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Boho Wall Decor from HonestlyWTF
Whether you eat in it frequently or only use it for holiday meals, the dining room is one of the most important places in the home. It’s where you and your family gathers to sit down, enjoy a meal and connect with one another.
Creating the layout for your dining room is pretty easy. You find a nice table, add some matching chairs, keep some candles on hand make sure that the lighting is comfortable enough to spend a few hours in.
Where most people get stumped, however, is their dining room wall decor. What’s the best way to decorate your dining room walls? Do you hang pictures like you would in the living room? Add shelves to display family memorabilia?
Fortunately, there are no rules when it comes to adorning your room. However, we’ve outlined a how-to guide (and shared some images of our favorite dining rooms) to help you get started.
Our Recommendations
Below, I share six decorating secrets to give your dining room a chic, refined look.
1. Compliment Your Furniture
This one might sound obvious, but your dining room’s wall decorations should go well with the rest of your furniture. If you’ve got a cherry-stained table with matching chairs, look around for some complementary pieces of wall art. If your chairs are upholstered with a patterned fabric, see if you find some decorations that highlight the various colors in the pattern.
Ultimately, you want your dining room’s theme to be unified and cohesive, creating an environment that feels nice to spend time in.
We love the way that this large wooden clock leaves room for the grey wall to show through, complimenting both the color of the wooden table and the upholstery of the chairs as well as the pattern on the carpet.
2. Hang Some Signage
Some of the quaintest dining room wall decorations are wooden text cutouts. Usually written in casual script, like the kind you’d find on your mother’s grocery list, there’s something about these signs that make them perfect for the room where you eat. Adorned with words like “gather” or “family”, they’ll provide a reminder of what the dining room is all about.
When combined with some found objects like plant pots or window blinds, as seen below, they help to create a cutesy, calming aesthetic that’s both traditional and contemporary.
3. Show Off a Collection
The dining room is a great place to show off your family heirlooms and any unique objects you may have collected over your life. Have an old set of plates that your grandmother gave you but don’t want to eat off them? Hang them on the wall! What about those illustrations you’ve been tearing out of cookbooks for years? Put some frames on them and use them as decor!
There are all types of hanging devices and shelving units designed specifically for displaying collections. If you have an archive of objects that you think would make great wall decor, you should find one that you like.
4. Go Green
These days, it’s fairly common to repurposed food containers doubling as wall decor. Old wine bottles, beer bottles, and mason jars, in particular, can easily be turned into DIY wall art. When mounted on a piece of up-cycled wood and used to hold flowers, these containers help to create a casual, vintage feel in your dining room.
There’s an endless amount of DIY tutorials that can help you create your own wall pieces for very little money. If you’d prefer to have yours crafted by a professional artisan, though, there’s no shortage of handcrafted wall decorations on sites like Etsy.
5. Light and more light
Many homeowners opt to hang a chandelier above their dining room table for lighting. However, that’s not everyone’s style. If you’re going for a chic vintage feel, you may want to consider hanging some rustic-looking sconces on your wall. There are plenty of DIY sconces to be found on all of your favorite websites.
The nice thing about using sconces as wall decor in your dining room is that they’re both aesthetic and functional. You can place electric tea lights in them if you’re worried about the flames or use real candles if you want authentic candlelight.
6. Shelves are a must
Ask any interior designer the best way to decorate when you’re working with a small space and they’ll probably say one word: shelves. The nice thing about shelving, particularly in the dining room, is that you can use it for both storage and aesthetic purposes. Those dishes that you LOVE but hardly ever use will look great as wall decorations and be readily available for use (if you ever get around to that).
Even better, shelves come in every size so you can arrange them on the walls of your dining room however you’d like. We recommend that you hang them around other pieces of wall art to create a super stylish composition along your dining room wall.
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Pottery Barn Teen from PBteen $99.00
Overview Bring the soda pop shop to your space with this vintage-inspired collection. KEY PRODUCT POINTS Made of iron with a handpainted powder …
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Creative Co-op from Nordstrom $129.99
Add rustic charm to your home with this wooden wall hanging detailed with a deer silhouette crafted from corrugated metal. Style Name:Creative C…
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The Bodi Mirror makes a welcomed statement on your walls and in your halls. Reflect your excellent taste in style with this mirror’s beaded trim…
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TOMMY MITCHELL from Neiman Marcus $250.00
Gilded and ivory painted letter on white linen. Encased in acrylic. Each piece is signed and dated. Keyhole for flush hanging. Metal and acrylic…
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TOMMY MITCHELL from Horchow $250.00
Gilded and ivory painted letter on white linen. Encased in acrylic. Each piece is signed and dated. Keyhole for flush hanging. Metal and acrylic…
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The vivacious and whimsical movement of layered gilded butterflies in this large, circular, metallic gold wall mirror will bring your room to li…
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Uma Enterprises from Rue La La $350.00
Color/finish: white Measures 13.5in x 1in x 43in Design details:R2 textural and rich with antique charm, this set of 2 vintage rectangular wall …
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With a hint of elegance, this rectangular piece proves to be of great style and purpose.Decorative wall mirrorNo beveled glassLandscape or portr…
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Dale Tiffany from Macy’s $410.00
The bold styles and intense colors of our Titan Series will add rich warmth to any room of your home. The series features large floral plates ha…
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Decorative framed windowpane arch mirror with a distressed coastal white finish will bring classic style to your home and with the look of a win…
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Station clocks are an iconic aspect of railway station design that has made their way into home decor. These oversized wall clocks offer that vi…
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Station clocks are an iconic aspect of railway station design that has made their way into home decor. These oversized wall clocks offer that vi…
Research / Frequent Questions
5 Ways to Decorate Empty Space
Empty space can really be something that can annoy a person, or inspire a person. There are many things a person can do to use it to its maximum potential.
Using paint or wallpaper, apply a vibrant color that will make the area pop.
Create a gallery wall by using a huge painting and use the wall to share your masterpiece.
Hanging a wall divider, whether patterned or not will add dimension to the wall breaking up the empty space
Hanging a horizontal painting or mirror, can really make the area pop. You can also hang some lights that hang low to accent the mirror or painting.
Use vertical patterns on the wall that will accent the space you’re trying to fill
How to Decorate a Small Dining Room?
There are steps when decorating a small dining room.
Consider the scale of the dining room. The furniture needs to fit properly into the room
No matter the size, you want to use light colors so make the room look larger and airy.
Use mirrors to make the area look bigger as well. They are great for reflective lighting.
Use simple window treatments. Keeping things simple helps to keep the attention on the room, not the window.
Choose the best shape for the table, because you want to allow some room around the table as well.
Pick armless chairs because they take less rooms
Consider transparent furniture because that makes it look bigger
Use a small chandelier because they help add light
3 Dining Room Decoration Tips
Paint the room with vertical stripes because it adds room to the area, and you can also use leftover paint and may require no money.
Something as simple as adding slip covers can make your dining room pop. You can make it very elegant, or you can make it be a casual thing, it’s your choice and it will not cost a lot of money
Add plant life. It can be colorful or simply green, but it can bring a new dimension to your dining area.
what design things to consider for dining room wall decor?
Depending on the look you are going for in your dining room, minimizing your wall décor is a good idea depending on the amount of room you also have available. Mirrors are a great addition for a smaller dining room as well. Colors that you use will also be a consideration. The lighter the color, the bigger the room will look as well. Have a feature wall is also a new practice that designers are using for a dramatic effect as well.
small dining room wall decor ideas
There are ways to decorate a small dining room to make it look bigger,
Painting or wallpapering the ceiling will make the room look taller and draw eyes upward.
Use light colors on the wall
Hang shelving near the ceiling to take the focus of the room upward
Use a dramatic piece of art to make the room look more expansive.
Do not use overhead lights either
Strategically place mirrors to make the room look bigger as well
what are some formal dining room wall decor ideas?
The trick that all designers seem to do when decorating the dining room is to pick the central theme, and then build around it.
For formal dining room walls, go bold with pattern if that is your choice.
Go bright with color on the wall as well.
Hang mirrors strategically to draw attention to an area.
Do large art or a gallery wall
what are some dining room wall art decor idea?
Depending on how formal you want your dining room is going to depend on how you go with wall art.
Wayfair has just about anything you could want for your dining room art.
Bright pieces of art are all the rage and help make the room look bigger
There are many rustic farmhouse collections to choose from to make your dining room look more country.
There are many mirror options as well as lighting that can complement each other to maximize room as well.
How Can I Make A Small Dining Room Look Bigger?
Use very light colors to brighten the room up or very dark colors to give it depth and character
Use baskets, etc that will work as storage and double as a room accent.
Put ceiling to floor curtains in the room.
Use one or two large decor accents rather than a bunch of small items which can clutter the room up.
What To Put On Walls Besides Pictures?
There are many things to use besides pictures for the walls. You can use a collage of old windows that are rustic.
You can use fabric prints.
You can stencil one half of the wall.
Using an old ladder as an accent is a great idea as well.
Use an old window as a backdrop and change it out for each season