How to Decorate with a Goth Theme Part 5: Dining Room

Whether it be a large or small, you can learn how to decorate with a Goth theme in your dining room. This article offers suggestions on how to make your eating space delectably Gothic. With this space, decorating choices are backwards, you choose your paint color last. Read on to find out why.

How To Decorate With A Goth Theme In Your Dining Room Using Furniture

Not everyone is lucky enough to have some authentic pieces of Gothic furniture. They are usually hard to find and, almost always, harder to afford. Since your eating space is mainly used for, well, eating; choose the largest pieces for the room first. Your fabrics and accessories will all be chosen based on these, so look around until you find something that you love.

Your two biggest furniture items will be your dining set (table and chairs) and buffet and/or china hutch. If you cannot afford a traditional serving piece, you can always improvise. An old long and lower dresser, with a few embellishments, can be a great place to store linens and silverware. You can lacquer it black, or stain it to match your table and add some hardware that ties into the rest of your accessories. If you need to display a favorite collection of china but don't have enough in the budget to buy a hutch, there are also many options for fabricating one of your own. Old entertainment centers, taller dressers, bookcases etc. can all be utilized to show off your favorite items.

You do not have to have a matched set. There are tricks to make everything complement each other through the accessories, finishing touches and colors that you choose later on.

How To Decorate With A Goth Theme In Your Dining Room Using Accessories

Here comes the funnest, and often hardest part; deciding what way to go when decorating with your Gothic style. Do you want a room that is fun and even a little cliché and cheesy for entertaining? Or, are you going for a more elegant look? If you already have a few treasured pieces, you already have an idea. If you don't, it's time to start searching. Thrift stores, antique stores and even major discount chains have a lot to offer to accentuate your room.

If you have a collection of plates, teacups or other items that you want displayed; there are plenty of ways to do so without a china hutch. Shelves come in wood, glass, wrought iron and many other options. There are as many choices in plate and cup holders that you can hang on the wall over any of the furniture that you have decided to use in the room.

After you have a firm idea of the look you want and your accessories chosen, it's time to move onto the finishing touches.

How To Decorate With A Goth Theme In Your Dining Room Using The Finishing Touches

Now it's time to make all of your mismatched furniture and accessories into one cohesive set. This does not always mean that you have to paint or stain all of your furniture to match. Even though this is one of the best decorating tricks to incorporate them all into your Gothic scheme, it is not the only way. If you have separate pieces that you love individually, the trick is all in the details. Two of the best ways to achieve this is with hardware and a few extra accessories (if you do not have them already). Let's say that you have a black table and wrought iron chair set. Your other furniture is stained wood. Then, simply add some black metal drawer pulls to pull them together. Place a few black iron candle sticks on top or hang some metal shelving above to finish it off. What if you have a glass table? Then simply add some glass shelving above the other furniture pieces and some crystal glass hardware and candle holders. Just search until you find the right hardware and matching details that reflect the other style that you are looking to implement.

Next comes the lighting. Once again, this is the perfect opportunity to introduce all the elements in your room. Almost any chandelier can be painted and embellished in a way that will make it work in your room. Prisms and glass beads come in black, as well as all the other colors of the rainbow. Be creative; add some cobwebs to make it fun or some crystals to make it elegant. It's all in the details!

How To Decorate With A Goth Theme In Your Dining Room By Using Color To Tie It All Together

The final step to finish decorating your Gothic inspired eating space is to use color on your walls and fabrics to tie it all together. Gather all your things in one area and just spend some time deciding on what the best color is that will bring them all out.

If you're lucky, this could already be the hue that is already on your chairs. If so, choose the rest of the fabrics and wall color based on these. If you are looking to recover the seats, it gets a little harder but it's not impossible. Let's say that you have a lot of wood tones in your furniture, what color brings out the grain? An orange or golden yellow may do the trick for your walls with simple black fabric to tie in the metal elements. Or if you're furniture is mostly black, a daring red or deep plum on the walls, with a complementary fabric, may achieve the atmosphere that you are going for.

The trick here is to take your time. While choosing all the other elements of your room, you may even have an idea of what will work. That is why your color choice should be last. It is what will make all your other choices come together.

Now that you have gotten some ideas on how to decorate with a Goth theme in your dining room; it's time to move on to decorating the last, and most often overlooked, public space in your home. The next article will help you create the perfect Gothic sitting room: your bathroom.