Adding some whimsy to a "dated" red dining room with fabric?
We eat in our dining room every night. I still like the red more than other colors at this time and have been trying to find another color for years to redo it with to no avail. I still love red dining rooms it seems. I have black toile fabric on seats on a window seat that after many children and cats needs to be switched out. I want something a little bit lighter and fun. I have grey and turquoise or more accurately sea foam colors in the adjoining living room and want to add some turquoise to the dining room too.
I found this bird fabric for very cheap and I like it for it adds a bit of whimsy to the heavy room but not sure if it looks wrong. Here it is wrapped around the seats and window bench, which is being rebuild in a few weeks so I need to decide in the next few weeks. We are also replacing the chandelier as soon as I can decide on one I like best.
Thoughts( pillows go with present toile fabric and will be replaced after I finalize my fabric choice)
View from living room. Rug is temporarily but will not be replaced til last child turns five...
View from kitchen
Comments (17)
roarah
7 years agoRelated Discussions
Straw in dining chair cushions-- does this indicate a date?
Comments (166)Looks almost like a chair in "Antique Trader" price book, chair is called Missionstyle (Arts & Crafts movement) book is from 2010 & price listed was $570. That is a very nice chair & I would fix it properly. Not saying your chair is worth that much, you need to clean it up, see if it's oak. Go to library & look in Antique furniture book to see what seat looked like. AS to age I'm sure someone can help on that but I sat on 1 similar to that in my granpa's ins. office 70 yrs ago, seat was dark brown leather, I felt very important , suppose that is why I remember it so well.& I think it had been there a long time. book mentions 1 from 1900 as Mission. The piece under the arms that curves out I haven't seen before. Will be very nice chair when cleaned up!...See MoreDining Room update: 2/3 drapes up....
Comments (31)JanniferPA, go for it! My MIL bought me a sewing a machine for my birthday a couple of years ago, specifically so that I could sew curtains. I had literally zero experience with sewing before that. She showed me how to use my machine to do a straight stitch, which took about 5 minutes to learn. That's all I needed. I simply take a bolt of fabric and fold over and sew in the the unfinished edges all around. I have once lined the curtains, but generally skip it bc all the curtains in our house are dummy panels that aren't meant to really be functional. I have roller shades in most of the windows. I don't like the look of a fully closed curtained window. Sometimes, I just leave an opening at the top to let a pole slip through. With these I sewed on a pleater tape at the top and attached curtain hooks and rings. It was super easy. We have a 12 foot window in our great room that I made curtains for by buying PB windows and adding a contrasting fabric on the bottom to lengthen them. My projects are by no means professional looking, but I think that to me and 99% of the population they look great. Plus, I think they are more interesting and cheaper than most of what I could find out there to purchase. Anyway, good luck!...See MoreI really need some advice for my dining room!
Comments (8)It depends if it's an interior door, or the front door. If an interior door, if you wall it off, it looks like you might obstruct part of the door frame. I don't know if the other posters are talking about walling it off in a "box," or creating an entire fake wall across that wall, which which case you would need to either move the baseboards, or get new baseboards - and those are old baseboards and you may have to have them custom made - even though they are not fancy baseboards. As an alternative you could repair the holes in the floor and ceiling and paint the pipes the same color as the walls. A good drywaller should be able to repair the open ceiling corner. If you wall it off in a box shape, it could have the potential to look cheesy. In my previous house, it was an old house like yours and had the furnace pipe running up from the basement through a corner of the bathroom through the roof. I painted it the same color as the wall and it looked fine. May be difficult to get in the corners behind the pipes, but it's doable....See MoreDining Room Design Using Heirloom Dining Set
Comments (16)I love that furniture and wouldn’t paint it ... it has beautiful lines, nice details, lovely color, and more depth as is than paint would. I think it works better for a transitional dining room ... it brings the traditional to the mix. I’m a fan of painted furniture, but more for pieces that don’t have original, redeeming qualities (although there are some beautiful examples posted here for sure). There’s nothing wrong with embracing sentimental value, unless it’s something truly hideous. :) I would wallpaper the big wall the bar is on. Of course there are a million photos in searches ... here’s some: https://www.houzz.com/photos/wallpaper-dining-room-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_722~a_3406-20866 You really could go in any direction: bold, colorful patterns, grasscloth in natural or colors, a muted color/pattern. I like your idea of sconces with the bar. You said you have gray in your house, too, which made me think of these rooms using vintage furniture in an updated style: Not vintage furniture here, just showing the wall color and other elements: I hope you’ll keep us updated!...See More
My3dogs ME zone 5A
7 years agoroarah, check out eBay for Thibaut fabrics, There are a lot of listings, many for enough that you'd need to cover the cushion. This is an exceptional bargain, as it's a discontinued one. But 2.75 yards of Thibaut Camelot for $10.80!
You probably don't want red, but what a bargain. I have taken a pic from online as I think the auction pic is off in its color.
roarah thanked My3dogs ME zone 5Apalimpsest
7 years agoroarah
7 years ago
Sueb20
7 years agoMy random thoughts:
The new fabric seems too light and doesn't have enough oomph for your wall color.
I don't think you should necessarily match the window seat cushion to your chair cushions. Maybe 2 different fabrics, and if you want to tie them together visually, use the dining-chair fabric to make toss pillows for the window seat.
I would take the turquoise "idea" from the adjacent room but punch it up to something closer to a dark teal. I think that will work much better with the red and black.
Not necessarily these fabrics, but this depth of color. (Or even deeper on the teal -- just couldn't find darker samples quickly.)
Do the drapes stay? TBH, I don't think they're adding anything to the room.Finally, have you ever considered painting the wall molding red (wall color) instead of white? I think those white lines create a level of busy-ness that is sort of distracting. We have similar woodwork in our DR, and originally had it painted white, but changed it years ago and I like the room much better that way. Just my two cents, which you are welcome to ignore. :-)
roarah thanked Sueb20chibimimi
7 years agoroarah
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agochibimimi
7 years agoMy3dogs ME zone 5A
7 years agoI have used this in the past and like it very much. I made a pillow this winter in the dark brown colorway. Portfolio Lutron Vintage Fabric $22.50 per yard
Lots of colors to pick up in the room.
Or the fabric that I made my spring/summer office panels from last year - 'Latika' in the 'circus colorway -
$19.95 a yard at Fabric Guru, or $62.86 per yard at Online Fabric Store!
Richloom Madrid in 'Persia' $23.95 yd at Fabric Guru
roarah thanked My3dogs ME zone 5ASunnysmom
7 years ago
This may not be the right red.. http://www.sailrite.com/Covington-Whimsy-Mardi-Gras-Fabric?gclid=CKrDlO2Hm9ICFdgGgQodelUAyA
If you are artistic you may be able to come up with your own pattern.. maybe let your kids design it.
palimpsest