Dining Room Design Plan - Get Ready for Holiday Entertaining!

The furniture in this dining room was brought from another home and it doesn’t quite fit the new space, does it?

It’s a little dark for this dramatic navy room and it feels a little unfinished and bare bones. The homeowner wants an update before the holidays so she can have her large family there to celebrate.

Last year, they were near the end of construction, with furnishings coming soon. They had hoped to be in by Christmas, but it was not in the cards. So, this year it is most important to get it all ready. This dining room is one of the last rooms to complete in their new home and really needed for their holiday family gatherings.

They wanted to wait on the dining room right at first, to kind of see how they settled in. It wasn’t like living room furniture or bedroom furniture or counterstools in the kitchen, it could wait a bit.

I shared some peeks of this home earlier this month when I visited.

I had done a moodboard some time ago for this room, just so we could plan for the color and the lighting in there. We needed to get the basic ideas and palette going, so we could commit to painting the tall walls, coffered ceiling and select those gorgeous brass chandeliers.

My blog contains affiliate links. Any purchases, at no additional charge to you, render me a small percentage, are most appreciated and make this blog possible. :-)

When I started to address this area again, over a year later, I looked at some other rugs but came back to this original rug we selected before. It was where we derived the navy color from and I really liked having that worn wool look there on the warm wood floors.

The whole idea of a navy envelope in the space combined with neutrals prevailed, although I pushed more warmth into the room this time. The homeowner really wanted a casual vibe to this space, not like a formal dining room, so more texture and natural elements would work well for that.

It’s kind of hard to go casual with this very high ceiling and all the trimwork and coffers that I designed into the room during construction. I do love all that detail though, as it breaks up the tall walls and brings that ceiling down a bit to make a cozier feel.

Existing new dining room with furniture from previous home.

Those gilded iron chandeliers really make a statement against the dark envelope. This room and the library are the two dark rooms in this light and bright hill country home and they both flank the entry hall, facing the front of the house, so I love the fact that they echo each other a bit.

After the rug the next item I needed to focus on was the table. You can see in the pic of the room above, the dark table is just ho-hum in the space. I wanted to go light and more modern and this table, that has a warm coppery color metal base, is perfect.

The finish on this table is a little weathered, you can see some graining, and it has two leaves, so it can be expanded for big holiday entertaining.

Chairs were next. I like the addition of a black chair and the natural caning gives it a more casual vibe.

They can keep the two head chairs they have and reupholster, I like having them in blue as the off-white doesn’t look as custom designed. Also, I’m not fond of the big nailheads there, as it feels rather tradtional.

They could also get two new ones if they prefer, like this chair from Crate and Barrel.

We discussed keeping the big art they have there, but the dark chest just felt like more dark furniture in here and it felt bulky and deep.

I proposed moving the art to the other wall and then using a very slender, 9” deep natural wood console with a sleek iron base. This one from Charleston Forge fits the bill at 70” long.

I would definitely do drapery here, some light neutral linen sheers would be ideal IMO.

They don’t need privacy here and at first didn’t see the need for window treatments, but I feel like this room looks unfinished without them.

The light sheers will add texture and light will pass through them on the sides of the window where they will cover. I’d then get an acrylic rod with brass fittings, to add a little sparkle to this room.

Casual Navy Dining Room - carlaaston.com

On the wall where the big dresser is now, I would do two smaller consoles, centered in each paneled area. I like these that are a light wood for the rustic, casual look they provide.

Then, I’d go all in with more warmth with these two art pieces. At 51” tall, they will utilize that square footage on the tall wall and the caramel color with white will be a dramtic statement against the navy color.

I’d finish those consoles off with a small lamp in a gilded finish with a white shade.

Casual Navy Dining Room Console Wall | carlaaston.com

I have some of my best tips for redesigning your dining room in this post, below. Get crackin’ on yours so you can be ready for the holidays!

Links to shop!

This blogpost was thoughtfully written by me, Carla Aston, and not by AI, ghostwriters, or guest posters.