The Dining Room
The dining room is one of my favorite spaces in our house– mostly because it came together the way the best rooms do: slowly, a little accidentally, and better than anything I could have planned. And also because it has the most perfect yellow trim. It’s such a joyful space!
We think the dining room was originally a porch that the previous owners enclosed at some point. It was always a project for another day– I didn’t have a vision for it and it felt like a big undertaking. So we left it alone for several years.
Eventually we needed to have the floors redone downstairs and decided to include the dining room in the scope. It had grey tile, so this project also meant adding new hardwood floors throughout. I had no idea how much that one decision would transform the space!
Where The Design Started
The dining room started with the floors. We had the hardwood refinished and used it as an excuse to rethink the whole space. It’s red oak flooring with Loba stain in the color English Chestnut. It’s the most beautiful warm and rich brown with the slightest pink to it.
After the floors were refinished it was time to rethink the space! This is where I leaned on our home color palette.
Colors In The Dining Room
I use our color palette as a design tool. I know I love these colors and I know they look great with one another, so I feel really confident each time I need to pick a new color.
The dining room is where you really see how a color palette works across a space. It’s the same colors that we use around the house, but used in different ways and proportions. In this case, yellow steals the show, though in the other rooms it’s just a small accent.
I’d like to say there was a lot of thought put into painting the trim yellow, but it was just a gut feeling I had. I knew it would be the perfect color. I tested a few other yellows before committing but I knew all along that India Yellow had my heart.
Don’t Forget The Undertones
Wondering why I used Matchstick on the walls instead of Off White like the rest of the house? It comes down to undertones– and it’s one of the most useful things to understand before you pick a paint color. That’s all inside the membership.
Join usAdding In Other Colors
After we made the big wall and trim paint decisions I was able to focus on the furniture and decor.
Red
The Schoolhouse Forma table and coordinating chairs in persimmon came first and immediately set the tone — warm, bold, a little unexpected.
Blue
Then a few months later a blue vintage locker showed up at an antique shop and that was that. The room found itself.
The locker is way more electric than our color palette’s blue but I couldn’t resist it. Sometimes the right piece breaks the rules a little.
Pink
I continued to rely on my color palette for decisions and it guided me immediately to the right color for our buffet.
It was originally lime green when I bought it– my first furniture purchase for my first apartment in 2010! I then painted it Down Pipe a few years ago. This time? Templeton Pink. It’s such a lovely soft pink.
I brought pink into the pendant light, too. Well, and red and blue and yellow! There’s that color palette at work.
Just Around THe Corner
The breakfast nook and built-ins are in the same room as the dining room! This was a really fun project where we turned a walkway into a charming and functional space.
A look at the breakfast nookA Note On The Table & Chairs
The table and two armchairs are from Schoolhouse– I got them right before the company closed while transitioning to a new owner.
The plan was to add four matching side chairs for a complete look, but the timing didn’t work out.
What did work out: we realized that Romesco (the red we use throughout the house) was a really close match to the persimmon color of the table and chairs. And we happened to have four wood side chairs from our previous table just sitting there with nothing to do. So we painted them!
It looks like it was always the plan. If you love the look of red chairs but don’t want to spend a lot, paint works wonders!
Shop The Dining Room
Furniture
Dining Room Table
Currently not available
Caned Armchair
Currently Not Available
