I need so much help with my tiny dining room!

13 years ago

We just moved in to a new house - everything is beige (carpet and walls) and we have virtually no furniture. I'm eager to bring some color and style to our home, but really have NO idea what to do! So... first project is the dining room. We finally bought a dining table (Restoration Hardware Portman Extension Round table), but now we need to select chairs. I found these striped ones at Target, but am not thrilled with the quality or color. I want to paint the walls and feel like I'd need to kind of match one of the colors of the stripes, and a teal-green or gold doesn't sounds too great to me. Another option is the brown leather pullman chairs from crate and barrel - I like the idea of this because with two small children, leather is so much easier to clean than fabric. Not sure about the style of these chairs with our table though. Anybody have any ideas about this? These chairs, or different ones? Colors for the wall? Window treatments? Any advice or opinions would be greatly appreciated I'm lost! If I can figure out how to post pictures, I will... : )

Comments (11)

pilotwife1
Original Author
13 years ago
sorry - I don't know how to do this!

Here is a link that might be useful: chair from target
teacats
13 years ago
Can you post photos? Lots of photos? Always helpful! Start a free account or album at Photobucket ....

Another source to check is Overstock -- lots of chairs!

Jan at Rosemary Cottage
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I'm sorry, I don't really understand what your question is, exactly? Are you asking what more you should add, or looking for advice on whether you should add another couch or a table, or...? How big is the room, first? Do you have or can you do a quick sketch or photo, and post it to give us some idea of the layout (like, where are the doors, are all the walls square or is there an angled wall or a wide entryway into another room or something)? Where are the windows and how big are they? Do you want lots of sunlight to enter the room or do you want blackout curtains? What color are the walls, or what color will you be painting them (or are you looking for advice on that, too)? What type of flooring is in the room now--tile, wood? That's a lovely little sofa (my couch is also from Macy's! I love it) and rug; it can definitely be the start of a lovely room! Going just by the info you've given and nothing else, I'd pick one of the light colors from the rug--maybe the palest spot of orange--and paint the walls that color, with ivory curtains (or ivory/cream walls and orange curtains, you choose; I'm currently painting my own living room orange so I may be biased). Get a nice print or painting for one wall; a beach scene, maybe, with lots of blues, yellows, and oranges. You could get a coffee table and a side table or two in the same wood as the sofa legs, or get some painted or finished in either a pale or a bright color, depending on what look and feel you're going for. Like, a bright yellow or orange coffee table, maybe in an interesting shape, would make the room look more cheerful and modern, whereas a plain, solid rectangle table in ivory/cream or palest blue would be more cozy-looking. A bright solid or patterned throw will give it one look whereas a soft, thick, fuzzy throw in a solid pale color will give it another. So what look are you going for? What have you done in the rest of the house? Good luck! There are a lot of great people here with great taste, so if you can provide more info you're bound to get some excellent advice and ideas!
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prairiedawnpam
13 years ago
Pullman chairs from Crate and Barrel
http://images.crateandbarrel.com/is/image/Crate/PullmanLthrSdChrRed3QF7?$family$

I'm not a designer, but think either chair would go. The ones from Crate and Barrel are available in a few different colors of leather.

What do you want to draw the eye to? The table? A wall? The window(s) with a view? Is the dining room visible from other rooms? How do they flow? When do you get natural light in the room?

Have you already selected artwork or dishes or are you starting from scratch?

What's the style of your home?

...Pam

Here is a link that might be useful: Pullman Table
pilotwife1
Original Author
13 years ago
Jan - you're awesome! Thanks for letting me know about photobucket! Here's a few pictures. The room is only about 12x12, and, aside from the table, we are totally starting from scratch. The dining room is visible from the entry/living room, and also from the kitchen. There is pretty good natural light in the room - but no view. I plan on repainting the entire interior of the house, and this room will be the starting point. I would like a serene palette, but would like to get away from beige. For the dining room, I had envisioned a blue-green-gray, but the striped chairs threw me off, so I haven't selected a color yet. I don't have any artwork, or any other furniture so far, and am holding off on window treatments until I get a little further along.

Here is a link that might be useful: My dining room so far...
larke
13 years ago
I agree with Prairiedawnpam in that I think you need to step back, forget chairs for a moment (that's not what she said, but it's coming) and look at the bigger picture, the rooms around the dining room, whether or not you're keeping the carpet, where your whole color pallet will come from (outside of a stripe in one dining chair), whether or not you want your living/dining area and surroundings to the one 'period' look, or classical, traditional, some 'theme' (not a great idea), and what you just plain love, forgetting about 'style' altogether. Don't rush this, you're lucky enough to have a relatively blank slate and not a lot to 'fit in' to the space that you brought with you. Look at magazines, talk to people, take time to go through dedicated stores and see what really grabs you over time... and don't just rush to buy the first thing you see that's 'red', or 'square', etc. Know where you want to go with it all to some extent - your place will look better, pulled together, and your money will go a lot farther.
xantippe
13 years ago
I agree! Don't rush. We have a literally tiny dining room (maybe half the size of yours), and when we bought the house, we immediately rushed out and bought the only table/chairs that would fit. What an expensive mistake! Several months later, we found the most amazing table and chairs (well, Japanese stools, actually) and are amazed at how much better they look and function.

So... breathe... there's no hurry! Live with the space a little while, and then you will know what you really want.
prairiedawnpam
13 years ago
Do you already own anything special you want to keep in your dining room or in an adjoining room? Pick something you LOVE for your dining room and that has colors you love, too, and borrrom that object for your inspiration. It could be a piece of art, a fabric, dishes, etc. Another idea is to Google "blue dining room" and "green dining room" and see what images come up in your search. One is posted below.

Here is a link that might be useful:
prairiedawnpam
13 years ago
Another dining room with blue, green and grey.

Here is a link that might be useful:
loribee
13 years ago
Congrats on your new home...
you are off to a great start with that pretty table.
I like either chairs and can see the room painted a soft blue-green like Benjamin Moore Palladian Blue, Wythe Blue or Quiet Moments. How about finding a lovely painting or 2 for inspiration??

Here is a link that might be useful: JCP perennial prints
pilotwife1
Original Author
13 years ago
Thank you all so much for your help!! I've got a long way to go, but this gives me some good places to start. I really like the advice of taking the time to find things I really love (that helped me decide to take those chairs back)...
bronwynsmom
13 years ago
Here's another thought to toss in the bucket.

Our previous house had a too-small dining room, and if I had it to do over again, I would either have turned it into a den/office/TV room, or expanded the kitchen into it, or both, and used the much larger library as the dining room.
Think about your life, your family, your interests; live in the house for a while, and set your rooms up accordingly.

We have friends who weren't sure how they wanted their house to work, so they got two sawhorses and a blank door from the lumber yard, and a bunch of yard sale chairs, and just moved them all over the place to decide where they wanted the dining room to be. It was particularly charming, because they both have exquisite taste and pickiness, and have inherited and accumulated beautiful things. They called this "our year of pigging it," and we had some very jolly dinner parties there during that phase.

I need so much help with my tiny dining room!

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pilotwife1
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teacats

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I need so much help with my tiny dining room!

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