Discover the art of styling mismatched dining chairs and refresh the look of your dining room with these tips.
The dining room is the heart of every home, a place where friends and family gather to share delicious meals and make memories. If you’ve been thinking of breathing new life into your dining area, here’s an easy way to do that without changing your dining room’s layout — by styling your dining table with mismatched dining chairs.
This artful arrangement, known as eclectic style, is about combining different materials, designs, and colours in a thoughtful way to create a look that’s unique yet well-coordinated. This experimental method of styling is on the opposite end of traditional designs. It allows you to express your creativity and adds a touch of personality to your dining space.
Read on to explore our ideas and tips on how to mix and match dining chairs to create a dining area that’s full of character.
A great way to start styling the mismatched look is to focus on a common element that ties all the dining chairs together. This could be a similar colour palette, material, fabric, or design. For example, choose velvet dining chairs with the same design but in multiple colours. This allows you to have variety while still maintaining a cohesive look.
Alternatively, you can mix dining chairs of different designs by choosing them in the same colour. Whether it’s the colour of the upholstery or the chair legs or both, having a colour that runs through all the chairs will link them nicely together. Dining chairs with clean sleek lines will pair well with chairs that have a more complex design like the diamond stitch.
Benches offer a versatile way to change up your seating. They’re not just incredibly stylish but also more practical, allowing you to seat more people at your dining table. In addition, they go well with both upholstered dining chairs and non-upholstered dining chairs, which makes them easy to match with the chairs you currently have.
If you’re starting fresh, shop for a bench that matches the dining table. This will tie the entire look together no matter what type of dining chairs you choose to get.
While the idea is to create a mismatched style, it’s still important to maintain balance. Keep in mind the height of the seats when choosing your dining chairs. It would look messy if one chair was much lower or higher than another chair. Pick chairs that are about the same height and they will look balanced no matter how you mix and match them.
Mismatched dining chairs in different colours can transform your dining room into a work of art. However, you don’t want your chairs to appear too random so it’s best to select a colour scheme and stick with colours in that range. If you’re going for a warm colour palette, you can combine colours like yellow, orange, beige, and brown.
While following a colour palette gives you unity, there’s also the option to go bold. Pick a vibrant, vivid colour and make it stand out by pairing it with pure neutral tones like black, white, or grey. For example, mix bright yellow dining chairs with white dining chairs. The contrast will instantly add a burst of energy to your home and liven up your dining room with colours.
Create a truly unique mismatched look by mixing upholstered chairs with non-upholstered chairs. An easy way to do that is to swap out some dining chairs for a wooden dining bench. This combination will effortlessly create that modern industrial vibe for your dining room. Match the colour of the upholstery with the wood finish for a more unified look.
Mismatched dining chairs should complement each other and you can ensure that when you mix and match them in pairs. Choose the same colour or style to create a visual link between the chairs while still showing a variety. Whether it’s combining your old chairs with new ones or merging entirely different styles together like contemporary and traditional, you will never go wrong by mixing in pairs.
While you can arrange your mismatched dining chairs any way you like, there are also strategic ways to position them. The first method is to place a pair of matching chairs diagonally on opposite sides of the dining table. Another way is to put them directly across each other for a polished, symmetrical look.
Take your mismatched dining chairs to the next level by having one dining chair that’s completely different from the rest. For example, use a wooden dining chair at the head of the table as your statement piece while keeping the rest as fabric chairs. Unexpected pairings like this often produce beautiful results so don’t be afraid to let your creativity run wild.
With these 10 practical tips, you can now transform your dining area into a masterpiece with mismatched dining chairs. Browse our collection of dining chairs to find what you’re looking for or if you need more help, read our dining chair buying guide for more information.
