seeing red

sometimes i feel bored by red, but i'm kind of loving the idea of a bunch of these red chairs from pier 1 surrounding a big wooden table like this one.

or even a more modern one like this.

the chairs' ladderback, shaker style reads like a neutral to me now, where a few years ago i would have thought they looked dated and stuffy. perhaps it's the idea of mixing them with a different colored wood that i like, and i love this pottery barn version too, and you could even mix and match colors. a really inexpensive option would be to buy a set of these simple chairs from ikea and paint them yourself with whatever color you want. high-gloss would be fab!

to make the look a collected, relaxed one, i like the idea of throwing in a couple of different pieces too. i would probably go for 4 or 6 of the red chairs, and then add in one of these stools ...

and one or two slipcovered parsons chairs, depending on the size of your table.

or you could keep the look a little more uniform but still not matchy by swapping out two of the pier 1 red chairs for two of these which are a slightly different red and have arms.

do you like the idea of a deconstructed dining room set? this image was what originally got my wheels turning on it, and i've loved it ever since.