Best Paint Colors for Your Dining Room

These bold dining room color ideas are guaranteed to transform your room from okay to extraordinary.

By Deborah Baldwin

Dining room drama is designed to set the stage for special events: mealtime celebrations with family and friends. So why not create a worthy backdrop for the festivities? The bold dining room paint color ideas we've chosen on the following pages are guaranteed to transform any dining room from okay to extraordinary.

Truffle Brown

The cocooning color on these faux-paneled walls helps harmonize the varied wood tones throughout the room. But that's only part of the story. Extending the deep shade to the crown and panel moldings and to the windows and their trim gives the space a seamless look—and the airy white ceiling a lift.

For a similar look, try: Glidden Wild Truffle

Spicy Orange

This caramelized shade—as warm as red but less expected—is a great update for a traditional dining set but works equally well with more modern, clean-lined pieces. Pale flooring and plenty of natural light help keep the high-octane hue from feeling too intense.

For a similar look, try: Behr Summer Heat

Midnight Sky

This enveloping blue, tinged with green and black, sets off classic white-painted crown molding and chair rail beautifully. Eclectic furnishings in shades of linen and espresso brown help keep the sophisticated shade from looking too formal.

For a similar look, try: Valspar Azure Jazz

Apple Green

This crisp, energetic color can highlight ornate stained woodwork and give a formal space a fresh look. When it reaches all the way to a high ceiling, as it does here, it can also balance out dark flooring and furniture while bringing focus to a light-colored ceiling and an eye-catching chandelier.

For a similar look, try: Benjamin Moore Candy Green

Citrus Yellow

This daring hue could look less than nuanced, but not when it mediates between graphic black and white, as it does in this room. Here, it gives the white-painted elements (table, floor, ceiling) and the dark ones (chairs, decoys, picture frames) a welcoming, natural warmth.

For a similar look, try: Sherwin-Williams Lemon Twist

Deep Red

Back before central heating, American colonists helped raise the temperature by painting walls with pricey red pigments. Paired with clean white, this saturated hue can make a gathering space feel not just classic but also cozier.

For a similar look, try: Pratt & Lambert Red Carriage

Charcoal Purple

Blue-violet undertones give this velvety plum its lively richness. When this deep hue is paired with light-colored furnishings and ebonized wood floors , as shown here, it can turn even a casual space into something both grander and more intimate.

For a similar look, try: Benjamin Moore Super Nova

Aqua Blue

Pale blue and dark brown are a tried-and-true duo, but the dynamic changes when the blue is cranked up to a lively aqua that can take the stuffiness out of what is often a traditional space.

For a similar look, try: Olympic Aqua Chiffon

Grass Green

This color—somewhere between emerald and olive—is a natural for a space where you want people to relax. Despite its depth, it feels comforting and familiar, and looks especially fresh setting off pale furnishings and white trim.

For a similar look, try: Mythic Putting Green

Warm Gray

Gray may be neutral, but it can be warm or cool depending on its undertones. The color on the walls shown here is tinged with brown, which is brought to the fore by the room's other warm accents, including rosy red furnishings.

For a similar look, try: PPG Pittsburgh Paints Flipper

Best Paint Colors for Your Dining Room

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