Variety is the Spice of Decorating

Hi Christine,
I love the decorating advice that you give on your blog and am hoping that you can help me out with some ideas for redecorating/furnishing one of the rooms in our house. This room used to be our family room but after doing some remodeling we have changed around all of our first floor rooms and it will now be our dining room. It's a large room so we would also like to have a cozy conversation area at one side of the room. We only have one piece of furniture for the room at this point - our 42" x 108" dining table that we got a great deal on when a local Drexel Heritage store went out of business. How great to have such a large dining room. We are also considering buying two Kensington leather loveseats that are currently on sale at Restoration Hardware. I love that piece. I've come up with a tentative room layout that I attached to the e-mail. I also attached some pictures of the room but the dining table is the only thing that belongs in it (the other furniture is from other rooms of our house that we moved in for a recent party and the window treatments also go elsewhere). We are going for a bit of a Tuscan feel but not completely Old World traditional. I love earth tones but don't want the room to get too dark by bringing in too much dark furniture/dark colors. I was thinking about bringing in some pattern by having the two chairs in the seating area be upholstered chairs and also having upholstered end chairs at the dining table. We'd like to have leather side chairs for the table since we have young kids and actually use our dining room fairly often. I would put leather on the sitting side of the chairs and a pattern on the back side of the chairs. This is a large area of the room- and more pattern would add a lot. Here are some of the questions that I have:
Do you have any recommendations for a buffet/sideboard that would go with our dining room table?
Should we center the dining room table on the short wall (the one with the windows) or move it off-center to allow more space between the table and future buffet?
Do you have any recommendations for a chandelier?
Do you think we should use a rug under the dining room table and in the seating area or just one or the other?
Any recommendations for fabrics for the chairs or for window treatments?
Any ideas for paint color or wallpaper?
Beyond these specific questions, we would welcome any additional suggestions that you have for decorating the room.

Thanks so much!
Kris

Hi Kris,

I thought I would break up your questions over a couple of days and start just with the fabric today. Use different sized patterns as well as a variety of styles and of pattern. Notice the collection of fabrics I have for you include a small leaf pattern, a large floral crewel fabric, and a medium size paisley pattern. Notice too the variety of textures- the green is velvet, the floral is a crewel, the paisley is a cotton- and the cream is a leather.

So- for your checklist in fabric selecting for a single room:

Variety in:

1. pattern size
2. pattern motif
3. fabric texture

Uniformity in:

1. feel
2. color palletI am sure that I break these rules from time to time, but they are a good guildeline for the novice designer. And, since I made the rules, that gives me the option to break them- right? :)

Thanks,
Christine

The fabrics in today's post are from Lee Jofa.

Nichole's Pallet of Pattern

Dear Christine,

I am a 34 year old single mother of a 6 year old little girl. I have been in my small Georgian home which is located right outside of Chicago for 12 years now. Since my divorce I have pulled up carpet, remodeled the kitchen and bath, painted all 3 bedrooms and had crown molding installed throughout the house. You see, I am trying to make this house a home to me and my little one. My dilemma now is with my living room and small dining room window treatments. There were vertical blinds hanging from them since the day I bought the house, but I had them pulled down and replaced with horizontal blinds this past June. I thought about having JC Penny or Eddie Z's install cornices with side panels, but i couldn't swallow the $3500.00 pill.

It's a new year, and every year for the past 5 years I have taken on different projects within the house. I always do a little at a time. This year, I want to do something beautiful with these windows and save for a new roof if needed. What do you suggest? Should I whip out my grandmother's sewing machine and try to sew cushions for window seats (I'm not very handy), should i bite the $3500.00 bullet and get custom made cornices (I believe I'll only be living here another 3 years or less). Do you think I should get rid of the small table in the living room area and replace it will something else? I've had the tables for years and I'm open. I don't even know what I should have on the tables.

I do plan on going to home depot today to by accent lights to go under my new wall unit that i love. I think that would be nice. I'm also having issues with what to put on my wall in front of my dining room table. There was once a huge picture of fruit that my mother gave me. It was more her taste than mine. I'm leaving the wall blank until i figure out what to do with it.

Any advice you would offer would be GREATLY appreciated. I need some help big time.

Sincerely,
Hopeful for the New Year - Nichole

Dear Nichole,

I want to go over three things with you today- to make part of your long term plan.

1. window treatments


2. area rug


3. wall decor

First of all- let's tackle your window treatments. You have a traditional home, and yet very little pattern. Increase your pattern. Start with your drapes. Style-wise- put two floor to ceiling panels in the dining room, and faux relaxed Roman shade valances or stagecoach valances in the living room. These styles shouldn't be too hard to sew- or too expensive to have made. I selected a couple of fabrics for you from Beacon Hill. Because you don't have any pattern in your leather- I would use both fabrics in the drapes- one as a four inch trim. This adds some interest in a room that is nice, but a little dull. These fabrics would also act as a unifier in your room. You have black, brown, beige, but nothing pulling it all together.

Your plan also needs to include a rug, which will help by adding textural variety as well as more pattern to the room. I selected a giraffe rug for you from homedecorator.com. You also could use more softness in the room, which will make it more inviting.

Your dining area needs a chandelier as well as wall decor. The drum shade at the top of the post is from Room and Board. It also helps to increase the pattern and softness.

The wall decor is from Uttermost. You have a mirror in the room- add a piece of art, as well as other alternative wall decor. Don't' have, one, one, and one. Especially in the dining area where the walls are adjacent to one another. Notice how the metal wall art is a set of four, and the painting is one. You need variety in numbers, especially when your walls are right by one another like they are here.

Odds and Ends:

The two pieces of wall decor to the right of the door to the kitchen should be directly on top of one another- not staggered, and they should be hung about six to eight inches lower.

Try switching locations of the sofa and chaise, and then lowering your mirror a bit. Put the chaise in the corner rather than across from the sofa. Put a large plant behind it. You shouldn't have it floating out there in the middle of the room on an angle like that. Eventually you will need an additional chair to fully balance your arrangement.

Replace your coffee table- (the style is too similar to the dining table)- with a tufted upholstered ottoman.

I want to come over and rearrange your wall unit a bit. Maybe next time I am in Chicago. :) I love the merchandise mart there. :) For now- read the advice I gave in this post. I'm sure you'll do great!