Eclectic Vintage Color, Part 2 -- the Dining Room

Hi, and happy holidays to all!!

Welcome to Part 2 of my "Eclectic Vintage Color" home showcasing the Dining Room. I discussed the KITCHEN as well as project goals in Part 1 here, so check that out if you want a refresher.

For the BEFORE PICS:

And the AFTER PICS:

We started with an existing blue/gray handmade paper wallcovering we chose to keep. As in the kitchen, we continued the bamboo floors and painted the trim white. My client had inherited a beautiful vintage Henredon dining set I thought would be lovely and fulfill her vintage-love, so we reupholstered the chairs with a modern yet vintage inspired F. Schumacher fabric. We selected orange to bring in warmth, contrast with the blue walls, and give the room energy. We kept the existing and truly amazing chandelier. I believe it is a vintage Venini! Definitely a keeper! 

Bringing in more light and dark orange to coordinate with the chair upholstery, custom silk draperies with a darker accent trim were incorporated. For the wall, my client fell in love with a textile art piece found on Etsy, utilizing hand dyed fabric strips, and strengthening our blue/orange concept.

My client had purchased the artist made metal mirrors quite a few years earlier while traveling. At that time, we put them in the dining room, knowing someday when we revamped the dining room, they would be incorporated, and they worked out splendidly!

The small pillows made for the two extra arm chairs incorporate all of our colors...light and dark blue, light and dark orange, and tan hues from the floor.

For the floor, the perfect wool rug...again incorporating all of our colors. The beautiful artisan vase my client loves, now blends in with the new color scheme back at front and center in the middle of the table.

I hope your holidays have been pleasant and your New Years is fabulous!! XXOO Susan

Foyer in Full Color

Last week I did a post titled "Living Room in Full Color". Today -  the fabulous foyer selections within the same home.  Below are BEFORE pics...not a large space, but tall, and very cut up with doors, nooks, stairwells, openings, racetrack/varied depth ceiling, etc.  -- Yes A LOT going on!  We are keeping the tile floor, the white painted woodwork, and the stair carpet.  Everything else in the space is going ba-bye! 

The pillar above will get some additional moulding so it can say, "Hey I'm a legit column, and don't you forget it!!" Clarence House Flowering Quince wallcovering in the 20-22' height space will be perfect!  Accentuating the height is exactly the direction I want to go!  The movement of the dark branches will begin at the floor, over the top of the closet all the way up to the ceiling.  The ceiling will be painted the lovely tan in the background of the wallcovering with the one racetrack a darker version of the blossoms.  I may have to add a slight metallic bronze rub on the red if it is too intense, or worse yet, feeling "sporty", but time will tell!  Can not wait to see Flowering Quince on the wall and going up the staircase!

Below are a couple of spaces done up in the ever crawling vines of the quince!  You can see how awesome it is going to be!

 Lisa Borgnes Giramonti

Photo by Gemma Costas from Domino mag

The window next to the closet will get a lovely drapery from this fabulous F. Schumacher fabric below.

The chandelier will be changed out to the ever fashionable Crystorama Solaris large bronze pendant.  Yes, I know the look, if not this exact pendant is somewhat popular right now, but the style is just sooo perfect (not to say anything about the wonderful price!)

At the stair landing is a wall sconce which will become the Crystorama sconce below.  I will have to think about shades for the sconce otherwise it may be a bit bright walking down the stairs towards the bright light. "Harry, no! Don't look at the light!" Remember that scene?  (OK, probably not if you didn't have kids at that time ~~ A Bug's Life!)

The Terra Sur Mondrian bench will be in place of the Victorian furniture with an accent pillow of red with small purple/orange yarns.  LOVE Terra Sur's furniture!  All made in Argentina!

I'm super excited to se this coming together!  Of course, after pics will eventually surface for you all to see!  Next week, the dining room!

Toodles!  Susan

Glamour, Ethnicity, and a Retro Spirit!

Hello, hello, hello (ok at least it's not ho, ho, ho yet)!  I am busily working on a living room project which combines glamour, ethnicity, and a bit of retro spirit.  All three styles really spoke to me with this client.  I have known her, personally and professionally, for about 10 years.  I LOVE her sense of flair!  Very unique, and not on one level; hence, the combination of styles...and lucky for me...integrating styles is right up my alley!

Fabulous, huh?  Stay tuned...

Above is a layout sketch for the living room furniture:  funky sofa, two super cool accent chairs, awesome cocktail table, hand painted side table, gorgeous gold leaf etagere, high gloss lacquer ice blue/white desk...What?  A few too many superlatives??  OK, guess I am super duper, over the top excited about our selections!

 We already have our main conversation area in the center of the room, correct?  So, I didn't want to just add another couple of chairs and a table in the lower right corner of the plan for more seating; hence, I came up with the idea of a built in banquette above...ala Morocco...I'm so excited about this!  Not only that...but listen to this:  

We are sitting chatting, and the husband says "Wait...I need to get something."  Huh?  He comes out with two dark turquoise (darker than above) capiz shell pendant lights with dark antique brass metal solder joints, somewhat tulip shaped, that hung on either side of the piano as he was growing up.  How FUN is that!  A bit more tulip than the round shape above, but I wanted to give you some visuals.  These are going to look absolutely stunning hanging together at different heights over the center of the banquette.  It will really ground the corner, AND his mother will be tickled fuchsia (we hope anyway)!!

We are using this Norbar blue velvet tufted in the back, smooth on the seats, and gathered on the sides of the cushion and base.

Across the top we are doing a chunky cording with this fabulous Pierre Frey cut velvet stripe.

Remember, from a previous post, this is going in this room above.  It now has wonderful warm caramelized bamboo floors, with the existing grey/blue handmade paper wall covering.

We have a lot more selections decided, but I think I'll group them together for the next upcoming post!

~~ Ciao!!  Susan~~

The Sticky Subject of Details

Hola!  Just picked my daughter up from Spanish camp, so I am feeling the whole Espanol vibe!  I am sharing with you a "before and after" project I did in 2004.  I think it is such an incredible example of why "the finishing details" in a room are so important.  We added mainly wall treatments and a few accessories in this project (a couple rooms went beyond that).  The results are amazing!  This home was an absolute stunner even before my changes!  It was a newer home truly built to look like an older home (most of you designers probably know why that is italicized :).  The homeowner had exceptional taste and had selected beautifully upholstered as well as gorgeous casegood pieces.  My initial reaction was "You need me how?".  But once I started looking beyond the beautiful architecture, gorgeous furniture and artwork, I realized the problem that had been bothering her for some time.  She needed the space to feel finished.  Here I come to the rescue!  Below are some of the before photos:

Before

 Sitting Area off Kitchen

Dining Room

 Living Room

Living Room

Living Room sofa

 Powder Room

Powder Room

Master Bedroom sitting area

 Master Bedroom sitting area sofa

After

Sitting Area off Kitchen -- we painted the walls yellow and added a red/gold valance

Dining Room--we painted this nook red and added corner curtains.  The majority of the drape is gold with a top red border, opposite proportions of the valance in the Kitchen.  Typically, I am not a fan of stationary drapes where the rod does not continue the length of the window.  However, in this application, a full rod above all three window walls would have created a very busy feeling particularly with the iron on the chandelier and the size of the space.  We needed something to soften the large expanse of windows which looks out onto wetlands and a pond.  No privacy was needed.

Dining Room going into Living Room--starting with the yellow paint color for the Living Room.  The gorgeous blue draperies were existing.

 Living Room -- in this room we continued the yellow paint around the room and added a Phillip Jeffries blue silk wallpaper on the ceiling in between the moulding.  I also added the blue silk wallpaper in the window seat areas.  At this picture taking time, we still needed to change out the two silver framed art prints on the right to something much more dramatic.

 Living Room window seat nook

 Close up of blue silk wallpaper on ceiling -- What a doozy that was for my installer!

 

Living Room -- on the sofa, I had 3 rectangular pillows made out of a fabulous Pollack Florabundance velvet embroidered and appliqued fabric.  The three identical pillows helps to ground the sofa space.  Our array of unique pillows was kept to the window seat area.

Close up of the sofa accent pillow

 Powder Room -- in the powder room, we wallpapered the walls with a Schumacher dusty rose/taupe, small leopard print which unfortunately is impossible to detect in this pic.

Powder Room -- my client changed out the wall shelf to a small wood/rattan chest.  Excellent choice I must say!

 

 Powder Room

 Master Bedroom sitting area -- we changed the built in bookcases from across to beside the chairs.  Added more Phillip Jeffries wallcovering, but in a rice paper texture/light carmel hue.  I also added Pollack fabric accent pillows to the chairs.

Seriously, Pollack and Phillip Jeffries are two of my favorite manufacturers to use!  Love their stuff!

Close up of Master Bedroom sitting area

 

Master Bedroom sitting area sofa -- we reupholstered the very floral sofa with a, yes you guessed it!, Pollack Body Wave fabric, brush trimmed the large pillows, and added a Pollack fabric accent pillow.

 Closeup of Master Bedroom sitting area chair pillow

 The majority of changes in this home had to do with the walls and a few accent pillows.  Yes, we did add some drapery, and reupholstered a sofa, etc.  But if just the walls and pillows were added, the changes would still have been enormous!  Hope this gives you inspiration for embracing the changes you want to make in your home!  Details are crucial, and the glue that holds it, and brings it all together!

I love to hear from you! ~~ Susan