s with your kids and family or your good friends.   A larger dining table that can seat at least 8 people is a treasure to have, and it’s worth dressing up the room to create elegance and formality that add to the special memories that are created there!

Let’s look at the primary components that can help create elegance and formality:

• Wall treatments
• Window treatments
• Chandeliers and lighting
• Table center piece
• Artwork and accessories
• Area rugs

Diagram of an elegant dining room

Above:  What makes the above dining room sparkle?   The custom window treatments, chandelier, wall treatment, area rug, slip covers on chairs, and accessories. 

Click on images for larger view

Above:  The soft elegance of the window treatments in the above dining room combined with the ambient lighting from the chandeliers really stand out.

Elegant dining room. Source: Street of Dreams, Portland, OR

Above:   The tall height of table center piece setting and the large-scale artwork match the scale of the tall ceiling in the room.  Also, the wall,  chair and drapery fabric textures add elegance and beauty to the room providing the “wow” factor, as well as the chandelier!

Before photo

After

 Above:   You can really see the transformation by adding color to the walls, in the form of wallpaper in this case.  The round table is more conducive to involving all diners in the conversation.  The other attention grabbing interior design components in this room are the contrasting fabric in the window treatments paired with a similarly gold finished chandelier, both which contrast against the burgundy wallpaper.  And of course the accessories add the cherry on top, and the room would not look as polished without them!

Before photo

Diagram of a redecorated dining room

Above:  The amazing transformation of the above dining room stems not by adding new furniture, but instead adding two-tone color to the walls separated by a chair rail, the soft texture and color of the window treatments, new accessories, and above all the striking area rug!

Before

After

Above:  This time we removed the area rug as it just wasn’t doing the new color scheme justice. The new chandelier, wall tapestry, custom window treatment, and upholstered end chairs are the show stoppers in this room.  

Before

After paint and window treatments have been added

Above:   Show off your beautiful table settings by displaying them on the table in advance of your special meal.

Before

After

Above:  All we had to do was add artwork in the form of a beautiful mirror and a mural by Johanna Annable, as well as a two-tone wall color, plus some accent furniture pieces and accessories.

Before photo

After photo

Above:   Aside from switching out a window for a French door, this dining room was transformed by raising the ceiling by taking out the horizontal trim line and adding the vertical line of drapery panels that stretch from floor to ceiling.  Never hang your draperies shorter than the floor.   Additionally the beautiful Quoizel chandelier  is a great focal point, and the contrast of the cream fabric on the chairs and window treatment create the “WOW” factor when you walk into the room.

Before

After photo

Above:   A 1950’s dining room is given a fresh paint treatment of diamonds painted out of granite paint.  The entire house was covered in wallpaper without any texture on the walls, so the granite paint instantly added some texture to the walls. 

After

Above:  The wall vases are fun to add seasonal accents to.  Here they’re dressed for fall and Thanksgiving diner.

I’ll talk more about creating stunning table center pieces and coordinating accessories next week!  TTFN!