Kitchen and Dining Room Open Floor Plan: How to Keep a Seamless Look

An open floor plan in a home provides a wonderfully inviting and airy feel to a home. The open space gives owners and visitors a feeling of freedom and comfort and also makes the home appear to have more square footage than it actually does. An open floor plan is certainly a great selling point for many homes. However, the very attribute that made buying the home in the first place so attractive may actually end up being a thorn in your side when it comes to decorating it. Many homeowners have a difficult time creating a seamless look throughout the main part of the house when contending in an open floor plan. This decorating article will offer suggestions on how you can beautifully decorate your open floor plan home in a seamless way without compromising your taste or preferences.

Flooring. Consider keeping the same flooring throughout your kitchen and dining room. Laminates come in a variety of colors and styles that can easily be used in both the kitchen and dining rooms. Not only are they very attractive, they also hold up well in high traffic areas. Laminates lock together and are now made to be installed without any additional foam moisture barrier placed underneath, the only concession needed to me made in the kitchen as opposed to the dining room is that adhesive is usually recommended to secure the laminates used in areas where a high probability that liquids will be spilled such as in front of the refrigerator and the sink.

Wood. If you are lucky enough to have an eat in kitchen as well as a formal dining room, keep the same wood in both rooms. This applies to tables, chairs, chair rails and cabinets or china cabinets. Keeping the same wood throughout both rooms whether it be Oak, Pine or Cherry will go a long way towards keeping a seamless look to your kitchen and dining room.

Paint. Stay in the same color family when choosing paint colors for your kitchen and dining room. There is no reason why you can not choose a warmer or cooler shade for one room or the other, but stick to the same color family. Choose one main color for the largest walls and then corresponding paint colors for accent walls and pieces.

Stenciling Design. Many homeowners love to use stenciling as an inexpensive and creative way to spruce up the kitchen and add to the decor theme. Consider adding a few stencils in the same design to certain areas of the dining room. A few matching stencils will not overpower the dining room,but instead carry the look and flair of your unique personality throughout the two rooms.

Accent Pieces. Use the colors and theme of your kitchen to decorate your dining room. If you have decided on a rooster theme for your kitchen, that does not mean you have to fill your dining room with roosters as well. Simply pick up the deep red of the roosters and cover your dining room table with a cloth of the same color. Use the black in the pits of the watermelon theme of your kitchen as a guideline for your candle holders and picture frames in the dining room. Use your imagination to avoid creating a “matchy-matchy” look, but instead picking up the colors and using them to choose accent pieces that pull the two rooms together.