Redesign your dining room as a more comfortable sit-down place, where everybody can park for free, relax a little, and enjoy the company of other family members.

Make this refueling spot a family zone, where speed is outlawed and everyone watches out for others. You can accomplish this change by various means, but first consider coordinating colors.

Can you change or adjust your dining room lighting? Does it decorate or accent parts of the room? Is the mood cast by your lighting suitable for a family dining room? If your lighting can be improved, go ahead - change it.

Your comfy family dining room should have a charming and relaxing ambiance. Unless you have the budget to replace everything, your furniture will have to stay.

Your decor can be whatever style your family prefers:

• contemporary
• traditional
• formal
• casual
• rustic

What are the colors of your decor, including the style and layout of furnishings and decorations? What is the color scheme of your dining room? The colors of your decor can either contrast or enhance the colors you choose for the walls. Color is the element of dining room design that is most easily changed.

What style do you want for your dining room? One starting point is to define the level of formality you want in the room. That will determine the ambiance, and influence your choice of colors. 

A formal dining room should have a color combination that is elegant and refined. Warm colors, such as lighter reds, oranges, and yellows are good choices for formal dining rooms. Color psychology claims these colors stimulate people's appetites, which is probably a good thing, in a dining room.

Beware of colors that are too bright, too intense, too warm! Imagine how hot colors could accelerate the speed of people eating. Those are the colors of fast food dining. Color design experts recommend a bold color only as an accent in the dining room. A bold feature wall is balanced by the lighter warm colors on the other walls.

If a more informal dining room style suits your family, the decor, color scheme and ambiance should fit in with the rest of your home decor. Your dining room colors can extend, or even intensify the effect of your interior design.

An informal dining room looks good in neutral colors, which give the impression of unity and completion, rather than colors competing for dominance.