Dining Room Refresh
As so often happens whenever we are working on a room with someone, other spaces start to beg for a bit of attention as well! In the case of our Great Room project (you can see that reveal HERE), it was the adjacent dining room that wanted some love!
Design Dilemma
While working on the great room design, our clients mentioned how they were unhappy with how crowded it was to get by the sideboard on the path to the kitchen doorway in the dining room. The sideboard was an important storage piece and serving surface and it was a beautiful piece of furniture, just a bit deep for the space in this open plan home. I suggested a relocation and we were off and running with a little refresh project for the dining room!
The dining room already had a new (VERY heavy) stone table and 8 white upholstered dining chairs. And the existing millwork was lovely in this space. In this open plan condo, it was located between the great room we were working on and the more casual family room.
Design Options
In addition to moving the sideboard across the room where it would double as a console table behind the family room’s blue leather sofa, we also moved two of the dining chairs to flank it. Once the sideboard was moved, the far corner under the clock could nicely accommodate a bar cart or chest. We suggested a larger rug for better function (see THIS post for selecting the right size rug for every room), in shades of blue to reference the colors in the adjacent spaces. And finally, we suggested replacing the chandelier with a larger scale one that would hold up to the scale of the stone table, and hanging it at a more appropriate lower height (see THIS post on the right height to hang light fixtures). Below are some of the options we offered:
In open plan living spaces it is important that the colors and rooms all work together to tell a cohesive story. In this case, that meant bringing blue into the dining room. Because the adjacent rugs were both more abstract patterns, we wanted something organic but a bit more structured for the pattern in this rug.
Which ones would YOU choose?
All of them would work - to see which selections they ultimately made, check out the photoshoot pictures below!
Design Decisions
This antiqued mirrored chest offers bar and storage space in the dining room. It’s 5 o’clock somewhere!
Design and styling by JRL Interiors, Photo by Emily O’Brien. #diningroomstorage #barcart #fretworkchest
The relocated sideboard frees up the traffic path to the kitchen and makes a nice sofa table transition to the family room. The stylized blue floral of the rug creates some continuity to the adjacent spaces. Design and styling by JRL Interiors, Photo by Emily O’Brien
Sunny dining space ready for a casual luncheon! The new gilded iron lantern chandelier echoes the arabesque fretwork pattern on the chest. Design and styling by JRL Interiors, Photo by Emily O’Brien
Just a few small changes made a BIG difference in this space Functionally AND aesthetically. Now the whole living space works together seamlessly and lives beautifully!
If you have a design dilemma that needs solving, we would love to help! If you are local to the greater Boston area contact us to schedule a consultation appointment, if you are at a distance, we offer e-design consultations via email. Click HERE to start the conversation!