Shades of Gray: How to Decorate a Kitchen-Living-Dining-Room Combination Space

Does your home host a combination space? For most homes, this includes a kitchen, living room, and dining room within the same walls. With multiple rooms in one area, your home becomes a more open and welcoming space.  Also, you enjoy the benefits of sharing in all your surroundings at once. It isn’t every home that lets you watch the family room television or speak with dinner guests at the dining table while you prepare food in the kitchen.

While the combination space gives homeowners many benefits, it can present a challenge for home interior design. Today, we’ll tackle that challenge and answer this question: How do you decorate a combination space while maintaining each room’s separate function?

The interior decorator created a transitional area with many functions while maintaining fluidity.

Apply Variations in Wall Paint Colors

Create continuity throughout the combination space with a neutral color palette. Then, to define each room’s function, use different shades of your chosen color scheme. In this design display (see photograph above), light gray wall paint marks the living room. But at the edge of the living room, the paint shifts to a deeper gray color. This delineates the start of the kitchen. Simply use separate shades of a similar color let each room blend together as one space while each retaining their individual functions.

Draw Attention to Large Windows

Expand a combination space when you draw attention to the view beyond a large window. To frame a floor-length window for this effect, add panels in a bold accent color. In the above display, the lime green window treatments bring life and light to the many neutral tones—gray, black, and taupe—in this combination space décor.  With an open view of the outdoors to further extend the line of sight, this room appears larger and livelier simply by opening the draperies.

Use accent pieces, lighting, art, and color to keep a consistent theme while giving each area its own character.

Keep a Consistent Design Theme

For any combination space, allow the décor of one room to flow gently into the rooms in the same vicinity. This effect will soothe the eye and even allow the combination space to appear larger and less cluttered. Choose a style for your interior design theme that fits your preferences. Then incorporate it through accent colors, artwork, sculptures, lighting, furniture, and place settings.

Differentiate Each Room’s Function

Aim for design fluidity throughout the space while also giving each room a small hint of its own character.  In this sample design, the coffee table, the dining table, and the kitchen bar all feature sharp edges and glossy granite to show the homeowner’s love of sleek modernity. Meanwhile, the bar stools, dining room chairs, and living room furniture demonstrate a traditional-chic inkling through curvature and wooden frames. However, to give each area its own personality amidst the blended combination space, the chairs’ upholstery patterns vary slightly and the tables’ bases differ in construction and material. Keep a steady theme, but also don’t be afraid to adjust the details to show which pieces belong to which vignette.

Do you own a home that includes a combination space? Would you like to see its interior design flourish to its full potential? Let interior decorator Christine Ringenbach of Henderson, Nevada, help you create the best combination space for your home. To schedule a design consultation free of charge, please contact Chris at 702-914-3741 or view her website for more information.

Author: Allyson Siwajian