‘G’ is for Gothica

Add an element of interest to your space with Gothica wallpaper. Available in a number of patterns and colors, this wallpaper can be applied to a single surface (as shown above) to create an accent wall. For a really bold statement, consider applying the wallpaper to an entire room.

‘H’ is for Home

The clean lines of the Home dining table make is a great fit for a number of design aesthetics. Pair the table with dining chairs that have similar lines for a modern look or go for upholstered chairs with a “curved” element for a more transitional look.

‘I’ is for Igloo

The Igloo is a freestanding, environmentally friendly fireplace. The glass enclosure means that this fire range by EcoSmart looks great in the middle of a room or open floor plan. The stainless steel shelf houses the burner mechanism.

“We bought our first house a year ago and remodeled the kitchen, master bedroom and bath. During the renovations our baby girl was born. Suffice to say, we haven’t had much time to devote to the actual decoration of the house. Specifically, we are struggling with what to do with living room and dining room area. We want this space to be modern, grown-up and loungy… a place for quiet conversation and adult time. We don’t know where or how to start except that we want warm, vibrant tones (leather, reds, oranges, yellows/gold) and we want to use some of our Brazilian art paintings. Can you help in terms of how to place the seating/arrange the room…should we consider tearing down the wall between the living room and dining room to open up the space??? Any help you can lend would be appreciated! We would Vastu!”

Sarita Says…

Congratulations on your new house and baby! You have been really busy in the last year and it’s completely understandable that you have put the design of your living room and dining room on the back burner. Now that it is time to start working on these spaces, there are a lot of things to consider and it sounds like you have already put a lot of thought into it. You know how you want to use the space and you know what colors you want to introduce into the space – those are two of the most important decisions in the process!

The next steps in the design process are to create a furniture plan and then to select the pieces of furniture, the fabrics and finishes, and then finally the accessories for the space. In order to create a furniture plan, the decision about the wall between the living and dining room needs to be finalized. It is hard to say if this is the best decision or not without seeing the space in person, but big open spaces are usually preferable to smaller, closed off spaces in general. If the wall stays, I think that you could make a cozy seating arrangement where you currently have the sofa placed. Perhaps the tall storage piece could be relocated and two arm chairs could be placed across from the sofa. The challenge in this space is that there are two major pathways going through it, including one between the sofa and two proposed chairs just mentioned. It could definitely work; however, I would need to measure the space in order to determine specific chairs would fit best. I think that your next step as far as the furniture plan/space plan is to draw the floor plan of the space and start playing around with furniture sizes and layout.

As for the color palette of your space, you have a great advantage over most people that say they have no idea where to start – you have inspiration pieces! Your Brazilian artwork is your inspiration! You already know you want those colors in the space, now you have to find the fabrics and paint colors that complement your artwork. My suggestion is to pull the main colors out of the artwork and find various shades/tones that are complimentary. There may be a specific shade of orange in the paintings that you really like. You can find a fabric that is close (I don’t recommend matching every color exactly) and have a chair or sofa made in that color. Then you can do the same with another color in the artwork, find a drapery fabric that is close and have some drapes made. It’s usually easy to find a neutral color to work with all of your bold colors (I think something in the beige or brown family will work nicely) and I recommend using the neutral on the walls and some of the furniture. You don’t want everything in the space to be bold and colorful, it will be overwhelming!

I hope that this helps, please let us know if you have further questions or needs!

(image via bossy color blog)

…consider creating an art wall. Interior Designer, Annie Elliott, recently helped a client create a great looking art wall in their dining room. Click here to see how she did it.

“Hello designers, I need your help. The original design of my dining room was pretty traditional, but I’m ready to change things up a bit. I’m thinking of wallpapering the space, but I’m not sure what to do since I have chair railing (which I want to keep). Should I do paper below the rail and not above, above and not below, or above AND below. Would love your thoughts. Thanks!”

Jamie says…

Great question! Personally, I prefer the look of applying wallpaper below the rail and painting above, though you could also do wallpaper above the rail and paint below.  I wouldn’t recommend wallpapering both above and below the rail.

The reason I like the look of wallpaper below the chair rail is that I feel it gives the room visual balance – with the “heavy” design element being on the bottom.  It also gives you the flexibility to do art on the wall surface above the chair rail.  However, you can certainly wallpaper above the rail and paint below.  My tip if you prefer the look of paper above the rail is to avoid a wallpaper that has a very busy pattern. It very busy pattern on so much wall surface can be distracting.  Good luck!

What do you think?

image via kitchen bath ideas

“Can you mix wood and metal? I love the look of a wood dining table with modern chairs with metal legs around it. I found an image on kitchenbathideas.com and fell in love. My boyfriend insists that mixing metal and wood is a design don’t. So, I thought I’d ask for your professional opinion. Can it be done?”

Krissy says…

Of course it can be done! Using different textures and finishes in a room is perfectly ok.  Now, you’ll want to avoid introducing too many different colors and finishes, but a wood table surrounded by chairs with metal legs is fine.  Combining the two is more a matter of personal taste than a design “don’t”. When trying to decide which way to go with the dining table and chairs, you and your boyfriend should come up with a list of adjectives to describe how you want the finished room to look – traditional, formal, fun, contemporary, etc. Agreeing on how you want the space to look may help you decide which way to go with the wood and metal dilemma. Pairing a wood table with chairs that have wooden legs tends to be more traditional/transitional while mixing wood and metal finishes tends to be more modern. Hope that helps!

What do you think?

“Hello! So… I just bought a one bedroom condo and I’m super excited about it. I’m pretty confident about what I want to do in all the rooms except for the formal dining room. The room is pretty large, long and narrow with a chandelier mounted in the center of the room. With only one bedroom, I’d actually like the formal dining room to serve as a place to eat AND my home office. Any ideas on the type of furniture I should look for that will make the room look cohesive, but still serve two purposes? Thanks!”

Jamie says…

…Assuming you have side entries along the longest walls I would suggest centering the dining table underneath your existing chandelier. It might be nice to incorporate a dining table that can seat 6 if your space allows a table of that size. A built-in wall system of book shelves and a desk is a tailored look that will be cohesive with the rest of the dining room and serve as a practical use of the space. The wall opposite of where you choose to place the built-in wall unit is a space that is perfect for a small sideboard and a small side chair. You can use the sideboard for storage and serving if you have guests over. The side chair acts as a nice space for you to look over paperwork, or a read a good book if you want. The furniture layout below shows a the configuration for your space that I’ve described. I hope this was helpful. Good luck!

Note- the floor plan is a 10’ x 20’ room drawn to scale.

image from design*sponge



image from wasf

“I need your help!  I’m in a panic!  I’m having family over for the holidays because my parents and sister want to see my new condo.  The thing is I live in a studio!  They’re not staying over, but we they will be hanging out and having dinner.  How would you suggest maximizing seating and a place to eat?”

Sarita says…

The best way to utilize your space efficiently is to incorporate some multi-functional furniture. For instance, instead of trying to squeeze both a living room and dining room area into your place (which you most likely don’t have space for in a studio) you could use a large coffee table with floor cushions as a place to eat dinner. This will allow you to use all of the living space to create a larger seating area for more guests, and gives you the versatility to serve a meal, as well. There are also some great dining tables out there that have sides that fold down in order to push the table against a wall when it’s not being used; this is a great space saver!

Have a safe and happy holiday!

As with dining tables, when it comes to food and kids, deciding what type of dining chair to get can be tough decision.  You need chairs that are incredibly easy to clean, but you want chairs that look great – chairs you’d be proud to have friends and family see.  Aside from getting the kids their own table and chairs, here are some suggestions from our designers on what type of dining chairs to look for…

• Molded plastic.  For a more casual dining space, molded plastic chairs with modern, clean lines would be great option.  Something like the Gigi chair for example.
• Microfiber.  If you want an upholstered chair, go for one covered in a microfiber.  Mircofibers are synthetic materials that are easy to clean.  The typically have repellent qualities, making them more difficult to stain than fabrics made from natural materials.
• Hardwood.  Incredibly durable and clean in the the swipe of a towel.  The Straight Chair from Knoll is a good example of a modern take on a traditional style chair.
• Molded plywood.  Like hardwoord, these types of chairs are very durable, but typically have a more modern feel than the average hardwood chair.  Something like the Sprite Chair, the last picture shown above, has simple lines and a contemporary feel.