Appetizing Color for the Dining Room

Changing your color scheme can go a long way when redecorating a dining room, in fact, changing the colors of your walls and accessories, could give you the change you need without completely redecorating your dining room.

Color can go a long way in setting the mood.  Red has been a bold choice in the past, as red colors tend to stimulate conversation and the appetite.  Oranges made an appearance in a dining rooms and were hailed as the new reds, as orange is usually associated with need and hunger. But recent trends have seen the bold choices toning down. 

 "The trend has been for colors to come down in value and become more natural," says Jack Bredenfoerder, president of the Color Marketing Group (CMG), a not-for-profit international group of designers who forecast color trends in industries from fashion, to interior design. "Highly saturated, bright colors are still going to be around but they'll be used more as accents in the dining room."
Tips for choosing your color palette for the dining room.

  • Avoid blues, they can actually act as an appetite suppressant and may have too much of a calming effect in the dining room. Consider what foods are blue – there aren’t many are there?  Save the blues for another room.
     
  • Rather than painting the ceiling a stark white, try a deeper tone to create  a more intimate feel to the room, enhancing  the sharing of good food and conversation. 
  • For poorly lit dining rooms, gold or a rich warm color make the room more inviting by day, if you add a glaze, candlelight will create a rich glow in the evening.
  • Creams and yellows are considered sociable colors, with yellow being the hot decorating color of the year.  But watch the lighting, it can adversely affect the yellows.  Watch the brighter versions of yellow as well, as it can make people eat too fast – ever noticed that bright yellows tend to be used liberally in fast food restaurants?  (think McDonalds!)
  • Deep beiges and browns can bring a more formal look to the room, and earth tones can calm you down while eating - without suppressing the appetite.  Deeper browns, such as dark wood furniture, in the color scheme can bring in a luxurious feel to the room.
  • Greens are soothing and can aid digestion – moss green is another hot color for 2009-2010 – sages and similar were so overused in the earthy 90’s that many people are just plain sick of them.

Pick a color that works in your room – try a paint sample if it’s available, if not, you may want to try a quart of the color – usually available for under $12 – as a tester.  Some colors may not always be available in a quart size, due to the mixture ratio. 

View the color on the wall in all different types of lighting – remember, you’re dining room will generally be used at night by dimmer lighting, but also viewed during the day.  So check your color choice in different lighting.