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greatroomgirl

I need help with my dining room!

12 years ago
Dining table is 12 feet long made of thick wood planks. Walls are sun dried tomato colour, floors are medium/dark hardwood. Dining room is open to kitchen, great room, and sitting room with views of the backyard. Colours in the kitchen are black & white, great room has funky colourful carpet with brown and black leather, sitting room has a green desk with striped chairs. Flor carpet squares would be ideal for the dining room since the carpet would need to be 8 feet by 16 feet. Would a bold, colourful carpet be better or a more muted one? Also, what do put on the back of the dining room wall? With an opening to the hall & bedrooms on that back wall, placing art on the wall is ackward.

Comments (21)

  • PRO
    12 years ago
    I would go for a muted carpet as there are lots of different colors happening.
    greatroomgirl thanked Dytecture
  • PRO
    12 years ago
    This is a great space, but the colour blocking with the red is pulling this off balance. I would love to see a more muted colour in the dining area. A green - pulled from the living room carpet - would really set off the dark table. Right now, I'm only seeing red wall with chair backs. The table is invisible because of the strong dark wall. By itself, the dining area is beautiful and intimate...but it pulls the rest of the open concept off balance. A floor rug will be nice...but it will not balance the space nor show off the table. A medium 'sage' green that is in keeping with the carpet will balance the room, set off the table and allow for the tomato red to be incorporated in the accessories and art for breath taking effect. If you want to keep the intimate feeling of the space while using a lighter wall colour - paint the ceiling.
    greatroomgirl thanked Cancork Floor Inc.
  • 12 years ago
    Interesting! The dining walls were the first to get painted before any of the furniture or greens were introduced to the room. I love green so that is a great suggestion!
  • 12 years ago
    If you mat a grid of art in a warm earth tone like linen for the back wall, the sense of red will be significantly diminished in the rest of the space. I think something green could work but difficult to match what you have without "matching" what you have and a different shade of green will clash with your existing green. Like the concept . . . just makes execution a lot more difficult.
    greatroomgirl thanked libradesigneye
  • 12 years ago
    Maybe I'll do the art work first then see how the red looks. Thanks for the suggestions!
  • 12 years ago
    Also thinking of lightening up the dining rooms chairs since these ones are starting to break down. I see now how the brown chairs around a brown table is a bit dull.
  • 12 years ago
    They are classic in style - recovering the chairs in an ikat print to bring the colors together could be amazing. Just now reread / understood cancork was saying repaint the walls rather than get a green rug! Good for future if / when you get tired of red but it is such a happy color that I love what it adds to the room.
    greatroomgirl thanked libradesigneye
  • 12 years ago
    Thanks for the suggestion. After shopping for new dining room chairs today, I came to the conclusion that recovering the chairs might be a better choice! I am shocked at the price of chairs!
  • 12 years ago
    You might treat the leather, pick a heavier weight fabric and just get slipcovers made. With the parsons type chair, you may be able to buy washable slipcovers - test if the ikea henrikksdal work and go shopping at bemz where they make aftermarket ikeas? if you sew, diy?
  • 12 years ago
    Thanks! I will check out the IKEA slipcovers. Thanks for the tip!
  • 12 years ago
    You have a huge/great space. It is interesting that you have no real seating in front of your fireplace, just what appears to be a "partner's desk" home office. What does the rest of your great room look like? I would love to create 2 seating areas to incorporate the fireplace more. it looks like you have a huge family or like to entertain big groups. how nice to have all that room. I would think that you would be better to buy new dining rooms chairs and sell or donate the current ones. To reupholster all 10-12 (not sure) chairs would have to be $300 per, plus the cost of your fabric. If it were just the seats, you can easily do it yourself. You can find great slipcovers in catalogs and store for them too. Would soften the space some too. Looks like a lot of leather and wood , but not much fabric in there.
    greatroomgirl thanked sunnydrew
  • 12 years ago
    Thanks for your suggestions! Funny that you mention the seating in front of the fireplace because we've just rearranged the space and removed the black leather sofa and black love seat from that area and incorporated them into the great room area. We always have a lot of people over for meals and found that the two separate seating arrangements didn't work. Now we have a big area for seating with an intimate area in front of the fireplace with the desk, and two fabric slipper chairs. We find that everyone can now see everyone else. Tomorrow we have 16 people for Canadian Thanksgiving dinner so we'll see how this new seating works. I like your idea of buying new dining room chairs so will be on the lookout for some over the next few months. It's very easy having leather with so many people coming and going but I think fabric dining room chairs would be great way to lighten up the dining room. Once the chairs are selected, I can add a carpet and artwork to the dining room. I'll update with an after photo once it's all done!
  • 12 years ago
    A small carpet in the fireplace room would also be nice.
  • 12 years ago
    Hard to see from a photo how the rooms are open to each area.
  • 12 years ago
    It's not a big house, just a 3 bedroom bungalow that's been renovated to remove some of the old interior walls. The roof line over the kitchen and great room was lifted into an A frame to create a loft like feel.
  • 12 years ago
    This is the "before" floor plan.
  • PRO
    12 years ago
    There is a lot going on in this open space. A lot of furniture, I would keep the dining area simple.
    greatroomgirl thanked Stanton Designs-online design services
  • 12 years ago
    Where did you find your dining room table?
    greatroomgirl thanked ljconte
  • 12 years ago
    It was a custom order to fit the space. Lemon Lime Design on Main St. Newmarket, Ontario, Canada.
  • 12 years ago
    Thank you very much! I appreciate your reply. The table is beautiful!
    greatroomgirl thanked ljconte