My Summer Dining Room Style | The Elements Behind the Look (and How to Make It Your Own)

My dining room is ready for summer! Today I’m sharing the design elements that combine to create a storied look, one that feels connected not only to the season, but to the rest of my home.

Summer — or at least the hopeful feeling of it — has stealthily slipped in.

I found myself this week opening doors and windows to let the fresh ocean air blow through the house, only to close them again a few hours later when I started to feel the chill.

Stepping outside onto the porch each morning with Maddie and Cisco to bask in the welcome warmth of the sun.

Reaching for shorts, sandals — and a sweater.

Enjoying an ice cream treat, carefree as a kid.

And finally pulling out some old friends to ready the dining area for the season ahead. Sea fans and shells for the mantel. The nautical flag that people mistake for Finland’s. White slipcovers on the fireside chairs. Cornishware, spongeware, and the sisal rug. (The last item turning into a full-on workout as I lugged it up the basement steps solo. It’s gratifying to know my upper body strength training has real-world payoffs…)

Now the dining area feels fresh, relaxed, and ready for warmer days.

Today, instead of giving you the usual summer dining room tour, I am taking the same approach I did in this post about the living room earlier this spring.

Rather than focusing on the small details and seasonal updates (you can see those in the photos for yourself), I’m stepping back to look at the broader elements that combine to create my own storied look.

My hope is that you’ll be able to adapt these ideas to your own aesthetic and create a home that is uniquely yours.

Color

The downstairs is basically open plan, one space flowing into the next. Only the bathroom (naturally) and snug have doors. So I kept the colors consistent as you move from the entrance to the living room and on to the dining and kitchen areas — blues ranging from light to navy, browns and tans to warm things up, and white to brighten.

This cohesive color palette allows the home’s story to unfold gradually, without each space competing for your attention. And it never detracts from the star of the show — the ocean view out the windows.

Walls and Ceilings

The living room and dining room run the full length of the waterside of the house, with the stone fireplace separating them visually, but not physically.

Therefore, I painted the dining room walls the same Benjamin Moore Brittany Blue as the living room.

Similarly, the pine ceiling beams run from one exterior wall to the other through both spaces.

The kitchen, which is completely open to the dining area, has the same Brittany Blue walls, but a beadboard ceiling to differentiate it.

Foundation

The furnishings in the dining room are, for the most part, natural pine or painted faux grain with simple lines. They provide a neutral backdrop for my collections.

To keep things from being too uniform, though, there is a whimsical Victorian painted cottage washstand that I use as a drinks cabinet and a chippy blue bench under the window. And the dining chairs are blue and white checked woven bistro chairs, a lighthearted contrast to all the wood.

Clean-lined slipcovered chairs (white for summer, beige in the winter) introduce a more modern note to the room.

Pattern and Texture

Since dining rooms tend to be populated with large solid furniture, not soft pieces, you often need to be more purposeful about adding pattern and texture. It often comes in unexpected ways.

I deliberately chose fabric window shades with a large floral design, and I like to throw a patterned cloth on the table.

But I also bring pattern into the room through my collections — blue willow platters above the mantel, happy stripes in the hutch, a school of fish plates climbing the wall, and the graphic punch of a stack of spongeware bowls.

As for texture, it can be found in the patina of old wood, the raised scalloped edge of a bowl, the delicate outline of a sea fan, a tangle of ropes atop the corner hutch, and the weave of a basket lamp.

All of these individual elements together add energy and depth to a space.

Antique and Vintage

The majority of the furniture and all my collected objects in the dining room are antique or vintage.

I will say it on repeat: these pieces come with their own story and one-of-a-kind character. They are the easiest way to create a home that is unlike anyone else’s. Plus, they are usually better made and less expensive than buying new.

Story

As I said in my living room post, I believe firmly that every home should tell a story unique to its owner and, often, its location.

In the dining room this time of year, that means all the elements of a classic New England summer on the coast. Blue and white striped Cornishware, a nautical flag hanging from the fireplace mantel, a wreath made from mussel and clam shells collected from local beaches, and crisp white slipcovers.

This story is carried into other rooms in the house too.

Plants

Plants bring life to a room — literally and figuratively.

The bench under the window is home to a garden of greenery. To keep the mix lively, I chose a variety of plants and containers from ceramic pots to baskets to vintage metal tins.

This time of year I love how they blur the line between inside and out.

Surfaces

It’s no secret I have a thing for dishes. I came by it honestly, as I inherited this love — and my blue and white transferware — from my mom.

The dining room is where most of my “wares” reside. I keep them under control by displaying them together — spongeware in the corner hutch, transferware on the mantel, and for summer, Cornishware in the big hutch. And while I prefer more informal arrangements, I keep things tidy, always taking balance and symmetry into consideration.

You can read more about my casual method for decorating flat surfaces here.

Repetition

Repetition is important within a room to create flow and show intention.

I added a few pieces of spongeware to my summer hutch and the dining table as a direct nod to the large collection of spongeware in the corner hutch.

There are fish plates on the wall and a display of fish moulds across the room in the kitchen.

And on the top of the hutch I grouped a brown-and-white striped bowl, a crock, and a pitcher to mimic those same pieces pictured in the adjacent painting.

But it is also important to repeat design elements for a consistent narrative throughout the house. Of course the color blue is a thread all through the downstairs. You will also find natural and faux-grain woods in every room. There are shells in the living room and a few in the dining area as well. A lone needlepoint seagull stitched by a friend hangs from a hutch drawer knob far on the other side of the fireplace from his carved friends.

These small recurring themes and motifs may go unnoticed individually, but together they lend a steady reassurance to the home.

Comfort

Comfort means something different in the dining room than it does in the living room.

Yes, the dining chairs should never be too hard or straight-backed (mine are neither), but comfort is more a state of mind here. The dining room should be a place that invites you in and encourages you to linger — especially when it is open to the kitchen as mine is.

A pair of upholstered chairs next to the fireplace are equally perfect for a leisurely coffee or a chat with the cook.

Well-worn pieces allow you to relax, without the worry that anything is too precious.

And an organized jumble of pottery in the hutches signals that nothing is too formal here.

Process

And lastly, a brief reminder (once again) that design is a process — over many years and even through just one. While I have gotten to the point where I am, for the most part, “done” decorating my home, I still like to change things seasonally. And when I do that, I always seem to arrange the Cornishware a little differently, or add an extra shell or two on the mantel.

Of course there are also those finds that speak to me when I am out antiquing and then become a new part of my home’s story. Or those projects I have had at the back of my mind for someday. (There is actually one of those for the dining room that I might finally get to this summer.)

The point is, embrace the process. Follow your heart and see where you end up.

This Week Into Next

As you could tell from the intro, we had some lovely summer(ish) weather for most of the week. But by today it had turned chilly, gray, and wet. I need to remind myself that summer hasn’t really even officially started yet. Warmer days are ahead.

This was our last week of the Weekend Meals program at the pantry, so I am officially on summer vacation.

From that volunteer work. The lighthouse is open again for the season, and I have my first shift in the gift shop tomorrow. The lighthouse tower was renovated and the keeper’s house was painted, so everything is looking shiny and new. For a 169-yr old structure, that is. It really is such a sweet little lighthouse.

And the first of my summer guests — my two sisters, my dad, and his friend — arrive next weekend. So next week will be focused on getting everything ready. I can’t wait for them to arrive!

Have a lovely week, friends.

Be well!