Formal Dining Room Decorating Ideas

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50+ Beautiful Dining Rooms Designed with Intimate Entertaining In Mind

Dressing up for dinner never felt so good.

Jeff Herr

In many homes, the dining room is often regarded as a more formal, sometimes even stuffy, space in the house. Today's modern families tend to take a more casual approach to gathering for meals, whether it's dinner around the kitchen table, breakfast in a cozy banquette, or lunch at the kitchen island. Dining room tables seem to be reserved for fancier occasions and holiday festivities.

However, we can learn a thing or two from world-renowned interior decorators, whose attention to the dining room speaks for itself: Dining rooms are special and should be the central hub for entertaining and family gatherings. No matter your style, there's dining room decor to suit your taste, from timeless elegance with antiques and calmer color palettes to taking design risks with saturated hues or bold wallpaper. Designers discover clever ways to make small spaces feel larger and continue to dream up inspiring upgrades for walls, lighting, furniture, and flooring.

Take cues from these stunning dining room ideas, all from designer homes, to update your space with elevated decor, because a beautiful space paired with a memorable menu is sure to impress friends and family. Now, it's time to plan your next dinner party!

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Decadent Details

Dinner is always a decadent affair in the Georgia of Furlow Gatewood. In the dining room, a medley of antiques from John Rosselli Antiques starts their own history conversation. The tole leaf wall ornaments were designed by Gatewood.

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Artisan Made

In this Connecticut dining room designed by Miles Redd, faux-bois detailing and gold-leaf borders by artist Agustin Hurtado frame a hand-painted Gracie wallpaper inspired by an old Japanese screen. Moses Soyer's Girl with Kerchief hangs over the dining room mantel.

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Garden Variety

At this Georgia home designed by James Farmer, references to the garden envelope the space. An antique Persian rug is the grounding of this "garden." The Lewis and Wood wallpaper is truly a vine motif growing up to the sky. The ceiling is lacquered in a sky blue (Pearl by Benjamin Moore). Pops of garden-fresh green are carried throughout, from the lampshades to the majolica plates.

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Worldly Wise

At the 2020 Kips Bay Designer Show House Dallas, the light-drenched dining room features a refined blend of traditional Dallas style and global influences. Designer Cathy Kincaid found inspiration from beloved rooms by Alidad and Veere Grenney, along with her most-trusted craftspeople in the industry, to create a one-of-a-kind dining room. The room also features custom embroidered slipcovers on the dining chairs from Kincaid's debut collection with Penn & Fletcher.

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Outdoors In

For his 1926 Mediterranean Revival home in Florida, Lou Marotta commissioned a decorative artist Chuck Fischer to create a whimsical black-and-white gazebo design with colorful vines and passionflowers. The 19th-century gilded aura from Blackman Cruz acts as a golden backdrop for the 1980s sculpture from Jonson Cornell.

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A Glitzy Arrangement

A 19th-century Baltic chandelier glitters in the newly renovated dining room of this 1850 farmhouse by Richard Keith Langham. To complement the lighting's glamorous air, Langham dressed the walls in a hydrangea Gracie wallpaper and frame the windows in a Schumacher silk with bullion fringe.

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Lacquered Ceiling

Apricot-lacquered ceilings cast a warm glow on the moss-green walls in the Atlanta home of designer Danielle Rollins. A Lee Jofa damask covers antique Italian chairs. The tablecloth and bench feature Oscar de la Renta for Lee Jofa fabric.

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Purple Rain

Decorator John Saladino proves the color purple never goes out of style in his Montecito dining room. Topping off the look is a hand-paint mural of vines and flowers on the ceiling. The dining room chairs are outfitted with a Keleen leather and Samuel & Sons trim.

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Touch of Grey

In the dining room of antiques dealer Furlow Gatewood's rural Georgia home, a soft palette of white and grey allows his collection and blue and white porcelain to shire. Octagonal table, consoles, chairs, gilt mirrors, hurricane shades, table lantern, and Gatewood-designed tole leaf wall ornaments, Rosselli.

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Good Vintage

In the guest house of this California wine country estate designed by Ken Fulk, green metal industrial pendants enliven the dining room, which is furnished with a Spanish trestle table surrounded by rush woven chairs (Ralph Lauren Home).

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Pattern Play

At this Connecticut home designed by Markham Roberts, traditional pattern covers nearly every surface for a quite modern effect. "The way the dining room's intense pattern repeats across the walls excites me," says Roberts, who trimmed the chocolate wall print in a rosy grosgrain gimp and mixed in a Persian bijar carpet and Swedish neoclassical chandelier.

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Island Style

Designer Matthew Carter layered in textures to elevate the casual dining room in his Bahamas cottage. A Noguchi paper lantern illuminates the white Parsons-style dining table, while a set of rattan chairs (Palecek) adds a nod to the island setting.

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Tropical Zone

At this Naples, Florida, home, designer Celerie Kemble relaxes the vibe of the formal dining room with mahogany-framed woven panels, rooting the space in raw, native beauty. A Marseilles Opera House backdrop (Obsolete, Inc.) depicting tropical flora and fauna becomes large-scale artwork in the dining room. Jamaican mahogany chairs, The Raj Company

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Garden Views

Designer Caroline Gidiere covered the jib doors in a chinoiserie de Gournay wallpaper to ensure continuity throughout her dining room. The proximity of her extensive tableware collection makes entertaining a breeze. Flirty tassels (Samuel & Sons) on the table skirt fabric (Elizabeth Eakins) add a textural element to the tablescape. Blue-and-white fabrics from Les Indiennes and Schumacher reinvent the vintage dining chairs found at the Paris Flea Market.

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Jungle Love

Lively panoramic wallpaper (Besson) and a mischievous monkey sconce (Seletti) in this Paris dining room by Le Berre Vevaud transport guests to the middle of a flourishing jungle filled with chirping birds and native fruits. Curved chairs from Finn Juhl surround the glass table from the designers' own collection. The banquette velvet and drapery fabric are both by Pierre Frey.

Sarah DiMarco Sarah DiMarco is the Assistant Editor at VERANDA, covering all things decor, design, and travel, and she also manages social media for the brand.

Lindsey Campbell I'm the Assistant Social Editor for Elle Decor, House Beautiful and Veranda.

Steele Marcoux Editor in Chief, VERANDA Steele Marcoux is the Editor in Chief at VERANDA, covering design trends, architecture, and travel for the brand.

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