Our Dining Room Makeover

The color is lovely, but it’s the new shelves that really ground the room and make it feel homey. In a choice between neutral or colorful, I’ll take color most every time!

This is making me think we need paint! We moved in 2 years ago and the walls had been freshly painted, so I didn’t want to waste money when the walls were perfectly fine, but they’re a melancholy gray, which gives off a super chill vibe, but it’s already so dark in our house, I’d love to brighten it up with some color. Love the color you chose!

looks lovely, joanna.
did you change rooms? confused by the orientation of the table vs. the windows!

I think adding color makes a room feel so cozy. Love it.

I’ve been pining after that duck green for our tv room. This is a sign!

We did duck green in our dining room, rail grey I think in our bathrooms, and went Pinterest pastel mural crazy in the living room. Quarantine was sometimes fun.

Love it! Currently in a deep dive trying to find a color for our tiny north-facing bedroom. In my head, I envision something rich and jewel-box like but having trouble finding the perfect fit. We painted some other rooms a few years back and I still love them. We used Benjamin Moore Constellation in our living room. It’s light but still feels like a color and changes beautifully over the course of the day. Our kitchen and office area are Sherwin Williams Sea Salt, another pale and lovely chameleon.

I love it! Even though it’s a cool color, it warms up the room so much. I’m a big fan of color, and of painting rental homes (which is all we’ve had, although I know you own now!). Our primary bedroom is a deep mauve; I wanted it to feel like a cocoon. Our living/dining area is a very pale green called Quiet Mint (a Valspar color although there is probably a higher quality equivalent!). It’s really the perfect name for it because it’s not quite mint and not quite sage, and if you didn’t see it against the white trim it would almost look white. It keeps our dark-ish home feeling bright while still interesting. It’s the second home I’ve used it in!

gorgeous! and how funny — my mum (brit) has a very similar sideboard that has been in her family for decades and safely traveled the world as they moved around. but when she and my stepdad recently relocated to florida, the movers lost the sideboard. when it was finally found in a warehouse somewhere, it was busted. she was devastated. luckily a specialist carpenter has salvaged it. anyway, it has made me really pay attention to sideboards lately! and yours is beautiful.

I love it! I am a fool for blue and white together, it feels both uplifting and calming at the same time.

I agree! Color sets the mood. What a happy color you chose!

Thank you for sharing! Beautiful color and love the bookshelves. I also appreciate the links at the end; I’ve been looking for a new floor lamp for so long and love the one in the room, so nice to be able to easily find it.

I love the color! Your room is so cheerful. The new bookshelves are great. I love looking at people’s books, so I’m ready to spy on what you have in the shelves.
The red and white striped stool is so much fun!
I like color. We have low ceilings in our little cape house and I struggled with how to deal with the walls (having lived in a high ceiling space for years). Finally, I decided to treat the house as a cottage. I felt that warm light shades of a sunset yellow (a little more red in it than your Hay version) would achieve that feel. A darker version (on the same color chart) adorns the hallway and stairwell. I have no regrets. I feel embraced by a warm glow when I’m inside.

It looks fabulous!! We bought our home just over a year ago and the work we wanted to do on it before move in (a full rewire and adding A/C) required lots of drywall work, meaning I spent the spring and summer painting nearly every room! We went with Hague Blue for the dining room (previously it was red floral wallpaper!), a muted pink for the living room, and a soft white for all the bedrooms and the kitchen. I have been putting off painting the bathrooms for a year now, but perhaps motivation will strike this summer. It’s incredible what a lick of paint can do for a room.

I LOVE the colour Joanna!! I’m also very into your red picture frame (the New York print- it is red, isn’t it?) and striped stool. I feel like I’ve been seeing those fun pops of red everywhere these days – a thin, red frame in a gallery wall, or a cherry red lamp, or foot stool. I would love if you did a post on where to find some pieces of furniture or frames with pops of color!

Love the Parma grey! Gorgeous blue. Would have been my pick too.

Perfect! Good color, has a serene longevity vibe.
Have y’al considered painting the ceiling a tone or two lighter than the walls or a very impressionism subtle cloud texture?

I notice your bar cart got a lot fuller by the end. LOL.

Color = joy for me. We’ve used Gray Wolf (similar to the Sea Serpent mentioned) in our ‘teen room’ and love it. I also really like the idea from another reader that color gives you more of an experience in the room. I’m going to keep thinking of that when I repaint my dining room here soon….Thank you for letting us into your home and for sharing this exciting renovation.

Love it! It also reminds me – did you ever decide on wallpaper for the entryway?

We bought our house last year. The previous owners had a total mess of colors on the walls! The living room was blue, the kitchen was a brown/beige, the 1/2 bath green, up the stairway was white with a green stripe (but not the green that was in the 1/2 bath), the master bedroom was salmon (when the morning light hit, it was full on orange), master bath was blue (but not the blue of the living room), one bedroom was a dark periwinkle, and the last bed room was school bus yellow! It was such a fun house (I don’t mean fun in a good way) of colors that it was so distracting. We painted everything Benjamin Moore Silver Satin, a light almost grey with Chantilly Lace on the trim and ceiling. It really brightened everything up and made our home feel so calm.

Eventually, we might reintroduce some color, but I think our walls are enjoying the break from headache-inducing color.

I love the blue! It really makes the fireplace pop which was kind of lost in the last color.

Completely gorgeous!

Because you mentioned an update tour, would you mind clarifying the layout? Is there a reason why this room isn’t the living room and the one adjacent the kitchen and island the dining room?

Can’t wait to see more! Gorgeous space

To me, it’s the bookshelves and BOOKS that really make the difference more than the paint! They add so much warmth and interest to the room, I think they would have been great even if you had kept the walls white. Love that you painted the shelves the same color as the walls, that is different and fun! Thanks for sharing!

The blue looks fabulous. Very beautiful and relaxing. Love the bookshelves.
Glad you treated yourself and family to some color. It makes a huge difference.

My color choices ultimately revolve around the colors of various home textiles (fabrics, pillows, upholstery). Over the years we’ve had the yellow period; the blue/gray period and the apricot/pale gold period. Enjoyed them all!