How to Decorate a Small Dining Room

Sometimes a small dining room can be a real challenge to decorate. Follow these tips to change your small space into your new favorite room in the house.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. 
    

   Take stock. Before you start decorating, take everything out of the buffet and armoire. This is the time to go through all of the china and crystal and decide what to keep, what to give away, and what to sell. Chances are there are many items (think wedding gifts) that you have never used and probably won't ever use. Keep only the things that you truly love and want to use or display.

2. 
    

   Reduce clutter. The dining room shouldn't be a place to stack the mail, school papers, and other general clutter. A small room will look even smaller with unwanted clutter so try to make this a priority.

3. 
    
   Pottery Barn Glass Cabinet

   Go light on the furniture. Try to keep the furniture to just the table/chairs and armoire or buffet (you can do both if there is enough room to pull out the chairs comfortably). Try to find another spot in the house for any other furniture in the dining room that is simply taking up space.

4. 
    
   Pottery Barn Pedestal Table

   Try a round table. Especially if your room is a square (the dining room in the main picture at the top of this article is 11' x 11'), a round table fits perfectly and allows an even amount of space between the chairs and outer furniture, making the space appear larger.

5. 
    

   Keep the paint light. Dark colors tend to make a space appear smaller so if you love dark, rich colors in the dining room (I do!), try to go one shade lighter on the paint wheel and add white trim to the bottom of the walls. The trim adds a custom look and brightens it up a bit.

6. 
    

   Use mirrors. Mirrors have a tendency to make a room look larger so definitely incorporate them into your decor. You could have custom mirrors added to the trim work (see the main picture of this article, above), or create a whole wall of mirrors as shown here (see Resources, below, to learn how to create this wall).

7. 
    

   Let in the natural light. Natural light can help make a space look and feel larger so open those blinds and bask in the beauty of your newly decorated dining room.

Resources

• Decorate a Large Wall Cheaply

[Sidney143]

on 1/2/2009 This is a really great article! Thanks so much for sharing these tips.