Decorate Your Dining Room Like Joanna Gaines By Adding This One Feature

There's no one better to channel when updating a home than Joanna Gaines. Her renowned modern farmhouse style has just the right amount of elegance and grace to transform any home into one of luxury. While some of her projects can be a complete gut of the interiors, for one dining room in her series "Mini Reni," she decided to pay homage to its original character by keeping the built-in cabinet in one corner. Pairing it with one important feature — a whimsical wallpaper pattern — and updating the trim with paint, Gaines gave the room a brand new look. 

The wallpaper Gaines chose features a dark olive green shade with an intricate yellow-gold floral print. She upgraded the trim with her Weathered Windmill paint color from Magnolia and extended it to the built-in. This color sports a gorgeous combination of gray, pale blue, and pale green to tie in with the olive base of the wallpaper. To complete the look, Gaines styled the dining room with a wooden table and chairs.

Overall, Joanna Gaines styled the room in a way that showcases the home's older roots while blending it with contemporary takes. "With the original built-in as our inspiration, we played up the charm and whimsy in this dining room," Gaines says in her Instagram post. Because she chose a floral wallpaper with a small, intricate pattern, this element provided an old-world feel. Keeping the built-in allowed her to channel a vintage aesthetic thanks to the carvings on the shelf that she furthered with the dining table and chairs. These pieces have intricate legs and curved backings with spindles that resonate with the 19th-century style.

For the contemporary elements that offset the vintage feel, Gaines chose a golden light fixture with clean lines that's quite minimalist while also using a black ceramic table vase. Her table setting pieces and items in the built-in convey a modern aesthetic while keeping the room's design tied together. Using the built-in as inspiration and playing with wallpaper, Gaines was able to start with a vintage base while renovating the room.

Choosing the right wallpaper print to use for your dining room is about more than finding a cute pattern. You'll need to think about the feelings you want the room to evoke, the style you're after, and the actual qualities of the room. Wallpaper is very reliant on room size. Small dining rooms can feel suffocated by big prints, while larger rooms can feel open and inviting with a larger print size since there's more wall space. 

Print also matters when styling your room, which is why it's important to lean into the home's roots as Joanna Gaines did. Older-inspired wallpaper prints can look out of place in modernized, contemporary homes. If your home was built with modern architecture, consider going with geometric prints instead of floral patterns to keep up with the home's style.

Another important wallpaper consideration is color. Since your wallpaper is going to serve as a base for the room's furniture and decor, know what color palette you would like for the room that's easy to blend with other elements. Items such as your dining table, rug, and statement lighting are pieces you'll choose after your wallpaper since they need to complement the color scheme and style.