Bright and Colorful Summer Living and Dining Rooms Decorating
Summer decorating ideas for small, open-concept living and dining rooms with colorful and eclectic style.
Combo living and dining rooms or open layouts can be tricky to define especially when they are also small spaces. The natural tendency is to keep things minimal with a neutral color palette but what if you love eclectic and colorful styles?
I’m excited to share how I’ve infused global and eclectic decor/finds into our living and dining rooms with a few seasonal touches for summer. The best part is that it does not clutter the room and actually makes the interior spaces look bigger! So bring out the colorful and collected treasures and let’s get decorating!
Dining and Living Rooms Ideas
Welcome to the Bloggers Best Summer Tours hosted by my sweet friend The Tattered Pew. This is a great place to be for seasonal inspiration so don’t miss the full week’s lineup at the bottom of this article. If you are coming from, Cottage in the Mitten, welcome! We are a recently retired military family living in a single-story ranch home in Fort Worth Texas.
Our last two duty stations were in Japan so even though our 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home is around 1800 square feet, it feels like a good size! We brought home many treasures from around the world and my mother saved me many furniture, art, and decor pieces from my grandparents.
I searched high and low for combined dining and living room ideas pictures online but found very little that featured a colorful-eclectic style. So I thought for today’s tour I would share how I worked around our lack of walls to define the open concept in our house with plenty of character and pictures!
How to Define Your Dining and Living Rooms
- Use an area rug. This is the easiest way to divide an open concept layout. A good rule of thumb is that your furniture front feet should at least be on the rug. This helps make a connection and grounds the furniture especially if it isn’t against a wall.
- Think outside the basic floor plan. It’s easy to think that you should have furniture centered on a focal wall like a fireplace. Ours happened to be off-centered and at first, I wanted to cram everything into the corner of the area so that it was symmetrical.
As soon as I decided the fireplace itself should be the center of the room it opened up our entire living area. One side is flanked by the built-in bookcase and the other is a hallway but the rug and sofa centered on the mantel make a great design and plenty of walking space.
(Please excuse the paper and blue tape on the floor if spot it in pictures, we are dealing with termite damage in the back half of the house.)
- Use tall furniture to divide spaces. I have an entire story about this tip you can read about. But using a tall piece of furniture is a great way to split a larger area and adds extra storage! After trying a few pieces, I finally decided to hack an Ikea cabinet into a cane cabinet with an easy DIY.
- Don’t be afraid to adjust light fixtures. We decided to use the breakfast nook for our dining room since I have a piano studio in front of the open concept living area. After living with a few different arrangements, I realized the off-centered chandelier was messing up an ideal layout. I had an electrician come and move the ceiling outlet but you can also sway a chain to make sure your light sits over the dining table where you want.
- Forgo traditional furniture in tight quarters. I tried to make a buffet work with a smaller glass dining tabletop and banquet seating to one side. I really wanted a more open space with easy access around the table so we sold the buffet and moved the china to the top kitchen shelves.
The table in the center of the dining area made the room look so much bigger! Instead of furniture against the wall, I took the opportunity at trying my hand at wall mural. It is now one of my favorite features.
- Use art to define rooms. Just like rugs help define the floor layout, wall art can let you know where one space stops and another begins. When decorating a living and dining room combo with one big wall, hang pieces grouped together centered on each defined side. I used art, window treatments, and a cabinet on the dining room side and left the living room sidemore open so there’s no guessing where the rooms divide.
Summer Decorating in Our Open Concept Living and Dining ROoms
Now that I’ve shared tips for defining separate spaces I’m dying to show recent changes and seasonal touches for today’s summer home tour!
I shared my office and piano studio last week and my grandmother’s portrait was really the starting off point for decorating this house. You’ll notice that different shades of blues and greens are the cohesive colors used throughout our home. But grandma’s portrait added a pop of red. Here she is!
She’s wearing a bright red St John’s suit in the painting and to be honest, red is not my favorite color to decorate with. I painted the wall she’s on dark green to tone down the red and did my best to ignore it. But recently I found the PERFECT curtains to go on the front window that made me fall in love with it!
They are gorgeous teal velvet curtains with warm-toned flowers. I decided to use the pops of reds, pinks, and orange through the rest of the living and dining room for summer. 🙂
The throw on the couch came from a night market in Chaing Mai, Thailand and the koi pillow was a recent gift. I also found darling hand-stamped pillow covers on Esty to add to the cozy-global vibe.
Along with the warm tones for summer, I brought out pampas grass, air plants, house plants, and monstera leaves for more seasonal touches.
I especially love how a money plant now looks on the foyer with a few other decorating tweaks.
I’m ready for guests whether it’s for coffee or cocktails! I used yellow barware mixed with Okinawan blue glass tumblers for a quick setup on a desk.
The art, desk, and brass candlesticks are all second hand finds!
Just to the right brings you back to the dining table…
Do you take cream or sugar? I found a darling set of robin’s egg blue teacup set in a Japanese thrift store and here is its debut! The cocktail napkins and painted ivy plates were my grandmother’s.
I’m thrilled you could join me today! Next up on the home tour list is Brick’ N Blooms!
Blogger’s Best Summer Home Tour
Join 30 bloggers all week long as we welcome you into our homes. You can visit each summer home tour by clicking the links below.
Monday’s Tours
The Tattered Pew / Stonegable / My Wee Abode
White Arrows Home / Fiddle Leaf Blog / Dabbling and Decorating
Tuesday’s Tours
The Flowering Farmhouse / Sanddollar Lane / Cottage In The Mitten
Up To Date Interiors / Bricks ‘n Blooms / Cottage On Bunker Hill
Wednesday’s Tours
Open Doors Open Hearts/ Pasha Is Home / Shiplap and Shells
A Blue Nest / Cloches and Lavender / Simply 2 Moms
Thursday’s Tours
Cassie Bustamante / First Day of Home / Midwest Life and Style
County Road 407 / She Gave It A Go / Robyn’s French Nest
Friday’s Tours
The Ponds Farmhouse / DIY Beautify / Follow The Yellow Brick Home
Your home looks gorgeous decorated for summer, Kathy. I so much enjoyed slowly scrolling through your post, enjoying every single picture.
Thank you my sweet friend! Can’t wait to get over to your post!
Kathy I love your home all decorated for summer. The colors and textures you use are beautiful! I love the color of your sofa too! Enjoy a beautiful day! xo
THanks Stacy! I always wanted a velvet green sofa and found this one on FB marketplace a couple of years ago.
Wow, Kathy, I am in love with your gorgeous home! I would love to spend the day just admiring your treasures!
Great tips for separating spaces too!
Thank you so much. It’s been an adventure to make this small space work. 🙂
So many pretty touches added for summer Kathy! Such a pretty and eclectic home. So fun touring together this week.
Thank you AnnMarie. Happy to be touring with you!
Such great home decorating tips! Pinned!
Thank you so much Jennifer!
I usually run for the hills when I see so much color but I don’t know if it’s your styling or eclectic taste or your furniture but I just want to jump in each photo and live in them! I adore it all! I am from FTW too and have been inside so many fabulous ranch style houses so yours makes my heart go pitter pat. We now live in Highland Village (between Flower Mound and Denton) but come back home too see family often. Was at Joe T’s for Mother’s Day! I seriously think your home is darling and should totally be in a magazine. Thanks for sharing your talent with us.
Oh my gosh, that is so sweet of you to say! Joe Ts is a great spot! So happy to meet another texan!
your home is so much fun! LOVE that vintage bright green painting over the desk! Such a great find!
Thank you so much Cassie! I found that painting with my grandpa at an Estate sale and he saved it for me when I moved back. 🙂
I love your eclectic style and that green velvet sofa! It’s a pleasure to join you for another tour! Blessings, Cecilia @My Thrift Store Addiction
Thanks Cecilia!
All your art and colors are so gorgeous my friend. So happy to be joining you this week🙌🏻
Aw, thanks sweet Ann. Hope your summer was great!
Kathy your use of color and texture is my favorite! Your home is magical and totally magazine worthy! I always learn so much from you and get so many ideas. Thanks for joining the tour this week!
You are too kind Kelly. Thanks girl!
I am a girl who loves color! So many pretty items in your home, but I especially loved your drapes. The green sofa and Koi pillow are stunning. Happy touring day!
Yay for color! Thanks Kim. xoxo
Your home is so beautiful Kathy. You have such a way of mixing colors and patterns. I love the collected look. Happy to be touring with you this week. Pinned!
Thanks so much Jen!
It’s always so fun to get a peek into your eclectic styled home, Kathy! And I so enjoy seeing all your treasures! Fun to be hopping with you! It’s been a while!
It has been a while! Thanks Julie. xoxo
All of the colors in your home are so dreamy! And ADORE that fireplace screen!
Aw, you’re so sweet Ana. Thank you!
Your home is so beautiful Kathy! I love your use of color and your green velvet couch is amazing! Your summer tour was so much fun and your tips are so helpful.
Thank you Kim!
Oh I love your fun style. So many interesting pieces and you have displayed everything so beautifully. So fun doing these tours together.
Thank you Rachel!
Kathy,
I don’t know if I’ve been to your site before…but I love everything about your home!! You’ve taken so many cool, colorful pieces and put them together in the most elegant and beautiful way. I really love the green bird painting too.
Thank you so much Jennifer! That is very kind of you to say. I love that bird painting too. I found it with my grandpa.