A dining room with nowhere to go but up. Help? (mirror, floor)

[gentlearts]

Ok, so I just moved into this house in which the teeny, 11' x 11' dining room was used as a kid's playroom. Apparently, the kid was allowed to slob anything all over the carpet. If I can figure out how to post a picture, I will.

So, now I have a light gray stained carpet, a white chair rail with pumpkin on the bottom and a lighter shade of orange on the top, a tray ceiling which is heavily textured and topped off with a cheap white light fixture. There is a nice window opposite the doorway.
If you can come out from under your blanket (I know it's really scary), I'd love your input.

If the carpet cleans up tomorrow, I may keep it awhile until I decide what to do about the floor. The DR is off the hallway, which has a dark wood floor. If I continue this wood floor into the dining room, my dining room table will disappear into it, since it is a natural mahogany. I guess I could get a light area rug to correct that.

I want to paint the ceiling a darker color than the walls. Although I am making most of the house kind of beachy, with air, mist, sky types of colors, I want more drama in the dining room, which will only be used at night. I have the following "givens": a 60" round table (country French) and for storage, I want to use a cool, painted a blueberry color, old distressed buffet-I like the affect of using something a little "crummy" for interest. I have 8 Georgian style chairs, and I will probably only be able to use 6 of them in such a small space.
My usual method of decorating is to find a fabric or painting I really love and work off those colors for drapes and paint colors.

Has anyone used a dark color on your ceiling? On the tray ceiling, would you use the same color on all levels, or would you use a different shade on the uppermost level?
I will be choosing new fabrics for the drapes and the chair cushions, and will most likely get the wood floor and an area rug. I have tons of art to use, but most of it is too large for the room, so I'll find something later, rather than use it for a beginning theme.

[Hopes]

That sure does sound like it has nowhere to go but up!

Your plans sound beautiful.

Since it's a small room, I would only paint part of the ceiling a darker color. Typically, the highest part in the center is painted the darkest.

Depending on the effect, you could paint the lower part on the outside darker, which gives it a frame effect, but it's not as common, nor as attractive IMO.

I personally like when the high center part is dark and the outer lower area is white to match the trim in the room. (If you have white trim, that is.)

btw, use the buffet as the inspiration and paint the top center of the ceiling blueberry.

[elnina]

Hmmmm... 11X11 room with 60" round table and 6 Georgian chairs + buffet and dark ceiling in a " house kind of beachy, with air, mist, sky types of colors". I am afraid that the room will look there like a bunker.
54" round table, 4 light chairs, light colored or multicolored rug over wood, or carpet and definitely lighter than walls ceiling and your dark furniture will be just fine there. The room is to small for something else. You can create drama with drapes, pictures and other accessories.
But this is just my opinion. Pictures of the room and the location in the house would be helpful. How high are you ceilings? Is that room open to the rest of the house or has a door?

[TempesT68]

Without pictures it's hard to tell, it's easy to upload them on here from your computer.

[gentlearts]

Originally Posted by elnina

Hmmmm... 11X11 room with 60" round table and 6 Georgian chairs + buffet and dark ceiling in a " house kind of beachy, with air, mist, sky types of colors". I am afraid that the room will look there like a bunker.
54" round table, 4 light chairs, light colored or multicolored rug over wood, or carpet and definitely lighter than walls ceiling and your dark furniture will be just fine there. The room is to small for something else. You can create drama with drapes, pictures and other accessories.
But this is just my opinion. Pictures of the room and the location in the house would be helpful. How high are you ceilings? Is that room open to the rest of the house or has a door?

Of course the table is too big, but, alas, this is the table I have. The table and chairs were expensive and I can't afford to replace them with something else. The room is adjacent to the kitchen, separated by a hallway. It is open with no door.
The room has only 8' ceilings.
I'll figure out the picture thing sometime today.

[KittySkyfish]

With the home's color scheme a series of beach-y misty tints, a small offset dining room with a dark 8' ceiling and Georgian furniture will look really disjointed.

Here's what I'd do: since the room is so small and you want an intimate feel, I'd work with muted sand shades from one paint strip. Do the chair rail a pale ivory; the off-white shade on the paint strip. [Pure white is way too harsh.] Do the walls and lower tray a light, faded sand and the uppermost tray level a golden beige shade 1-level deeper than the wall shade. I'd do curtains in a solid, similar shade. Keep the backdrop a low-contrast, muted theme.

I wouldn't worry about reupholstering the chairs. I'd be getting slipcovers for them, maybe a muted caramel shade. If you have to show Georgian chairs in a beach-themed house, at least do the seat covers in a coordinating sand shade.

This sounds really bland but remember, you have a 60" dark mahogany round table and a blueberry buffet in a small room. Combining high-contrast walls, ceiling AND furniture is going to make the dining room feel even smaller and more cluttered because there are too many things competing for attention. Let the walls, treatments and ceiling be a soft backdrop to the buffet and table, not compete for attention. And a monochromatic backdrop will mirror the soft, beach-y feel of the house.

[gentlearts]

elnina, could you please explain the picture thing again? I can get them uploaded into attachments, but when I click on them, it won't let me copy and paste.

[TempesT68]

Originally Posted by gentlearts

elnina, could you please explain the picture thing again? I can get them uploaded into attachments, but when I click on them, it won't let me copy and paste.

upload them to photobucket or what not, make sure they have a link address, click on the photo link button on the toolbox here (one that is yellow and looks like mountains) then put there link there and it will post.

[gentlearts]

I shouldn't have really said I have a beach themed house, because this is misleading. This dining room is adjacent to a kitchen that is very dark. It is a pumpkin/butterscotch color with black appliances and black quartz countertops. The cupboards are distressed ivory/tan. Could not be less beachy, more Tuscan.
My comfort zone lately (and because I've had earth tones up to here) is tending to be pale, misty grays, blues and off whites. I truly think this is the new general trend that homes will be taking. I am using these colors at the other end of the house in two bedrooms and a guest bath.
The other prominent color in the house is Behr Classic Taupe which is used in the hallway and foyer and also the greatroom.
So really, the DR will need to have a relationship with the kitchen and hall, rather than any other rooms in the house.
Kittyskyfish-your suggestion would work well with the Classic taupe in the hall. Oops, my table is cherry, not mahogany (the chairs are mahogany, but look like cherry. The furniture is not that really dark stuff). I will keep your suggestions in mind. I like monochromatic rooms, but I am beige-a-phobic. It always seems like it's used out of fear of color. I have not been a fan of those chair slip covers, but they do seem like they would work to lighten the general feeling of the room.

[gentlearts]

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