As the entertainment center of your home, choosing smart dining room paint ideas is a great way for your home to make a great impression on guests. Depending on your routine, this may be a place you use a lot or only when you visit for more formal meals, but either way, it’s a place people will stay for long periods of time in your house. Why not give them something interesting to watch?
Yes, the dining room is a great canvas for creative painting ideas. There isn’t much demand for anything on the walls like there is in other rooms in the house, like the kitchen or living room, so you have carte blanche to focus on decorating. But, of course, painting is not limited to walls.
To inspire a more creative use of paint in the dining room, we’ve found some ingenious examples of how color and pattern can be used in this room. If you want to take this piece up a notch in the aesthetic department, here’s all the inspiration you’ll need.
10 dining room painting ideas for creative decorating
“Dining rooms are the hub of a home where people gather to eat and socialize and so it’s important to recognize the many senses and emotions already at play,” says John Ashton of Albany. “Choose colors that evoke the atmosphere you want to create, whether it’s soothing and relaxed or fun and entertaining.”
1. Consider eye-catching contrast
(Image credit: Little Greene)
Great contrast can add great personality. This eye-catching, though bright and primary, palette uses vibrant natural colors for a creative scheme that suits this rustic space.
By adding spring greens for a harmonious mood, the two colors, adjacent on the color wheel, create a striking interior. If you have a small dining room with little sunlight, mix in light neutrals to reduce the visual heaviness that might be created with this color palette.
2. Color a Dining Room for Drama
(Image credit: Stamatios Giannikis. Photo by Kim Powell)
The color trend is taking over every room, and that doesn’t exclude the dining room. Using painted walls, ceilings, moldings and baseboards, the idea is to fill the space with a single color.
For the design of this Waterfront Nikis apartment, architect Stamatios Giannikis chose three bright colors to organize the space. The flamingo pink was used in the spaces that overlook the sea, the azure blue is used in the spaces with a view of the neighborhood and the pastel green hue is used in the humid spaces of the apartment such as the kitchen, the bathroom. shower and toilet.
“The use of bright colors is done to complement and enhance the power of the sea view, not to suppress it,” says Stamatios. “Pastel green is used to create serenity in functional spaces, and flamingo pink is used to frame the true azure blue of the Mediterranean Sea.”
You can choose a soft, medium or bold and enveloping color, or even their tonal variations and paint on the woodwork, the inside of the doors and the window frames. Interestingly, this dining room color idea will also help flatten less attractive elements, like radiators, by making them fade into the background.
‘Keep it in the family. Painting walls, trims and details in different shades of the same color family, such as gray or light blue, then layering shades of white in fabrics, decor and/or furniture will make your entire space feel bigger says Lance Thomas, lead designer at Thomas Guy Interiors.
3. Open up the space with light walls and a white ceiling
(Image credit: Design by Danielle Brustman + The Stylesmiths. Photo by Nicole England)
When designing a dining room, many of us prefer warm hues, especially browns, yellows and blues. That’s because they’re comfortable and inviting, and they create the perfect backdrop for meetings, conversations, and meals.
By choosing a light blue dining room wall idea and complementing it with white borders and ceiling, Danielle Brustman and The Stylesmiths were able to create a wonderfully cocooned space. The wall colors offset the deep-toned dining room furniture and the dark, reflective walls. This delicate lighting piece and mirror also add charm.
“So many urban apartments, certainly in New York City, are open space color schemes,” says Jennifer Morris, Principal Designer, JMorris Design. “Keeping all the rooms crisp white creates a modern loft feel and allows other materials, furniture and accessories to shine. We especially love the white paired with gorgeous, rich woods like in the console and pendant lights.
4. Paint a mural
(Image credit: Lance Gerber. Design: Petronio Studio)
If you want to turn your dining room into the focal point of the home, and if you host often and want the most impressive room on display, choose to paint a wall mural across the room. These are much more textured than wallpapers and if you get a custom one you can give the room a personal touch.
Although not everyone is an expert in painting, you can find a pattern you like and use a stencil to copy it onto your walls. But if painting one isn’t on the agenda, you can opt for decals that can be stuck on and removed easily.
5. Create an accent wall
(Image credit: Baldiwala Edge)
Do you have a favorite color that you’ve been dying to use but worried it’ll overwhelm everything in the room? An accent wall is an answer!
Accent walls are a quick and easy way to change the mood of a space. Plus, it’s a great and affordable change of scenery.
A well-placed accent wall also draws the eye to a focal point in the space. Here, the blue gives depth to the room, painted in the recessed part of the wall. It also subtly delimits the dining area from the rest of the room.
6. Be brilliant on carpentry
(Image credit: 2LG)
Murals don’t just have to stop at walls and ceilings. Wash them over the millwork and create a perfectly bright space that commands attention. In this room, the green walls and painted cabinets almost read as one seamless feature wall. Another important lesson from this project designed by 2LG studio is the clever concept of repetition.
This is an important part of good design and a popular paint trend where a dominant color is reflected in a room, creating a visual path around the room.
“As open-plan dining rooms become more popular, consider colors used in other prominent spaces as well,” says John Ashton of Albany. “For example, green is a great choice for garden-view dining rooms and the natural hue will bring a cool yet calm feel to the space.”
7. Create a dramatic entrance by painting the arch dark
(Image credit: Design by Madeleine Blanchfield. Photo Prue Ruscoe)
Who doesn’t love gallant bows? This is probably the first thing you learn in Architecture 101. Not only are these marvels of engineering seen throughout history, but their shapes also give spaces a soft, whimsical effect. Arches have received so much love over the decades that they have now become decorative additions in interior design.
Even a modest space can benefit from this historic bloom, and by painting it, you can create the most dramatic effect in the humblest of spaces. The painted interior arches enhance the value of the house and give it grandeur.
8. Experiment with painted furniture
(Image credit: Design by Harper Design + Build. Photo by Nick Sargent-8-5)
There’s something so charming about mismatched tables and chairs; they almost have a touch of the outdoors.
A great way to add hues to the dining room is with colorful furniture. You can use special outdoor spray paints to give your old stools, chairs and tables a new look. Painting furniture can become a great weekend project.
If you have artistic abilities, you can use your furniture as a blank canvas to paint a beautiful scene on it. Think floral patterns, face typography. Your dining set is sure to become a great conversation starter.
9. Add depth with color blocking
(Image credit: Little Greene)
Try a tonal look for the biggest impact. One way to do this is to dress the space with analogous colors, which fall next to each other on the spectrum. It means layering.
If you decide to choose opposing shades, remember to keep a balance between their intensity and quantity. Here, teal sets a largely soothing scheme while yellow, used as a border, adds a pop of hue, and brown balances the whole scheme.
A secret to successful color blocking is to make sure the rich pigments are cut by bands of crisp white. This will allow the eyes to rest and give the space a less exuberant feel. Plus, with effective dining room lighting ideas, you can make sure the space is bright and airy. “Another approach is to go for white and gloss on the walls and a feature color or patterned wallcovering on the ceiling,” says Lance. “It will make a noteworthy statement.”
10. Dip the walls in lime paint
(Image credit: White Arrow)
Those who love earthy interiors will love the idea of lime paint. It is a finish full of textural qualities due to its sandstone aggregate. It looks like putty, although it is generally soft to the touch.
This paint finish has a grounded, romantic feel and can wrap a room in old-world charm. It is also an excellent alternative to paint for those who prefer more hypoallergenic solutions, as the alkaline pH of limestone makes it more resistant to mold and bacteria.
Should I paint my dining room black?
If you want to make your dining room cozy, dark paint can do wonders. Deep charcoal grays, moody blues and teals can set the mood of a perfect gathering place for a night out with friends. Even black by the way is a wonderful shade with a lot of depth.
One thing to consider though, in a dark dining room you should ideally look to increase the lighting in the space, so it doesn’t feel too closed off. While opening the windows and adding more appliances might solve the problem, you can take the more decorative route of glossy paints that bounce light around the room.
Besides paintings, you can also consider dining room wallpaper in dark tones. The colors could help exaggerate the depth of the room and make it appear larger and more intimate.