This needs to be inviting to eat in and not put you off your food. If you have a separate dining room it's the one of the few places you can afford to be a little bit bold. Hot colours like red, yellow and orange stimulate the appetite, so are good for dining rooms, and because you don't spend long in there you won't tire of them. Rich Browns, Coral and Terracota also work well.
Always keep the ceiling white with bold colour on the walls. This will make the colour stand out but also provide somewhere for the eye to rest, making the strong colour less overpowering.
Courtesy of Marks & Spencer
Similarly, keeping the woodwork white or a complimentary cool shade from the colour wheel will also provide balance.
You can use up to three bold colours in any one room, but make sure only one is dominant and restrict the other two to accents on table linens or soft furnishings for example.
In dining rooms there are some strong colours to be avoided. Pink and violet are appetite suppressants, so never use them. Also purple and black are both associated in our primal consciousness with poisonous foods, so they're not conducive to a relaxing meal either. Nor are acid colours, especially green. Because blue is not a colour associated with any natural food, it won't get the gastric juices flowing.
If you're still nervous of going for strong colour you can make a real impact with different neutral tones on just one wall and leave the rest white.
For guidance on preparing walls for painting, troubleshooting and inspiration visit www.habitat.co.uk
The most obvious way of hiding a radiator is to use a cover or grille. These are available in masses of styles to fit traditional or contemporary settings and can be built into bookcases or seats to totally disguise the radiator.
You can always blend in radiators by painting them the same colour as the walls they won't disappear but the eye will then be drawn to other places in the room.
The most expensive but effective way of losing radiators is to do exactly that and use under floor heating.
On the other hand you can choose to make a design statement with your radiators. If you can't hide them flaunt them. There are hundreds of styles from traditional cast iron types to sleek contemporary sculptures that are as much works of art as they are simple radiators.
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