Before and After: Dining Room Changes

So, in yesterday's post, I told you about the Florida living room and dining area that I worked on last weekend.  Here, again, is the living room, with the rug we were testing (and then ordered).  You'll recall that the taupe chair is leaving as is the coffee table.

Now let's look at the changes for the dining area.  I mentioned last post that my client had a stager come in for help with furniture arrangement.  Honestly, from the pictures Carol sent me, it was a page right out of "put everything on an angle so it looks interesting" book.  Please note -- I'm not slamming stagers, I just didn't think that this particular person paid attention to how my client and her husband use the space, which always trumps any arrangement.  Function must come first if you want your house to truly be a home.

Anyway, when I got there, the dining area,  behind the sofa above, looked like this...

The angle she put the table and chairs on really did work for the space, which has two walls of different lengths, separating it from the kitchen beyond.  Carol liked the way this worked, and I agreed, but it was also the second area of the living/dining room that needed to be anchored.  First, by substantial artwork, and then, with color and pattern on those walls.  Like the living area, it was floating, and needed something to dominate.

So what changed?  First came this artwork (Carol wanted me to know that the stager put the tiny mirrors there, not her).  (There, it's out there, Carol!) 

And then, this linen-looking Thibault wallpaper is going on the walls...

Thibault Manhattan Stripe in Seafoam

This will give you an idea of how it will all work together (and no, this is not my client)...

There's something I want to point out here about these walls that this paper is going to help cure.  You can see the walls have a funky cut-out, and that the "columns" pop against the Ben Moore Palladian Blue of the kitchen walls.  That pop of  BM Natural Wicker against the Palladian Blue is distracting.

In reality, the wallpaper is incredibly close in color to the kitchen walls, so that the goal is for those columns to soften and not draw your eye right to them.  The visual weight of the artwork accomplishes two things: helps bring the eye down, and detracts from the fact that the other dining wall is shorter (and will intentionally have no artwork, just wallpaper).  Just a couple of tricks to create a focal wall. (And, just by pleasant accident, the matting of the artwork mirrors the back wall of the bookcases directly opposite.)

To finish things off,  I weighted the tablescape to help with the grounding (these were all items Carol already had, I just took them from other places in the house.)

Carol and her husband will be doing the papering, and I can't wait to get the after pictures, when everything is in its final place.

I hope you enjoy a fabulous long weekend!  Talk to you soon,
Carol

Want to feel like your space is grounded and balanced?  Contact me here.