I received a question from one of our readers Lynsey who also happens to be our wedding photographer! [eeeep!] who needed help deciding which colors to paint/fabric to select for a dining table and chair set she rummaged out of her parents attic. Here is what she wrote:

Hey Catharine!
I went “antique shopping” in my parents’ attic and came out with a set of 4 oak breakfast chairs and a dark, wooden table with barley twisted legs. I created a board with a photo of the exact chair and an example of what the table looks like (mine is a 48″ round antique reclaimed wood table with barley twist legs on casters. This gives you a pretty decent idea of what mine looks like) The table is a hand-me-down from my mom and I’m not 100% crazy about it, but I’m open to suggestions on painting or something else to spruce it up!

I found some fabrics I like on Spoonflower (thanks to your blog!) but am not set on these either. Just an idea! I also included my kitchen appliances since some will be sitting out in the kitchen all the time and would need to coordinate with the chairs, as well as a rug and headboard that will be in my bedroom. I’m thinking about painting the chairs but again I have no idea what to do! I’m also looking at getting a charcoal grey sofa and would use some of these fabrics for throw pillows and draperies, too. I get nervous pulling the trigger on fabric for whatever reason so any thoughts you have would be awesome!

Well first of all Lynsey, you know I love to give some old furniture some new life so this is my cup o’ tea! I love the bold pops of color you have going on in your home and I think this dining set would be a perfect canvas to add in some of your fun personality. I’ve come up with a few options, where I just played around with some of my favorite color combinations based on the fabric you chose. The first option leaves the dining table as is. I kind of really love the color of that table, and I think with start white glossy chairs it could look really fresh.

But I haven’t seen the table in real life, and I know you aren’t too keen on it so here are a bunch of other options with it painted a nice glossy white.

But I think if I really had to narrow it down my favorites would be the following:

I know the last fabric wasn’t one of your choices, but I couldn’t resists. I’m clearly obsessed with that print right now :) I hope that these fabric and paint combinations will help give you a jumping off point, and like you said you plan to use the same fabrics for your living room pillows so if you get the fabric in and it doesn’t look right with your chairs, you can always use it for your pillows.  Be sure to keep me posted with what you end up choosing, I can’t wait to see how everything turns out!

If you’re finding yourself in a design pickle shoot us an email and we’d be happy to solve your design dilemmas!