The Washington Post’s Home Section has an article today about red dining rooms. There are a few bossy color quotes in there (thank you!) that are low on bossy, high on color. I hope the article is helpful.
I thought all of the the designers in the article gave good advice, especially Zoe Kyriacos, a color consultant in Takoma Park. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you what the article left out (lower voice to a whisper): red dining rooms are a little passe at this point.
Some of my clients are 100% certain that they want a red dining room. So I try to steer them toward reds that are less cherry and more orange or scarlet. Farrow & Ball has served us well; Rectory Red has pink undertones (above), and Blazer is almost burnt umber in real life (below).
In both cases I ended up grudgingly agreeing that reds were great choices for these dining rooms. Believe it or not, I like it when clients are right.