VWB Blog Studies show that family meals help increase psychosocial health as well as nutrient consumption. In other words, eating together as a family is better for your health and your family ties.
One way to ensure your family eats together every day is by creating a gorgeous dining space to enjoy your meals.
Sitting on the sofa picking absently at your food while you gaze mindlessly at the latest TV series does nothing for interpersonal communications or your digestion.
So, head to your dining room, rip off those dust covers, and start planning your dining room makeover today with these awesome ideas.
Light, Color, Action
In many cases, dining rooms and eating nooks end up cramped into a small room, off the main areas of your home, and left for dead until Christmas every year.
These dimly lit, dull dining rooms are enough to dampen even the most voracious appetites and depress the urge to make conversation. Nobody said dining rooms must follow the 1800s trend of dark wood paneling and candlelit interiors
A new coat of paint, preferably in a light shade, can do much to send the walls outward. This creates an appearance of space and lifts the mood in these smaller eating areas.
Get rid of heavy drapes and replace them with modern, light-colored blinds to let the light shine in. Natural light and brighter colors automatically create a more welcoming, lighthearted atmosphere in any room, and inject life back into meal times.
Dining Room Makeover Tips for Maximizing Space
Some dining rooms feature ill-chosen, illogical design choices, like random bump-outs that create unusable floor space.
These dead spaces detract from the cohesion of your room, no matter how you rearrange the furniture. However hard you try, your dining room looks unfinished.
It’s relatively easy to overcome the challenge created by these unwanted wall spaces, simply fill them with eye-catching dining room decor. This trick makes them appear like an intentional design decision rather than a poorly considered afterthought.
You can maximize these dead areas is by installing a decorative fireplace, or adding shelves to contain your glassware and other ornaments. These additions level out the wall area and make your bump out appear part of the room.
They also come in handy for storing attractive glassware, crockery, and ornaments that have spent their lives wasting away out of sight.
Let Go of Tradition
Unless you live in a great big mansion in the middle of England, your dark wood dining room probably looks a little out of place. Make no mistake, richly-hued hardwood floors are wonderful, but matching walls do them no justice.
Rather highlight your lovely wooden floors by painting your walls in a lighter, more invigorating color like navy. Textured wallpaper also works well to bring a rich depth to a room like this without aging it.
Switch out heavy rugs for light-colored carpet, and get rid of your clunky wooden furniture in favor of modern metal dining chairs. Too much wood is never a good thing, let your gorgeous floors be the star of the show instead.
This type of dining room remodel helps maximize the most valuable feature of your room without centering the entire design around it.
Quick Fixes for Boring Rooms
If you want to avoid dinner table conversation that’s as dull as the beige and brown surrounding of your dining room, get out your paintbrush.
White paint is extremely illuminating. Paint the walls in brilliant white, replace the heavy earthy-toned curtains with whimsical white cotton ones, and you’ll give your room an immediate lift.
If you have a hardwood floor, you can refinish it in a lighter shade like oak to brighten up the room even more or switch out your aging Persian rug for something in a more contemporary hue.
One of the best dining room ideas if you want to step away from tradition is to sand down your dark wood furniture and give it a coat of brilliant white paint instead.
Finally, add a large canvas print with touches of blue or yellow to add a little life to your room. A seaside theme works well to create a lively environment for meal times in a light-colored room like this.
Get Rid of the Noise
If you’ve been neglecting your dining room for the longest time, there’s a good chance it’s become a dumping ground for everything unwanted.
Studies show that clutter negatively impacts people’s sense of ‘home’ and mental wellbeing. So it’s hardly conducive to a cordial dining experience.
Nobody wants to socialize in a room filled with ancient, dust-covered memories, either. Getting rid of the clutter is step one in all dining room renovations.
Get rid of the old magazines, dusty prints, and well-meant but ill-chosen ornaments. This will give you space to explore better design options.
Your dining room shouldn’t contain more than it needs to function.
A table, chairs, and a neatly ordered cabinet are ideal. The only extras you need are some appropriate artwork and an eye-catching overhead light fitting.
Decluttering your dining room and re-arranging your space are two of the easiest and cheapest dining room makeover ideas.
Create Space in Your Dining Space
Decluttering, new window dressings, and lighter colors only go so far when it comes to creating space in a tiny, cramped room.
Sometimes, the only way is up. If your dining room has a low ceiling, a hanging chandelier will only seem to bring it closer.
Strip lighting or concealed lighting will help a low ceiling seem higher. A fresh coat of paint on your dining room ceiling can also help ‘send’ it upward, but a structural amendment will work even better.
Check out these creative decorative ceiling ideas for using the space in your roof when all else fails.
Freshen Up an Unfashionably Formal Design
If your dining room is awash with hand-me-downs from your grandmother, it’s time to freshen things up. Formal dining rooms aren’t ideal for family interactions, but it’s easy to lighten up these relics of days gone by.
Any dining room can go from frumpy failure to farmhouse fresh with a few coats of paint, and some carefully chosen decor.
When you opt for the farmhouse look, you don’t need to get rid of old-style furniture. Simply refurbish it with a few coats of lighter paint and you’re good to go.
You can recover the seats of your chairs in an elegant gingham pattern, and add a discreetly colored floral rug to the floor. Natural elements like light wood add a cozy, relaxed feel to the room, which is perfect for casual conversation.
Floral wall art and fresh blooms in a vase on the table are the final touches you need for this look.
Modern Touches for Trendy Dining
There’s no reason to stick to any of the above ideas for cozy dining, either. You can be as creative as you like to create an energizing room for family dining if you please.
Pops of color in pink or turquoise breathe life and interest into your room. Industrial-style lighting and shelves are the ultimate contemporary touch, and modern art creates fascinating conversation pieces in these upbeat spaces.
If you’re wondering how to colorize your room, window frames, cabinets, or picture frames are a good place to start. Brightly colored upholstery is another interesting option.
Switch Your Design to Suit the Season
If you’re easily bored, keep this in mind when composing your original design. Your basic dining room design can act as a background for greater things.
Removable cushion covers offer unlimited options for changing your color scheme on a whim, and colored table cloths have the same appeal.
When you leave yourself room to play, you can revamp your dining room as often as you please with colors and shapes to suit the season. Some good themes include red and green for Christmas, yellow and blue for spring, or golden orange designs for the fall.
Keeping your dining space adaptable makes it an ever-changing and welcoming space that will keep your family wondering what’s next.
Improve Your Life and Your Home’s Value
Improved living spaces can greatly impact your family’s welfare and interpersonal relationships. So, take a look around and see how you can improve your spaces to encourage interaction and that all-important family quality time.
Whether you’re planning a dining room makeover or a more extensive home renovation, keep growing our blog. We’ve got the best ideas for every room in your house.