If you are keeping the adjacent wall color, why not just pain the walls the same color, that will lighten it up. You could also change out the rug with color but a lighter background in it.

You are right on, the house was built in 1998! Thank you for the advice.

Here is my mocking up with Bev's idea with blue

You can go with yellow, beige or cream as well

or with sage

or any color from your rug.

Light blue /gray from your rug

I really like Celerygirl's mockups of the sage and the light blue/gray.

This might inspire you.

Royal York Renovation and Decoration: Dining Room · More Info

Your ideabook is full of pale blue and white. Are the walls red wallpaper or red paint?

If you want to get started right away, prime the walls with two or three coats of white primer. Then use a light blue from the rug for new paint.

Take the shades off the chandelier for a much brighter room in winter. In summer, put them back on.

Along with all the great ideas you've gotten, I would also add draperies. If you need some daytime privacy then sheers with side panels to close at night. If you don't need daytime privacy then I'd remove the blinds and just have draperies you can close at night. The blinds just don't seem to complement the rest of your style/furnishings.

Your dining room table and chairs are classic and will never go out of style. Your rug too is great but I would move it to another room and replace with something much lighter in colour, perhaps another oriental rug or maybe something more modern. The spaces around your dining room have wainscotting with panels below. Those bottom panels are missing from your dining room so I'd add them, the chair rail looks odd without the panels below. Then I would paint the wainscot the same white as the other wainscot. Paint above the wainscott a soft cream so it will be slightly different from the wainscot. On your window wall, move the plant to another room and add white linen drapes. Remove the tapestry, candle sconces, mirror, and that little table with the lamp (that table is much too small scale for this room, looks like baby furniture). Add a single piece of art to the tapestry wall in large scale, don't do small pieces. Replace your chandelier with something more current and reupholster your chair seats in solid cream (this is an easy DIY). And then stop. Your dining room table and chairs are the stars of this room. Keep it simple. Table, chairs, rug, drapes, chandelier, one large piece of art. And BTW, your table looks really stately with the extensions, I'd leave them in all the time. Perhaps one more decor item would be something for the middle of the table. And make it one single thing and make it large scale.

Yes I agree about adding draperies.

I would take down the wallpaper and prime the walls (under wallpaper too) and re-assess the space. Are the columns the same color as other spaces or just the bottom part of dining area? It looks a little dingy but perhaps that's the lighting (esp if the nook i same color)

Thank you all so much, you have given me much to think about. I had removed the drapes last year because I thought they looked dated but agree I need to add some back. FYI my idea book was for a different property on the coast. This house is much more traditional. Again, thank you for your ideas!

I am always careful in giving advice on a single room. Colors in a home should create a sense of harmony as you walk from one room to the next. You can make this room a beautiful blue, but if it doesn't speak to the other rooms in the house it will feel disjointed and like it doesn't belong.

I like to create whole home color palettes.

Here is a link to how I go about picking colors.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5832220/how-i-select-a-whole-home-color-palette