Paint can be used to pull together two adjoining rooms with shared views but different functions.
Paint is one of the easiest ways to coordinate rooms that open into or face each other. Use color to define a space by function, highlight a furniture style or create a mood in the living and dining rooms. Contrasting shades of one color, unexpected color juxtapositions, and a lot of white with a few bright accents are all solutions for living and dining room decor.
Blue and Chocolate
For a living and dining room separated by an open archway, try a striking contemporary color balanced by a classic favorite. Paint the ceilings white in both rooms--the trim gets a glossy white as well. In the dining room, choose soft blue for the walls and set the wood table and chairs on an Aubusson-style carpet of pale blues and browns. In the adjoining living room, paint the walls a rich, faux suede chocolate and offset the drama with another, similar carpet. Furnish the room with light blue or blue patterned upholstered pieces. Both rooms will have a distinct look but the white trim, and shades of blue and brown paint provide a harmonious view through the open arch.
Bright and White
A light-filled vacation home will often have a living room and dining room that are almost entirely open to each other. Accentuate the sense of space and light with pickled or white floors in both rooms, all-white walls and ceiling and high-gloss white doors, window frames and trim. Add bright accents like a chartreuse-yellow chair rail in the dining room and matching painted end table in the living room, or tangerine-painted dining chairs and cushions of the same color on a living room sofa or love seat.
Shades of Pink
Think pink for the living and dining rooms and mix up the paint treatment for different energy in each room. The living room gets a soft, color-washed pink with a creamy linen or ecru trim. The look is slightly vintage, slightly relaxed and shabby chic, but it will accommodate furniture styles from antiques to contemporary. In the dining room, the ceiling and the bead board or paneled wainscoting is painted the same linen or ecru as the living room trim but the upper walls are a deep peony pink. The color is dynamic; reds encourage appetite so the vibrant pink makes for lively meals. Using two very diverse shades from the same color family allows the rooms to flow easily into each other while retaining their distinct identities.
Color Separation
When the living room and the dining room are the same room, separate the spaces with color. In a classic loft, there is a huge open expanse to divide into functions. The space can seem cavernous and unfocused but a few cans of paint and it will acquire definition. Try a deep shade in the red family for the dining area--a wall of cranberry or barn red behind the dining table turns the area into a cozy "room" for meals. In the living area, two adjoining walls painted charcoal or Prussian blue are a striking canvas for art and a backdrop for the sofa and chairs. For "authentic" industrial d cor, you could faux paint an old "brick" wall behind the dining table or the recycled breakfront.
Tags: dining room, living room, living dining, each other, behind dining
