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The Easiest Room to Decorate: The Dining Room
If you suffer from indecision and a lack of confidence in decorating, I recommend starting with your dining room. It's a very simple formula: Table + Chairs + Light Fixture + Dinner = You're Done! The rug, centerpiece, and any side pieces are optional. Get the table first—figure out the size you need and go from there. As long as your table fits in the room with some space to walk around it, you cannot go wrong.
The simplest way to set up a dining room is with a Price Is Right matchy-matchy set. Resist the temptation. Look at how great these shell chairs look with a wooden table and a DIY light fixture over at The Brick House.
This dining area literally uses the bare minimum—just a table and chairs that let the view be the main focus.
This dining room has beautiful built-ins and trimwork. These details are rectilinear while the table and chandelier bring in circles.
Here the designer has started with a base of wood with the table and chairs, brought in amber glass in the light fixture, and added steel with the cabinet.
Because the stone wall provides such gorgeous texture, the simple table and chairs are a great choice.
A spare minimal space is perfect for a hefty wood table and sculptural chairs—they really have a chance to shine here. The crisp white pendant seems like an extension of the ceiling.
OK, now we're getting into rug territory. A good guide for getting the rug size right: Push all of the chairs out so that edges of the seats are about one foot away from the edge of the table. Your rug should be at least large enough to extend underneath this area.
Because this room does not have any sort of hanging light fixture, a tall centerpiece draws the eye up and provides a focal point.
Here we're getting just a little more complex. The patterned rug is the most eye-catching element in the room, and the upholstered chairs pick up color from the rug. The soft chairs contrast with the large wooden table. Finally, the black ring chandelier brings some of the dark colors from the rug up into the lighter part of the ceiling.
Hmmm, a motorcycle in the dining room. Could be a deal-breaker for a couple!
This dining room caused a bit of controversy between the Victorian fans and the Contemporary fans! Personally, I love that the room has a base of original Victorian details, a traditional Venetian Fortuny pendant, and a very contemporary and sculptural table. It's "Massachusetts, meet Italy; Italy, this is Massachusetts! Have a great time getting to know each other!"
If you aren't comfortable with a very spare dining room, perhaps a dining room-slash-library is an idea for you. This is a great spot for getting work done and making good use of the space any time of day.
This dining room is bold and has horizontal tiers: the red stripe of lights, the wide piece of art, the chair tops, the stripe of red from the seats, and finally the Flor tiles. It looks complicated, but sticking to a simple and strict color palette makes it easy to pull a room like this together.
If I have said it once, I've said it a hundred times, but have some fun with the chairs you pick! Forget the matchy-matchy sets and go with something you absolutely love. You'll be amazed at the variety of chairs that look great with the big old dining table you inherited from Nana.