A guide to painting your dining room
How to breathe new life into your dining space
Sitting down to eat with family and friends is an important part of creating memories, socialising and enjoying each other's company. Your dining room decor should reflect your style and create an inviting environment for everyone to gather together. In this guide to decorating your dining room, we’ve put together some tips on how to paint your dining room, including how to find the right colour. Painting your dining room can be a cost-effective way to transform your space, whether it be freshening up old decor or entirely revamping the room.
How to find the right paint for your dining room
Before we get into choosing a colour, it's important to understand the paint finish. Generally, dining rooms don’t have heavy footfall (compared to a hallway, for example) and aren’t particularly messy as the food preparation is done in the kitchen. With this in mind, satin and eggshell paint finishes are commonplace in dining rooms due to having a slight sheen and stain resistance, but not needing to withstand being heavily washed or cleaned.
Finding the best colour for your dining room
If you’re completely changing your current colour scheme, it’s important to understand the basics of colour psychology. Colours can evoke certain emotions and create an atmosphere, depending on the dining experience you desire:
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Warm colours - The most popular colour choice for a dining room tends to be warm colours This includes red, orange and yellow colour families. Warm colours are energetic and happy, which pair well with a room for entertaining.
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Cool colours - Painting your dining room a shade of blue, green or purple can create a calming and soothing atmosphere. If you want a relaxing space to eat, you should choose a cool dining room colour.
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Neutrals - The subtlety of neutrals like beige, grey and brown can be comforting and pair well with either warm or cool accents in your existing decor.
DIY painting: A step-by-step guide to painting your dining room
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Prepare the room - Remove all existing furniture and decor from the dining room. Use tape to cover any light fixtures, trim, door frames or other immovable objects you don’t want to get paint on. over the floor with drop cloths or plastic sheets.
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Prepare the walls - Gently clean your walls to remove any dirt or debris. You should also fill in any holes or cracks. Once dry, gently sand the walls to create better adhesion, wiping away any dust. Ensure the walls are completely dry before you begin painting.
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Prime (if needed) - If your existing wall colour is darker than the one you are painting with it’s recommended to apply a coat of primer.
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Start at the edge - Begin using a small to mid-sized paintbrush around the edges of the room. Essentially, you need to paint along all edges and corners a roller can’t reach, this is called ‘cutting in’.
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Use a roller - After painting all the edges and corners it’s time to use a roller brush. Work in small sections and try not to excessively overlap the edges to ensure even coverage.
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Let it dry and assess - Allow the first coat of paint to completely dry before deciding whether you need any additional coats, if so repeat steps four and five.
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Remove the tape - Prevent peeling by removing the tape before the paint completely dries.
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Clean up and put furniture back in - You’ve done the hard work, now it’s time to put your furniture and furnishings back in the room. Allow the paint to cure for a few days and you’ve got yourself a brand-new dining space!
No matter what colour or paint finish you prefer for your dining room, we have a range of interior paint to choose from. We also have all the decorating tools you need to create a space where you can proudly host dinner parties and enjoy family mealtimes.
Looking for more paint inspiration? We’ve got plenty of painting and decorating ideas and advice, from green bedroom ideas to creative feature wall ideas. And if you need some help starting your decorating project, check out our guide on prepping your walls for painting, and learn how to paint like a pro.