Add Color & Style When Designing Your Dining Space
Story by Paige Eichkorn
Your back patio or deck can be so much more than a grill next to plain metal chairs and a table. It’s time to create that outdoor living space that fits your lifestyle and that you and your family will enjoy not just this summer but for seasons to come. But how to start?
At the top of our list was a visit with Beth Rzonca, an interior designer for Amini’s Galleria who is up on what’s hot in outdoor furniture, starting with color and style. “Overall in outdoor trends what we’ve been seeing is a lot more neutral,” Rzonca shared. “Now with the whole gray story we’re seeing that transition to outdoor as well, everything from industrial as it’s a very clean look to seeing a resurgence in classic.” And that means a move from tans and earth tones to lighter grays and taupes.
A great way to incorporate color is with accent items Rzonca shared with us. “We’re seeing more navy and denim being used for pillows and umbrellas,” Rzonca said. “Blues are strong, grays are strong, and a great classic red is always good.” And don’t forget about bright colors that pull from your surrounding landscaping. Have fun incorporating those colors in your outdoor pillows and dining dishware. Trending accent brights are leaning to yellow, lime green and turquoise. “Think about using classic black/white stripes with a pop of lime green or red and navy/white stripes with a pop of yellow or red pillows,” suggested Rzonca.
Now it’s time to move onto the furniture. “If dining is your main focus, consider how many you want to seat around the table and what frame construction and color you want the table to be,” said Rzonca. Your table can be a woven look, cast aluminum, a composite wood look or wrought iron and when you add in finishes from light silver, black matte, bronze, white, light woven and dark woven, the choices are endless.
The myriad of options continued as we turned to seating. From sling fabric chairs, chairs with a back cushion, padded sling chairs and more, you won’t come up short in this game of Musical Chairs. “There are hundreds of different designs for your chairs: some have a back cushion and some do not and there are sling fabric chairs, which dry and drain really quickly. Padded slings are gaining popularity for those reasons,” noted Rzonca.
And how about adding some shade to the ensemble? “Cantilever umbrellas can turn to the seating or dining area, you can tilt them if needed, and they can go to different heights,” shared Rzonca. Sounds like a good bet to us. “When we style an outdoor area, some clients like a light color for the canopy and some like a pop of color,” said Rzonca. Get ready to make some decisions!
There’s no better time than these summer months to create your new outdoor space you’ll love.
