Bringing the Outside In
Inspired by the lush landscape just outside the windows (which were salvaged from an old train depot!), the homeowner of this 105-year-old Victorian farmhouse filled the dining room with rustic wood elements and pops of green. The Beech wishbone chairs, which are lacquered in an apple green, pop against the large antique hutch that stores the homeowner’s collection of copper Moscow mule mugs and green and white china. A pale pink Oriental rug with subtle hints of sky blue and chartreuse rounds out the mix.

Pops of Color
Subtle pops of green and blue, like the indigo print breakfast nook pillows, keep the dining room in this rural Connecticut farmhousebright. The homeowner displays her collection of blue and green demijohn bottles on either side of the dining room table in built in shelves.
Vintage Pieces
Mike Wolfe’s vintage-inspired home is chock-full of finds from his picks. The weather vane came from an attic in a sixth-generation-owned home in Pennsylvania.
Layered Look
The centerpiece of the dining room in this Arizona ranch home is a giant pocket door that was salvaged from an old warehouse and trimmed with a map pennant. The scuffed-up door establishes the room’s layered-over-time vibe, making the secondhand farm table, mismatched seating, and garage sale rug look cool and collected, not hodgepodge.

Nature-Inspired Vintage Florals
Cultivate an indoor vertical garden with a rambling vine wallpaper. The small-scale pattern provides a muted enough backdrop for bolder statement pieces, like vintage metal trays featuring bold buds. A quartet of soft gray Windsor chairs and an heirloom-worthy pedestal table balance the pattern play on the walls.
Equestrian Elegance
For the ultimate farmhouse-style breakfast room, this homeowner mixed a hefty trestle-base table with antique ladder-back and Windsor chairs and a polished nickel chandelier that evokes equestrian tack supply.
Subtle accents, like cereal bowls, a striped rug, and a painted soda crate, add a youthful, energetic kick to this
Go Backless
A bench in the kitchen of thisFlorida home offers equal seating to a host of chairs but can be tucked under the table when not in use.
Pop of Color
A single chair accented in bright blue adds a pop of color and visually connects it to the adjoining blue-and-white living room of thisAlberta farmhouse.
Balance Bold with Minimal
Counterbalance a bold fixture, like the 19th-century Italian chandelier hanging in this California bungalow, by outfitting the room with more understated furnishings.
Mismatched Seating
In the dining room of thisMartha’s Vineyard home, Suzani fabric covers silver-painted wood seats by Redford House and Zentique’s armchairs and birch sidechairs. The pine dining table is from Restoration Hardware.
Bright idea: Unify different dining chairs with cohesive upholstery.
Minneapolis Loft
Folding cafe chairs from Smith & Hawken take up little space in the tiny dining area of this Minneapolis loft. The owner spruced it up after being inspired by her family’s farmhouse.
Connecticut Chic
The ornate light fixture in this Connecticut farmhousefrom a Paris flea market offsets the simplicty of the owner’s antique farm table and chairs.
An early-American hutch and an English apple-picking ladder create bold accent colors in the dining room of this quaint
Farmhouse Dining Room
This farmhouse boasts nine brilliant shades of paint, and the dining table and chairs are from L.L. Bean.
California Casual
This California farmhousekitchen built-ins hold all her ironstone and glassware. The Windsor chair is by Ethan Allen; the wicker seats are Janus et Cie. White Dove by Benjamin Moore covers the walls.
New York Style
Steel bistro chairs, ordered from overstock.com, surround a white oak table from Crate & Barrel in the dining room of this New York home.
South Carolina Getaway
The dining-room fixture in this South Carolina homewas fashioned from reclaimed oyster sticks (used to farm the mollusks), and the farmhouse table and chairs are by Shabby Chic. The owner shot the photo in a marsh on the property. The walls are painted Cedar Key by Benjamin Moore
Flea Market Chairs
The owner of this California cottage hired someone to craft this table from reclaimed fir, and purchased a set of flea-market bentwood chairs for $60.
New Beginnings
When the owner of this DIY Wyoming home spied this table at The Salvation Army, it had a 1980s orangey-maple top, but white paint made it marvelous
Arkansas Cottage Dining
The owners of this Arkansas home saved only the pieces of original furniture with potential or items that were stunning as is, like the sage cupboard and the chippy dining table.
Living History, Refined
The kitchen of this historial Catskills home features an oak table and mismatched chairs that are flea-market finds; the turn-of-the-century high chair (used by the couple’s 18-month-old son, Charlton) is a hand-me-down from a friend.
Strategic Furniture Placement
With its back to the wall, a slim settee by Cost Plus World Market simulates a built-in in the dining nook of our 2013 House of the Year. Brightly patterned pillows liven up the neutral piece. An iconic midcentury Saarinen table, from Canvas, softens all the right angles. Ditto Crate & Barrel’s walnut-framed mirror.
Bountiful Seating
The homeowners of thisTexas ranch commissioned the dining room’s oversize cedar table and 12 chairs, modeled after ones in the 1953 film How to Marry a Millionaire.
Cozy Dining Nook
A coat of paint (Beluga by Behr) refreshed this Texas ranch’s flea-market table. The owner’s mom brought the 1950s Hans Wegner chairs when she moved in earlier this year.
Bright idea: Vintage breadboxes provide sneaky storage for table linens.

Shades of Brown
The owners of thisPennsylvania home, with their terrier, Tom, relax in midcentury Woodard chairs. A friend crafted the dining table out of wood salvaged from a bowling lane. The oversize light formerly illuminated a factory. The walls are painted High-Gloss White by Behr.
Adding Age
The owner of thisWashington home covered the wall in book pages adhered with diluted craft glue she had on hand. A pendant light from Etsy hangs over antique bistro chairs and a walnut table, while a jute rug from Ikea adds definition
Colorful and Cheerful
The dining room of thiscolorful Maine homefeatures plastic Eames-look-alike chairs that were found on Craigslist for $25 each. A Goodwill plate mingles with other secondhand dishware on the early-19th-century pine hutch.
Refurbished Space
In this California home, fresh paint transformed the dining table, a $100 Craigslist score. The owner bought the wicker chairs and shelving unit, crafted from salvaged elm, at R.J. Imports, a San Juan Capistrano boutique. The table is painted Eucalyptus by Restoration Hardware.
Thrifty Decor
A few $4 cans of spray-paint woke up sedate thrift-store Windsors, each between $15 and $35, in this Oregon home’s dining room. The homeowner bought the Pottery Barn burlap lamp on clearance.
Salvaged Finds
A barn-wood dining table salvaged from the old property serves as a spot for playing board games in arustic lakefront Vermont house. The old cabin also yielded the maritime map above the sideboard.

Repurposed Area
To create a dining nook, the homeowner of this California farmhouse pulled up a pine pedestal table and slipcovered armchairs to built-in benches. An ironstone jug holds a mix of hydrangeas and lilacs.