Color Trends in the Dining Room

By Jennifer Haupt

The dining room is where you entertain friends, share the holidays with family and celebrate the big and little events of your life. When it comes to color, you want a warm and cozy, yet energetic and festive feel. The good news is that colors trends are moving toward softer hues that make both you and your cooking look good.

"The trend has been for colors to come down in value and become more natural, and we'll continue to see that into 2008," says Jack Bredenfoerder, president of the Color Marketing Group (CMG), a not-for-profit international group of more than 1,100 designers who forecast color trends in industries from fashion, to interior design, to automobiles. "Highly saturated, bright colors are still going to be around but they'll be used more as accents in the dining room."

No matter what colors you use, a touch of glamour or a dash of ethnic spice will showcase your individuality and give guests plenty to talk about!

Global Charm

Next: Contemporary Simplicity

From the fashions of Beverly Hills to the street couture of New York City, global ethnic influences are everywhere. According to CMG's Bredenfoerder, both India and Asia will be influences on the 2008 color palettes with jewel-toned reds, greens and purples making a strong showing.

This dining room, which highlights colors from the Sherwin-Williams Sultry Origins Collection, pairs warm shades of brown with bolder tones of red, orange and green for an old world charm. "The colors in the Sultry Origins Collection are very conversational — rich tones and spicy accents," says Becky Ralich Spak, a senior designer for Sherwin-Williams. "They're perfect for the room where you want guests and family to feel both energized, and warm and cozy."

Photograph courtesy of Sherwin Williams