How to Choose Art for Your Dining Room

A dining room is a public space - and, most likely, a formal one at that. Here's how to choose and display art that complements great meals and great times.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Art
• Picture Frames
• Picture Hangers

1. Identify the spaces you want to fill. Art should be more or less in scale with the space it hangs in, which means you'll want large pieces for large spaces (over the sideboard or mantle) and smaller pieces for smaller spaces.

2. Decide on a color scheme if you haven't already.

3. Decide on a mood, or identify the one you've already created for the room. Is your dining room a bastion of formal elegance? Or a summer-camp space filled with farm tables and old butter churns?

4. Look for pieces that complement your theme.

5. Frame the pieces well if they're paper, using archival-quality mats and sealing the backs.

6. Make it a point to check your pieces once in a while. Light changes during the year, so something that's fine in December may find itself in direct sun come June - and a piece that's fine one year may take on moisture damage the next year if the backing comes loose.

Tips & Warnings

• If you like to entertain and you set an elaborate table, consider sticking to a few simple pieces of art in the dining room so you don't overwhelm your guests.
• For a dining room, it's best to avoid anything too controversial - or at least anything that might turn someone's stomach. Still lifes are fine, but dead animals are probably out, as are too-explicit nudes. Landscapes are always an option, but making people comfortable doesn't have to mean hanging boring art.
• If you've got big spaces, choose large, colorful vintage movie posters or many small architectural renderings, hung salon-style.
• Red is the canary in the coal mine for art - it's the color that goes first when a piece is getting too much light. If you notice changes, move the piece.

on 6/30/2006 I put pictures of food in our dining room. I display a painting of a martini that I painted myself. I also display photographs taken of various family members eating (kids eating spaghetti), drinking (a New Year's toast) and being merry (4th of July festivities, birthday games).

An interior decorator once told me not to put too much blue in the dining room, the color blue can suppress the appetite. Most restaurants are decorated in reds or greens. There's a reason for that- red or green stimulates the appetite.

on 11/22/2005 A set of bookends makes a nice paper napkin holder to be kept on the table or on a side piece of furniture like a plant stand, along with a good looking salt shaker and pepper grinder.