Dining In Style

Dining Rooms and Nooks can be very high impact places in a house's design, depending on their location.  I recently completed some refurnishing of a client's Dining Room and Nook.  The Dining Room was directly off the entry and turning the corner into the Kitchen you look directly into the Nook, so these are highly visible spaces.  It's important that these places are not only functional for everyday eating but also for entertaining.  A lot of social gatherings center around food so the eating areas get a lot of exposure. 

Here is the dining room with it's stunning long table that comfortably seats 10.  One of the design parameters was that 10 placemats could lay nicely on the table without overlapping.  Luckily, this room was the perfect size to permanently accommodate the long table (128" long).

Dining Room

Dining Room with custom tablecloth

 Adding correctly proportioned art and back cushions to the existing benches made the Nook a more inviting space.  Previously, a line of throw pillows were used to cushion the back but they made it difficult to slide in and out.  These fixed cushions supply a small pop of blue color on the buttons that is accented throughout the home.

Nook with custom tablecloth, pillows and back cushions

With family or friends, my clients can now dine in style!

Photos by Rebecca Ward

Color Seasons

Each December, Pantone publishes its color of the year, which I usually am prompt to report.  They also release each season's colors.  Pantone mostly dictates to the fashion industry but there is usually a quick trickle down into interior and home fashions.  The colors we see in our fashion magazines we also want to see in our shelter magazines and on the shelves of our stores.

I recently took a look at the Fall colors to see an overview of what is currently showing now that we are already in to September and then a look at the Spring projections.  I found them to be very similar, naturally but the subtle differences do reflect the change in the season:

Fall 2012 via Pantone

Spring 2013 via Pantone

Spring has left out the browns and greys and has a more crisp yellow and blue tones.

Do you pay close attention to the seasons' colors or do you stick to your favorites?