Accessorizing the Dining Room

Each year, after the Christmas decorations go back into their boxes and bins, the house seems to look so very bland and colorless, and it is easy to feel depressed. Our home is in Central Washington, where the lack of color is obvious. The Winters vistas around us are either brown treeless hills or white with snow. Accessorizing a dining room with color is one of the simplest and most effective ways of brightening things. After making some color additions, depression need not happen!

By taking  pictures of lots of brights at the Dollar Store, Michael’s and other locations, I got lots of inspiration to start making our home welcoming and bright.   A search through cupboards and closets helped me find a few trinkets to help with the aqua and yellow color plan, which would be added to the golds, greens and browns currently consuming the major portion of our color palette.  For this update,  I decided to add brighter shades of the colors that are already in our home. Here are some changes that brought in color, starting with the dining room, and at absolutely no extra cost.

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Yellow Dining Room Collage

Everything in this room came from items we already had in our home.  Aqua and yellow brought the brights into our house.

 

 

Fish Bowl Collage

The starting point was a “fishbowl” which we filled with green colored gel water beads. These come as tiny beads that are hydrated with water, plumping up into colorful transparent beauty.
The bright yellow “lily pad” flower was a silk flower left over from decorations we used at our youngest daughter’s graduation party, several years ago. For contrast, they were set on a dark green cloth napkin. All of these were previously purchased at Dollar Tree.

Sconce
The bright yellow flower stem was found in the midst of a bunch of old silk flowers which I wrapped around the globe of our old wall sconce, and added a tea light.

 

 

Yellow painted candle

This yellow pillar candle used to be white, but a quick layer of yellow acrylic craft paint brightened it right up. A bone colored cake plate became the candle holder and we added a small stem of leftover Christmas berries for a bit of contrast.

 

 

Yellow Dining Room

Here is how we finished the table: Laminated pale yellow placemats, which had been stashed away for several years, were placed around the table. They were a gift from a friend. The pair of pale yellow tapers, which were picked up last year for only a dollar, and the glass candle holders which have been in our household longer than some of our children, were placed on the corners of a dark green cloth napkin. Others candle holders, very similar to these, are available at the dollar store. Everything here was found tucked away in cabinets in our home, or were items which were already part of the decor.



YOUR DINING ROOM

Start by shopping your home for colorful accents. I started by looking in cabinets, boxes and drawers for any yellow, green or aqua colored items.  They might be found in any room of the house, and once you start looking with an eye for color, they will be easy to find.

For the dining room begin with a colorful table covering. Use a tablecloth, placemats, or table runner.  All of these are available at big box stores, thrift stores or the dollar store. You can even take a colorful twin sized sheet and used it as a table cover.  Try adding a potted plant, or a flower or two, either real or silk, to the table. Doing this not only brightens the room, but makes it appealing to look at, and a deterrent for stacking or storing stuff there. Your family is likely to want to keep it that way and hopefully will avoid leaving their things on the table.

Add a few other colorful accessories to the dining room, choosing items with a variety of shapes, shades, textures, a reflective surface or two, a bit of repetition, some dark items, some light colored items and STOP.

Don’t ever over decorate your dining room, because once you add people and food, it can quickly get overwhelming. Under accessorizing a dining room is always better than over decorating.

 

ACCESSORIZING WITH COLOR – THE DINING ROOM

15 thoughts on “ACCESSORIZING WITH COLOR – THE DINING ROOM

  • February 12, 2014 at 8:20 pm
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    Great tips! I’m stopping in from Let’s Get Real today and I am so glad that I did. Color is exactly what my house needs right now. I’ve got all of the decorations put away from the holidays and now the house is less than festive. Time to go shopping in my house……………

    Reply
  • January 1, 2016 at 11:30 am
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    I don’t put my decorations away until after Ephiphany, but I always have that “lack of color” feel. Great tips. I didn’t like yellow in the past, but I think that is what I will go with to do some accessorizing. Thanks for the inspiration.

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    • January 2, 2016 at 8:01 am
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      This posting is from a couple of years ago – so I too haven’t put my Christmas decorations away as yet. I think they are lovely and I guess that is why I have to find something pretty to replace them with.

      Reply
  • January 1, 2016 at 10:46 pm
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    Yellow and aqua is such a pretty combination and brightens up your dining room nicely, and great tip to go shopping in your own house!

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    • January 2, 2016 at 7:56 am
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      I do like the combination, and it works for me! Anything colorful helps with the winter doldrums – that’s for sure!

      Reply
  • January 1, 2016 at 11:12 pm
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    I really like this idea. Putting bright colors around the house would be wonderful during winter especially.

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    • January 2, 2016 at 7:55 am
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      Thanks Kelly! We often have days and days of fog during the doldrums of winter, and anything bright blesses me!

      Reply
  • January 1, 2016 at 11:29 pm
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    Beautiful! I absolutely love the way that yellow brightens up any space.

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    • January 2, 2016 at 7:54 am
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      Thanks, Jessica! I appreciate the encouragement. I’m struggling with the winter doldrums with the snow covered landscape – more than a foot right now, and the shorter days here in Central Washington State.

      Reply
  • January 3, 2016 at 2:45 am
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    Every room needs a pop of color. It help sto add life and gives it insterest. I like all of your ideas. They are great

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    • January 6, 2016 at 3:43 am
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      Thank you so much – I’m encouraged to post more like this one.

      Reply
  • January 3, 2016 at 3:34 am
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    Excellent inspirational post for me! Tomorrow is the big day. Transforming from Christmas cozy to winter decor. Now I feel better about it! I have lots of stuff laying around I will look at with a new eye! Thanks so much Marjie!

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    • January 6, 2016 at 3:42 am
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      Thanks Diane. I use so much red with my Christmas cozy that the house seems so drab when it is put away.

      Reply
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