Dining room art guide · Updated
How to choose art for a dining room
Key takeaways
- Hang for the seated guest: drop the centre of a dining room canvas to about 140–150 cm (55–59 in), because most of the looking happens from a chair.
- Size it to the long surface: a canvas roughly two-thirds to three-quarters the length of the sideboard or table ties furniture and art into one picture.
- Paint for the evening light: pendants and candles warm every colour, so ochre, terracotta, deep green and gold glow while icy tones can turn flat.
- Give guests something to talk about: people face one dining wall for an hour or more, so a still life, a story-telling landscape or a rich abstract earns its place.
What wall art works best in a dining room?
The best dining room wall art is warm and characterful and rewards a long look from a chair: still lifes, flower paintings, landscapes with light in them, and rich abstracts.
A dining room asks something different of a painting. In a living room, art is read from across the room in passing; at the table, guests sit facing one wall for the length of a meal, close enough to see the knife marks in a petal or the layers in a sky. That favours work with depth and detail, and subjects that start a conversation.
Food and flowers have hung in dining rooms for centuries, from Dutch fruit pieces to French café scenes, and they still feel at home there in a modern palette. Mood matters as much as subject. Cosy, warm work suits family kitchens and everyday tables, uplifting colour suits a bright breakfast room, and moody or dramatic pieces suit a dark-walled room used mainly for dinner parties.
How big should dining room wall art be?
Size dining room wall art to the longest surface in front of it: about two-thirds to three-quarters of the sideboard, table or banquette, and close to two-thirds of the wall where nothing stands below.
| Dining wall | What stands in front | Canvas to aim for | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sideboard or buffet wall | Sideboard 160–200 cm (63–79 in) | 110–150 cm (43–59 in) wide | Horizontal or square |
| Long wall beside the table | Table for 6–8, 180–240 cm (71–94 in) | 120–170 cm (47–67 in) wide | Horizontal or panoramic |
| Banquette or built-in bench | Bench seat of any length | Most of the bench length, lower edge 25–30 cm (10–12 in) above the back | Panoramic |
| End wall seen from the door | Nothing, or a narrow console | About two-thirds of the clear wall | Large vertical or square |
| Narrow wall between windows | Nothing | 60–80 cm (24–31 in) wide | Vertical, or a stacked pair |
| Breakfast nook in a kitchen-diner | Small round table | 60–90 cm (24–35 in) | Square |
Height is where dining rooms differ most. Seated eyes sit around 110–120 cm (43–47 in) from the floor and standing eyes around 155–165 cm (61–65 in), so the usual gallery centre of 150 cm is a compromise that leans to standing guests. In a dining room, bring the centre down to about 140–150 cm (55–59 in). Over a sideboard, leave 15–20 cm (6–8 in) above the top, more if you keep lamps or tall vases there. On the wall behind the chairs, keep the lower edge well above the chair backs so nobody leans back into the canvas. Resist the urge to hang higher under a tall ceiling; choose a taller painting instead.
What kinds of dining room wall art are there?
Dining room wall art here falls into four kinds: still lifes, flower paintings, landscapes and seascapes, and warm abstracts. The first two feel traditional at the table, the last two feel more modern.
Still life paintings
Sunflowers in a blue jug, persimmons on a branch, lemons and olive urns, a garden lunch table. The classic dining room subject, repainted here with thick knife strokes and fresh colour so it suits a modern kitchen-diner as easily as a panelled room.
Flower paintings
Big, generous blooms such as peonies, poppies, roses and anemones in coral, burgundy and cream. Flowers bring the feeling of a table centrepiece to the wall all year, and a long floral suits the wall above a sideboard.
Landscapes and seascapes
Hillside villages, wheat fields, olive-toned hills, mountain lakes and tall ships at sea. A landscape behind the table gives diners a view, which is welcome in a dining room with few windows or one tucked into the middle of a house.
Warm abstracts and colour blocks
Mustard, rust, terracotta and teal colour blocks, ember-like strokes on charcoal, and flowing pours. Abstracts suit a contemporary dining room with a stone table or a minimal kitchen run, and they pick up the colours of chairs and pendant shades. More in abstract wall art.
Where should dining room wall art hang: sideboard, table wall or banquette?
Hang the main dining room painting where the most guests can see it from their seats, which is usually the long wall facing the widest side of the table or the wall above the sideboard.
Above the sideboard
The easiest spot to get right, because the sideboard gives the canvas a base and a width to follow. Centre the painting on the sideboard and let a lamp or a bowl overlap its lower edge slightly for a layered look.
The long wall beside the table
Guests on the opposite side face it for the whole meal, so this is where a statement piece pays off. Centre it on the table rather than on the wall.
Along a banquette
A built-in bench needs a long, low panoramic canvas, hung high enough that heads resting against the wall stay clear of it.
Between windows and on narrow walls
Tall vertical canvases fill the strips of wall between windows or doors, and a pair either side of a doorway frames the view into the room.
In an open-plan kitchen-diner
Hang dining art on the dining side, away from the hob and the sink, and keep it in the same palette as the living area so the open space reads as one room. The living room art guide covers the sofa end.
Which colours suit dining room wall art under warm light?
Warm, saturated colours suit dining room wall art best, because dinner is lit by pendants, wall lights and candles that warm everything they touch: ochre, terracotta, coral, olive, deep green and gold all look their best by evening.
Warm reds, oranges and yellows have long been associated with appetite and sociability, which is why they recur in restaurants and on dining room walls. Under a warm bulb they deepen and glow. Pale icy blues and cool greys can look dull at night, so if you love a cool palette, choose one with a warm accent, such as a blue sea with a gold sky or a teal abstract with rust.
Read the room before the painting. A white Scandinavian dining room takes one strong colour well, for example orange or red. Rooms with oak, rattan and linen suit terracotta and brown or olive green. A dark dining room painted navy, bottle green or charcoal suits a luminous canvas with gold and yellow, which catches the candlelight. The terracotta and gold colour pages go further into those palettes.
One large canvas or a set: how do you plan dining room art?
Most dining rooms need one main canvas and, at most, one supporting piece; a matched pair suits a symmetrical room, and a grid or gallery suits a relaxed kitchen-diner.
One main canvas
One painting on the wall diners face gives the room a clear focus and leaves the other walls quiet, which helps conversation. A second, smaller piece on the opposite wall can echo its colours.
A matched pair
Two equal canvases suit a dining room with a central door, a fireplace, or a sideboard flanked by windows. Painted to order, the pair can share one horizon or be two halves of a single still life.
A grid or gallery wall
Four or six square canvases in a grid suit a kitchen-diner or breakfast room and make a long wall feel lively. Keep the gaps between them equal and the palette consistent.
How do designers and show homes approach dining room wall art?
Designers and developers treat dining room wall art as part of the room's finishes, specifying its size from the drawings and its palette from the chairs, table and paint scheme, then approving it from progress photos.
For residential interior designers, the dining room piece is often the second-largest artwork in a home, and it has to suit both a family supper and a dinner party. A catalogue work can be resized to the sideboard and repainted in the scheme's colours. Home stagers use dining art to make a room feel lived-in and to give listing photos a warm focal point.
In show homes and sales suites, a laid dining table under a strong painting is one of the most photographed views, so the art follows the marketing palette and arrives before launch. On villas and whole-house projects, the dining room is planned with the living room and terraces, related in palette but never a repeat. Each piece takes about 10 days to paint and 5–7 days to ship by express, volume pricing starts at 10 pieces, and a single sample can be approved before the rest are painted. For restaurant dining rooms, see restaurant wall art.
How do you get dining room wall art made for your room?
Send the length of the sideboard, table or wall, a photograph of the room in the evening light you dine in, and any paint code or fabric, and the piece is painted to fit before you approve each stage.
Choose a catalogue painting or start from a custom brief. The palette can be adjusted to your chairs, curtains, tiles or wall colour before painting begins, and the composition is redrawn to your proportions rather than stretched to fit. Progress photos or video follow each stage, and the next stage starts only when you approve it. A final photograph is approved before dispatch.
Paintings are hand-painted in acrylic on canvas as standard, with oil paint on request, and ship rolled, stretched ready to hang, or framed in gold, silver, black, white or wood. Delivery takes about 5–7 days by DHL, FedEx or UPS express after roughly 10 days of painting, and iHomeArt confirms the shipping cost with you before dispatch. Request a quote with your measurements.