The Best Colors for Dining Rooms

Gathering your family and loved ones for a formal or holiday meal often means taking advantage of the dining room space, so you'll want the area to be as attractive and welcoming as possible. Several color choices will help you accomplish this, and even a few shades that will motivate everyone to enjoy the mouth-watering spread you've prepared. Does this Spark an idea?

Burgundy

This rich and royal shade of red is perfect if the rest of the dining room is adorned in dark neutrals like oak or chocolate brown. Burgundy walls will make the dining room especially sophisticated; you can paint an entire accent wall a dark cranberry color, or adorn half the walls in burgundy, and the other half in a golden brown or cinnamon color. Flower arrangements for the center of the table in jewel-toned red are pleasing to the eye and lend intimacy to the space; add a silk burgundy table runner to the center of a dark oak table to complete the color scheme.

Canary Yellow

A pronounced shade of yellow like canary makes the dining room cheery and upbeat, and is a wonderful decorative choice if there are children in the home. Yellow increases the metabolism and gets everyone a little more motivated to sit down to a meal. Either horizontal or vertical yellow stripes on a tan or off-white accent wall are attractive and impressive in the dining room and displays a sound mixture of childlike appeal and modern decorative boldness. Yellow floral arrangements like daisies or daffodils are a pretty springlike addition to the dining room space, or arrange a collection of candles in varying shades of yellow to make the area even more cheerful.

Coral

Coral can be a muted shade of red or intense shade of pink that can make the dining room appear cozier; warm shades like red and pink also stimulate the appetite. Artwork featuring coral flowers on the walls of your dining room, housed in bronze or gold frames, are both attractive and refined. Tablecloths or runners in a coral color, lined with fabrics in metallic shades, add a sense of maturity to the dining room, and placemats in this eye-catching pink hues are an ideal addition to a table with a glass top.

Olive Green

A dining room with a Tuscan theme, or a space with neutral tones, will benefit from olive green walls and table decor. This muted shade of green is in the family of cool colors, and makes the room feel relaxed and slightly larger. Green is also the color of growth, and can be included in your dining room decor to represent your expanding family. The hue is demure enough to use on all the room's walls, and can be featured on a white or black dining room table in the form of potpourri and candle holders.