Furnishing a dining room is far from simple and choosing the best dining room colours can be a challenge too. From selecting the right furniture to choosing the perfect wallpaper and flooring, piecing together a great dining room takes patience, creativity, and a great deal of interior design know-how.

What makes a dining room different from any other part of the home? Unlike the kitchen or living room, both of which are used for living, a dining room is all about creating an environment for relaxation and socialising – a very different setting.

Because of this, small details like the colour scheme and choice of furniture have a huge effect on the feel of a dining room. This short guide will help you pick a dining room colour scheme that inspires the right atmosphere for yourself and guests.

Choosing the Best Dining Room Colours

Image via: Houzz

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Can colours affect your mood?

Colours can have a huge effect on your mood and outlook. This psychological effect has been exploited by everyone from radical governments to corporations. Think of the eye-catching red and yellow of the McDonald’s logo – deliberately engineered to catch your attention from the street – or the trustworthy blue of a bank’s signage.

The most popular colours for dining rooms tend to be earth tones – colours such as cream, brown, and grey. These colours are muted and relaxed, creating an interior environment without the stress or urgency of a room decorated using bright and eye-catching colours like red, yellow, or bright pink.

Choosing calming interior colours

Dining rooms don’t necessarily need to be decorated in earth tones. In fact, some of the world’s best dining rooms are deliberately decorated in bright white and black, an excellent combination for creating a classy, early 20^th century look.

The key to dining room decorating is calmness. You wouldn’t like guests at a dinner party to be excited and nervous – quite the opposite, you’d want people to be calm and friendly. Earth tones tend to be calming, hence their popularity in dining rooms.

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The importance of contrast

Contrast is vital for creating a comfortable, stylish dining room. Rooms without any type of contrast tend to feel washed out and unnatural – think of the all-white rooms in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Contrast between the floor of your dining room and the walls can expand the room and make it feel bigger than it really is. A dark floor, for example, combined with a cream or white wallpaper or paint scheme feels spacious and expansive.

Light also plays a major role in creating contrast. Rooms that are well lit – especially using natural light – tend to feel more welcoming and comfortable than their poorly lit counterparts. In some cases, too much contrast can have a negative effect on your dining room. A room with a dark roof, for example, will feel short and cramped regardless of its real height. Use contrast intelligently, and make sure you don’t overdo it.

Image via: Houzz

Finding the right furniture

There’s a saying amongst interior designers, that your dining room furniture should match or be slightly darker than your flooring. It’s true – light wooden flooring looks wonderful with dark wooden furniture, while black furniture suits light flooring and dark tiles.

Just like your colour scheme, your furniture should be used to create contrast within your dining room. If your room feels overly wooden – for example, a dark wooden table on light wooden flooring – add a lighter rug to create visual contrast. If it feels too light, add a dark table and dining room chairs to give it additional contrast.

Colours can have a huge effect on everything from mood to social hierarchy – a fact that’s been used in movie sets to great effect. Learn more about the psychology of colours and you’ll be able to create a dining environment that gives your guests a positive, comfortable feeling whenever they sit down at your table

For more dining room ideas on Stagetecture, click here.