Art Deco Dining Room Credenza Ideas

None of the four cases photographed here is sold on its pattern. Two are black, one is walnut, one is brown oak, each named for its color and wood rather than a motif. The deco in these rooms comes from what surrounds the case: a round brass mirror, ribbed glass, a barrel chair. That is one of two honest routes through art deco dining room ideas, and the shop band below this page takes the other.

Art deco dining room credenza photos with quiet cases

A plain case is the easier route. It gives you the long low mass deco rooms are built on without committing the whole wall to a motif, and it lets you change the period around it later. In each of these art deco dining room credenza photos the case runs 69 to 79 inches, a good length for dining room credenzas that serve a table of six to eight.

Black, twice

Two rooms use a black sideboard, 69 and 79 inches. The shorter one sits beside a black boucle barrel chair and a 14 inch black marble accent table. The longer carries a set of three neutral abstract canvases above it and a brass light with ribbed glass. Black is the deco color that never dates, and searches for black sideboards in this style have more than doubled in a year.

Walnut and the green chair

A 76 inch walnut sideboard with storage stands beside a dark green upholstered accent chair. Walnut is the other finish climbing fast, and it reads more 1930s than black does, closer to the veneered cabinets of the period. Green against walnut is rich without shine. If you lean this way, walnut sideboards with a tight, straight grain look more deco than wild figured ones.

Oak under a brass circle

The fourth room hangs a 39 inch round antique brass mirror over a 78 inch brown oak sideboard with doors and drawers, and sets a white and walnut fabric dining chair beside it. Oak is the least deco wood here, and the circle of brass is what converts it: one hard geometric shape over a soft wood. The same move recurs across the Dark Luxury Lookbook, a round of metal above a rectangle of wood.

The other route

Art deco dining room credenza ideas with pattern on the doors

The pieces you can shop on this page go the other way: a dark walnut sideboard with geometric fretwork doors, an oak chevron front with gold pulls, a fir parquetry credenza with iron bar pulls, a two-tone pale mahogany case, a mirrored front. Each one carries its period on its face. Our art deco credenza ideas page shows them in other rooms.

Art deco dining room credenza pictures to compare fronts

Line up the art deco dining room credenza pictures above with the patterned cases below and the trade-off is clear. Pattern on the case means the wall above stays bare or holds a plain mirror. A plain case means the wall can carry art. Choose the art deco dining room furniture wall by wall with that in mind.

Credenza or sideboard

More people search for an art deco sideboard than an art deco credenza, but in a dining room they are the same long cabinet; credenza is simply the Italian word for it. The style took its name from the 1925 Paris exposition of decorative arts, according to Wikipedia's entry on Art Deco, which is why French pieces still carry weight in this search. Search our sideboards and buffet cabinets under both names.

One pattern per wall

The mistake is stacking motifs: a fretwork front under a sunburst mirror under a patterned wallpaper. Each is fine alone and together they cancel out. Any art deco dining room credenza inspiration worth copying holds one geometric idea per wall and lets the rest be plain material. Pick the loudest piece of art deco furniture first, then quiet everything near it.

Brass at dinner

Deco was designed for evening. When the overhead light is low and candles are on the table, a black top holds their reflections like a pool, brass pulls and mirror rims turn into thin bright lines, and walnut goes dark and close. Scroll this art deco dining room credenza gallery again with that in mind: the best case is the one that looks plain by day and catches light at night.