How to Change the Style of a Formal Dining Room

Changing the style in the formal dining room requires you to consider a number of factors. Not only is this room a place where your family will gather to do activities like homework or pay monthly bills, it also functions as the epicenter of where you entertaining guests. As such, the decisions you make about changing the style should consider all these factors plus your tastes in decorating style as well as budget concerns. Does this Spark an idea?

Instructions

1

Select a new decorating scheme. If you already have a decorating style in your dining room, give some thought to how you'd like to morph your existing style into something new. While it may be that you have the budget to completely change the existing look by doing some thinking ahead of time, you may realize you have some pieces you'd like to keep like a side bar. Additionally, choosing a decorating motif will help you determine the new style of furniture and colors, because many styles like Tuscan or shabby chic have colors that are already associated with them.

2

Choose your paint colors based upon the decisions you made about your decorating scheme, and then paint the walls of the dining room.

3

Create a room focal point. Remember that good decorating relies on following some key decorating guidelines including the need for a focus in the room. If your dining room space allows for you, pick one wall that will be your focal wall. Use the paint to then emphasize this wall even further by painting one wall a single vibrant color like cobalt blue and the surrounding walls a color that contrasts with it like honey yellow. It's on this wall that you hang artwork and have furniture items like a side bar or hutch.

4

Scout out some appropriate artwork for the dining room. Many pieces of art exist on the market that would work well in the dining room. For example, if you've chosen Tuscan style you might look for artwork featuring the grape arbors in Tuscany, a street scene near a country cafe or a photograph of loaves of bread, pasta and other Italian fare.

5

Change the light fixtures to be more conducive to a dining room atmosphere. Consider hanging a chandelier over the dining room table. Put this on a dimmer switch so that when you have formal dinners featuring candle light, you can dim the lights. Additionally, base your choice of light fixtures on your decorating goals for the room.

6

Decide what your needs are for a dining room table. Some of the decision-making process for this will rely on your decorating style choices, but it will also depend on whether or not you have space for a large or small table. Also, consider that since this is the dining room, this piece will be one of the focal points in the room. Make sure the one you select works as a stand-alone piece as well as one that will be enhanced by your other decorating efforts like creating a focal wall.