Style Your Dining Room Hutch: 4 Things To Use and 3 Designer Tips

Do you have a hutch in your dining room? This is one of the BEST ways to highlight seasonal decor items in a dining room, whether it’s a formal dining space or an area of your open floor plan. This is true whether your furniture has open shelving or glass doors.

I’m going to share a bunch of photos to show you a variety of styles and how YOU can duplicate these hutch decor looks in your home. There are as many hutch designs as there are home decor designs, but they all share certain common elements. Here are 4 things to use and 3 design tips for how to style your hutch.

Dishes – The first thing every hutch or buffet needs is dishes. This is a great spot to hightlight a china set. You can add your favorite pieces such as white dishes, white stoneware, everyday dishes, seasonal dishes or even just glasses and mugs. It doesn’t matter whether it’s fine china or basic white plates. A hutch needs dishes and they don’t have to match.

Natural Elements – Notice in the photos below that all of the beautiful hutches have something natural or alive. It doesn’t have to be a real plant, you can use faux plants, especially if your dining room doesn’t get lots of natural light.

You can also use wood accessories or baskets because they give a feeling of warmth to the space. One of my favorite things to add is a wood cutting board or a wood bowl. An easy way to add a large plant or other larger items is to use the top of the hutch as a top shelf.

Statement Piece(s) – This can be a collection of interesting vases, cake stands, a piece of art or a small sculpture. This comes down to your personal preference and is the one thing that makes your piece different from anything you see in photos. No one will have exactly the same art or the same set of sugar shakers. This might not be what you expect in traditional china cabinets, but it gives your piece complete uniqueness.

Books – I know it’s the dining room, but I often use old books. This is a great way to add different heights to your items. Think of books as decorative risers. You can put a book under a vase to raise it up or stack some books vertically to break up a bunch of horizontal items.

Here’s an example of a beautiful hutch from Liberty Furniture.
This hutch from IKEA has tons of storage
This is the Paulette Hutch from Ballard
Benchwright Hutch decorated for fall from Pottery Barn

Let’s talk for a second about the hutch itself. There are so many different options, you can use a vintage piece, a modern cabinet or anything in between. These are often statement pieces in your room’s decor. It doesn’t have to match your dining room table.

ETSY can be a really great place to find unique pieces. See my guide for finding furniture on ETSY.

French Hutch with by ChaseVintage on Etsy
Black hutch on Etsy

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Styling Tips from Interior Designers

Varying heights – Your hutch cabinet should have things of varying heights. This makes it more interesting for the eye.
Rule of Three – I wrote a post about how and why to add “the rule of three”. Try to group items in sets of three. For example, if you have candle sticks use three. If you have ceramics, use a gathering of three.
Different sizes -Use different sizes when you are choosing a decorative item. Uniformity is boring to the eye.

How to Incorporate Seasons

To get your hutch ready for a special occasion or a holiday you just need to add a few touches to it. That can be a wreath, some flowers, a few candles or some seasonal dishes.

Here’s an example my hutch with a spring vibe. I only added a pink candles and few spring flowers it feel like spring. Here’s a photo of the hutch above decorated for Christmas. You don’t have to go crazy replacing every piece in your hutch, you can simply layer in a few things that remind you of the season.

Adding one small seasonal touch in your hutch (it rhymes) can be all you need in your dining room to get it ready for a holiday. It’s one of my favorite things to decorate seasonally because it’s so easy.

Before you leave, if you liked this post you might want to read Five Styling Tips for Shelves.