Live Laugh Decorate: Dining Rooms

Showing posts with label Dining Rooms. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

One Room Challenge Fall 2019: Week 5 - Pattern Play

Hip hop hooray! We've come to the end of the road and it feels good! Okay, enough of my musical analogies. If you're following along in my IG stories you'll see we still have soooooooooooo much to do my head hurts, but next Wednesday is reveal day and so all hands are on deck at my casa to get these spaces completed.
Yes, it always takes longer than anyone imagined but when it's all over, the pain and the headaches of trying to transform not one, but two spaces, will be a hazy memory.

So let's chat about how our office/dining lounge will not only be a multi-purpose space where we dream up swoon worthy designs for our clients, it'll be filled with much needed storage, a coffee bar and wine station for after hours, it'll showcase a fun mix of patterns and textures. We've added this black fabric from our sponsor Fabricut to these mid-century modern wing back chairs by HomePoP

This fun black and white fabric will be paired with this stunner of a black trim for the curtains in our new office and our bonus space, my new mom cave.

And holy mother of all fabrics, this Fabricut Worldy Velvet appropriately called Fire, will be the seat cushions for our cane dining chairs. My heart skipped all sorts of beats when I found this and so happy it'll be in our space.

The key to balancing all those patterns is to add some natural and calmer elements. We did so with natural wood elements we've added to the walls and ceilings, a warm yet still fun pattern in the Loloi rug that will anchor our room, and we painted the walls white knowing that all the pattern play would need a calm starting point. And that's how this all came to be. Once again, send wine!!! Because we need it to make it to the finish line next week and we also need to fill the two new wine fridges by Zephyr that have found a cozy home in our design. A huge thanks always to all our sponsors: Behr Paint, Blueprint Lighting, Emtek, Fabricut, HomePop, Minted, Legrand, Overstock, Jill Rosenwald, and the The Tile Shop

In the meantime, please go check out how all the other designers/bloggers are hanging in there.

Wednesday, October 2, 2019

New Office, Who This! One Room Challenge Featured Designer - Week 1

Lord help me guys, but here I am, jumping into one of the most intense design challenges of all time - the One Room Challenge. Moi and 19 other designers have been selected to transform a room or rooms in our homes (or clients homes) from top to bottom in six weeks. Sure, that sounds like a LOT of time but with all the other madness we have going on it'll be a tight rush to the finish line. But the former reporter in me lives for the deadline pressure so let's do.
Here's the tea: Five years ago I jumped into the ORC as a guest participant to transform our dining room into my home office. It was a hot ghetto mess when we bought our home. I needed a dedicated space to work from and it's been an amazing place where a lot of design magic has been created.

But fast forward five years, and with new members on the team, there have been as many as four people working in this tiny space. As much as we've tried to make it work, it's become painfully clear that we needed to spread our wings and get a bigger space. And since I don't see the need to rent an office space, a room in a my house would once again be the target. This time around we'll be transforming the current shared living/dining rooms into our office/dining lounge. This means the space will function by day as our much larger office space to work without bumping elbows where we can finally have enough space to review plans and the gazillion samples we pull together for client presentations. But by night - okay, mostly on weekends and when friends come over - this must also feel nothing like an office but very much a dining room/lounge. Tall order right?
Well, it'll take some clever storage to hide the office stuff, and fun design elements to unify the spaces but we live for a challenge. Oh, but wait? What will I do no now with our existing office? It'll become my true mom cave, a hideout space for me to relax, read and rejuvenate my soul after a long day.
Now obviously, we've loved this space and it is everything my color-loving heart wanted when I first designed it. But it's gone through some updates over the years (it was including in our recent HGTV feature and obviously looked magazine ready) but here's what it looks like now, aka in real life:

Yes, that's a vanity sitting in the middle of the room because, designer life.

Yes, those are my slippers because again, designer/mom life. This little area is what I've claimed over the last few months as my mom cave.

Here's the plan:

An oversized dining table, skinny sofa for lounging because it'll also be a lounge, two wine refrigerators because if you know me well then you I kinda love me some wine and my friends are salivating to come over in six weeks and get their wine drinking one, a coffee bar because I love coffee as much as I love wine and of course a stunning storage solution to hide all the office gear but showcase some cool accessories and mementos with pops of color.

Check in every Wednesday morning to see our progress and follow along with me via Instagram as always to see all the behind the scenes shenanigans as we try to pull this one off.
Thanks to the amazing ORC creator Linda for creating this great event that's transformed so may spaces over the years and pushed so many creatives to focus on a room and get it done!
And to our amazing sponsors who are helping to make this room possible: Loloi Rugs, The Tile Shop, Varaluz, Home Pop, Zephyr, Legrand and Minted.
I'm especially excited to be among such a talented and diverse group of other designers and bloggers. Now go see what they are all are up to. Be warned, the ORC is like design caffeine, you'll devour a lot over the next six weeks and you'll become addicted, but you'll be so much happier and inspired because of it.

At Charlotte’s House | Design Addict Mom | Erika Ward Interiors | Erin Kestenbaum | Girl & Grey

Nicole White Designs | Old Brand New | Oscar Bravo Home | Place of My Taste | The Rath Project

Monday, December 4, 2017

A Grown, Glam and Gorgeous Living And Dining Room

Our client's pup Marshi steals the show.

Not all design projects are as smooth and seamless as they appear on HGTV. Sometimes we butt heads with our clients, curse them under our breath then sip lots of wine because we know our design mission is for the greater good!
This project was one of those. Our dear client Deon had suffered through the loss of a husband, had raised two kids on her own and had been diligent enough to see them both off to college. She was also a newlywed, and the love between her and new hubby Hector was so palpable it made the newly divorced me believe again in happy ever after.
But Deon admittedly had some control issue and so, as much as she’d admired our design work, she wasn’t about to let us just have our own way. Oh no ma’am!

This is where we started. An outdated design that definitely needed some glam to represent the new Deon.

We had a lot to do. Install new floors, paint, update lighting, all furnishings, window treatments and accessories.

It didn’t help that almost every single item in our approved design plan went into months long back order status causing multiple meltdowns for everyone.
The most heartbreaking was the loss of these accent chairs the corner stone of our original design. But as we always do, we rallied for equally fabulous options and decided on these stunning swivel chairs.

Swivel chairs? Oh no ma’am! Not happening said Miss Deon. Not elegant enough, not fab enough and just not gonna happen. Who the hell wants to swivel in a formal living room she asked?
This is when I️ in turn had a designer diva moment and declared that said chairs were happening because they are fabulous as all hell, and because we are NWD and she’d better learn to trust me on this or we would need to break up. End of story.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, these pleated swivel chairs made Miss Deon cry a mountain of tears on reveal day, and issue an apology - which we have on tape just in case she ever needs a reminder!Anyway, we are now dear friends and I’m allowed to sit in the chairs and swivel, even with a glass of red wine. The end. PSA: Trust your designers!

Deon and Hector honeymooned in Paris so these Parisian vignettes were a tender nod to that memory. And because we'll never tire of nailhead details on a sofa.

A bold black and white rug is a contrast for a room filled with soft neutrals. A round coffee table is always a great way to balance the straight edges of a sofa and end tables.

We of course extended the glam to the dining room with a table that seats up to 8, and a showstopper of a chandelier that took me forever to help install because of those pesky links but boy is she a beauty.

And to the entryway because, of course!

Even the stairway got a budget-friendly makeover with the best design weapon ever - paint. I still can't believe how many of our IG followers were impressed with this simple update.

Huge hugs and love to Deon and her family for allowing us into her humble abode to create the glamorous pad she'd long desired. Cheers to new memories and to always trusting your designers! Stay tuned for their kitchen reveal. It's kinda major.

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

A Living Room Repurposed With A Splash Of Color

Before the blogging police arrest me for truancy, I'm popping in to say hellos. Yes, I'm still alive and kicking and eager to share a recent project. Remember this kitchen renovation project we revealed last month? Well it started as a consultation to design the family's living and dining rooms.

A beautiful home filled with well-made pieces of furniture, the space was so dark it did not reflect the vibrant personality of its owners Clarence and Michelle.

And while the kitchen renovation became the center piece of this
home, the living and dining room would not get ignored or get lost in the shuffle.

Hello, bright and airy space! We livened up the walls with a creamy beige pulled from the tile. The orange accent wall? Well, that was definitely an epic battle of the sexes for sure. Let's just say the old adage, happy wife, happy life helped secure that splash of color and made that wall the true focal point it needed to be.
The beauty of this project is that we re-purposed the family's existing sofa, bench and console table and rearranged pieces of their very extensive art collection. The only furniture we purchased were the coffee and end tables. And as you can see, we added some recessed lights for much needed lighting. They're on dimmers, so the family can control the mood.

The sofa was a furniture lover's dream. Rich wood, curves for days but the deep red fabric overwhelmed those details. Since we wanted a patterned fabric on our curtains, I wanted to keep the new fabric soft and neutral so the client could mix and match pillows and throws over time and not be limited by a bold print.

Yep, there are those curves again. And a great mix of patterns, living in harmony.

We added an area rug with a soft patten to ground the space, but not overshadow the new floors or compete with the other textures in the room.

Since the sofa and bench were so substantial, we wanted to use glass coffee and end tables as a great contrast to the wood pieces in the room, plus further lighten up the space.

Notice a theme here? A mild love affair with animals - elephants, pugs, giraffes.....

My favorite piece in this space may be this console, once just a place to hold lots of framed photos. It's a beautiful, beautiful piece that just needed to be better styled to make it sing.

This colorful piece of art really speaks to how much this room has soared and deservedly holds center stage above the console. Our clients had it tucked away for months. It just needed to be framed to showcase it's star power.

"Hey, how you doing," said one lamp to the other! Let me tell you. These Home Goods lamps were purchased wayyyyy in advance of this installation. Saw em, fell in love with them for the space but wasn't sure if Michelle our client would fall for them as much as we had. She was skeptical at first, but admits now that are quite the center of attention and have grown on her.

Accessories, accessories will always make or break a room for me. We loved the herringbone pattern on this tray and how it serves a bold contrast to the heavy wood of the console. Paired with the gold textured storage box and curved wood of the elephant, this console definitely got the love and attention it always deserved.

That's all folks. A living room that finally gets to shine, and with the very same furniture it's been hanging out with all these years.

What pieces of furniture have you re-purposed to become the star in your own home? Share below or on our Instagram feed. Can't wait to see.

SOURCE GUIDE
Living Room Rug: Overstock
Coffee and end tables: West Elm (Similar here and here)
All Fabrics via Designer Discount Fabrics
Lamps and accessories: Home Goods
Vintage Camera: Joss and Main (Similar here)

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

The Hollywood Reveal - Dining Room

Happy Hump Day peeps. We're way deep in the rainy season here in Florida which means torrential downpours every afternoon. I've gotten used to it over the years so I try to hit the streets early and be done before mother nature unleashes her daily shower.

Any who, this dining room from our Hollywood Reveal project brings sunshine to my life every time I think about it.

We revealed the adjoining living room here and the powder room here, so you know it too needed some love and affection. We started with green walls and this dated light fixture. My client Karen had purchased this fab buffet but it looked a little sad in the dining room so we relocated it to the foyer

We painted the walls the same color as the living room and decided to add this metallic paper weave wallpaper by Phillip Jeffries, which we first revealed here for some shimmer.

A round dining table was the best option for the space and we finally settled this beauty with a ridges on its base, from Scan Design. The table will get heavy use as well for playing games so it needed to be beautiful, yet functional and sturdy enough to withstand some heavy duty card playing.
The white leather chairs were definitely a splurge but my client couldn't get them out of her mind after first seeing them. The arms are wrapped with wood which means they'll withstand the card-playing nights and dinner soirees.

The drum pendant was another love at first sight moment for Karen. Our first order got lost in a black hole but thankfully we were able to find from another source who shipped immediately.

We wrestled a bit with a new buffet for the dining room but finally settled on this x-leg base beauty from Madison Seating.

Every sideboard needs a few accessories. These simple black lamps from Home Goods were just perfect. Ditto the candle holders from West Elm.

A pop of orange on the sideboard added some color to the other muted tones of the room and connected the room to it's neighboring living room. To complete the space, we added framed botanical photos taken by our client, adding a very personal touch to the space.

All photos by Circle Ten Media

And that's it peeps. Another transformed room from our Hollywood project. And there's more to come! Stay tuned.

Source Guide

Soto Dining Table: Scan Design | White Leather chairs: Artefacto | Wallpaper: Phillip Jeffries