Sunday, November 23, 2008

Dining room paint color-opinions wanted!!

Hey y'all!! I so want to paint these ugly, blah walls in my formal dining room. Preferably right after Thanksgiving. I am not totally sure what color I want to do. I always wanted a red dining room, but now I am undecided. I am possibly thinking chocolate. Maybe green. The only reason I wouldn't do green is because we are thinking about painting the kitchen and living room green. We get a lot of natural light in there, so I think it could handle being a darker color. Currently, we don't have a table, but I want a picnic table painted antique white. I would do mis-matched chairs. My china cabinet is black, but could be painted green.


I know its hard to tell the color on a small paint chip, but this is the darker chocolate color.

This is the lighter shade, a bit more on the cocoa side. If we paint the walls brown, I will make curtains out of brown and cream toile. If we paint them red, I will make the curtains from the floral fabric from my ottoman(pictured below).

Okay, so what do you think??

Edited: I love Shannon's dining room color.
Edited again: I really love Katie's color.

27 comments:

Stacy said...

Hmmm, I think the top color is too dark. I like the 2nd color a lot. As for the red, might look nice but I think the red floral fabric with it might be too much, y'know? If it were me - out of those options - I would choose #2 and paint your china cabinet a robins egg shade of blue.

Good luck!

~Stacy

Gigi said...

Elise,
I LOVE the brown and cream toile. Do whatever you have to do to work that in :) I think it's much more elegant than the red floral, especially since it's for the dining room.
Can't wait to see it!!

Monica Wilkinson said...

I like the lighter cocoa color!! You could easily accent red with that if you wanted to bring some reds in.

Mmmm - love the idea of painting your cabinet robin's egg blue though!!! Love brown and blue -

I know you'll make it great whatever you choose!

Monica

Carry Grace said...

I like the 2nd color. Very pretty!

I can't wait to see what you do.

Kindra-At Home With K said...

Well I personally like the lighter of the 2. The darker one looks almost black. But I did see a black room on t.v. once on Country Style (miss that show) and it was gorgeous!! I think if you pick a darker color than a lot of your assessories need to be lighter. But I know what ever you choose will come together nicely with the Elise touch!

julie said...

I'm the odd ball here, I love the darker brown. I've seen it done in a room that gets lots of lot and it is gorgeous!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

I actually like the light brown shade... You could always accent with red or green.... Even paint your china cabinet green or red, but it would probably look good remaining black? Aren't I helpful??
~Jen

Wendi said...

I vote for color #2. I like #1, but think it might be too dark. I think color #2 could look great with black, robins egg or even red accents.

Can't wait to see what you do.

Robin Beck said...

I have a olive type green in my formal dining/living room with a barn red wall that I love... Our formal dining/living room used to be a dark dark chocolate brown and it made me feel like I was in a cave (though some people loved it) I would pick #2 from your colors...This is the way I look at it... If you don't like it...Re-paint it later. Unless you have 22 foot tall walls like I do-Then you pretty much have to get it right the first time or the hubby is gonna get grumpy! :)
Have fun,
Robin~♥

Windy said...

I like the chocolate brown with toile curtains! You could paint your china cabinet to match the table. It would look good with your new chandelier.

Heather | Cookie Mondays said...

I vote for the mocha shade on the walls, red floral fabric window treatments, and red painted mismatched chairs to go with the white picnic table.

Joanna said...

I vote red...I too think that the floral print would be too much. I would go with a black and white gingham for the chairs and do a black and white toile print for the curtains with the same gingham print from the chairs along the tops or bottoms with some trim.

A New England Life said...

If you go with red you will need to put a coat of grey (fairly dark) primer on the walls first. Otherwise you'll end up putting at least 5-6 coats on before the pigment starts to cover.

Also, if you paint your dining room red, and your kitchen green, you'll want to be careful it doesn't look like Christmas all year long. lol! The chocolate colors are definitely 'in' right now, along with the blues and teals. Looks like a wonderful room to work with, and fairly easy to paint.

Good luck! Love the toile!

Sharon

Anonymous said...

I love the dark brown! Those curtains will be yummy too. Im wanting to paint as well. Im thinking blue~

Anonymous said...

We have green in our Dining Room. The color is actually called Manatee Grey by Behr Paint. I have no idea why it has "grey" in the title because it is a soft green color. I like it because it is very peaceful and calm feeling...nice color for a place you want to enjoy a relaxing meal.
Good Luck : )

Shannon said...

I like the second color! That way you probably wouldn't have to paint your cabinet. It goes great with the fabric too. My color is from Lowe's and it is called Mud Slide if you wanted to do that. It is a pretty dark color but you could definitely handle it with your big windows.

Michelle said...

I love both of the browns and the curtains are great with both.

I had a red dining room at our old house...I loved it but I have to say I did get kinda tired of it...

Anonymous said...

If your table is going to be white I think that red would be really pretty. Brown sounds more formal and if you are doing a picnic table that sounds more casual. You could do a black and white window treatment (maybe toile)which would look great with your cabinet thats black, white chairs and red chairs with a black & white check cushions! I have a green kitchen (Grassclothe)and a red room and they look great next to each other, not Christmasy because its not a kelly green. All the natural light helps. Do as another person said though and prime with gray it makes life much easier! Good luck!
(dont have a blog but read your's daily!).
Maggie

Anonymous said...

I don't have any good pics of my dining room....we just moved into this house in August. I am sure we will be taking pics on Thanksgiving and I will post them.
The photos you see now are of our study/computer room and the color on those walls is Ralph Lauren - Oatmeal. Our living room and entry is painted a great color too that I like even better than the Oatmeal because it is warmer---that color is Ralph Lauren - Tangier Island. The best thing about these colors...is that I found them all at Home Depot. Come back later this week if you want to see the green dining room :) I like Shannon's colors too!

Katy said...

I like the cocoa color! I think the other one may be too dark. I think red would be nice too!

Amy R. said...

i like the cocoa brown with the cream matlasse at the bottom of the curtains!

Jules said...

I love the rich dark chocolate color. Especially since you get so much light in there. Red is always nice for a dining room, but is also so expected. I think if you are bored with the tan color you have the light cocoa won't be enough of a change to make a difference. But then again I am always freaking out the paint guy when I tell him my color. When I went to pick up the green for the girls' room he opened it to check if it was mixed and said to me with bulging eyes "My, what a bright and lively green...." almost expecting me to reply in horror. When I smiled and told him it was just perfect he just shook his head. So, maybe I am the weird one.

Em said...

I vote for the darker chocolate! I got my swap package today! OH MY GOSH! I am in heaven again... you are the best! I already blogged about it too ;)

THANK YOU!

mysteryhistorymom said...

Elise- You have such fabulous taste, that whatever you choose will be AMAZING!:) When you get a second can you send me your new address? I am getting my Christmas card list organized- yippee! Lori

toosillysisters@cox.net

FairytaleCottage said...

I was thinking blue or grey would be fun. I would not paint it too dark, but if you want dark, you could go with grey. With gray you can go pretty dark and still keep the room looking sophisticated. I think the colours of the stylera of the house are a good startingpoint. By the way, have you knowdeced that the darker brown color is close to the backround color in your blogg and the existing color in the room looks like a mix between the framing color for the texts and pictures in your blogg mixed with your blogg´s backround flower color.

I think actually that the backround color in your blogg is a really cosy and sophisticated looking brown. I vote that, if you want brown, you paint the room whit your blogg´s backround color, whatever it´s called.=)

Historical colours:
http://www.behr.com/behrx/inspiration/historical_1.jsp

For fun: http://www.behr.com/behrx/workbook/

Lorie said...

I like the darker color...but not sure how big the room is. Dark colors can make the room look smaller.

Ruth said...

I like the second color. I think it will look wonderful with the curtains you will make. I loved all the little special fall decorating on your mantel.
Blessings,
Ruth