Mai’s Second Design Dilemma
Just a week after we whipped up Mai’s home office mood board she hit us up for a living/dining room makeover. Let the fun begin! Here’s her letter:
First of all, I wanted to thank you for helping me with the office makeover! Moving along I need some serious help is the living/dinning room. My husband and I are both young professionals and just bought and moved into a brand new house. While its an exciting time for us, our social life is in trouble. We just can’t drum up any enthusiasm when it comes to entertaining guests in our cold and sparsely furnished living and dining area. We want to transform this room into a grand, glamorous, contemporary space with an intimate and personal feel. The living room and adjoining dinning room have vaulted ceilings and an awesome fireplace. But the living room’s existing light fixture is really small and it just didn’t cast enough light over the space. As for right now we don’t have a lightning fixture in the dinning area but we need one there as well as a new dining table and chairs. Also our large television definitely has to be incorporated into the room. We currently don’t have any furniture in the house so feel free to suggest everything that you think will fill out both spaces- oh and I love the Borghese dresser at ZGallerie so if you could work that in I’d be much obliged. Yay, I’m so excited about this. Thanks! -Mai
Such a grand room with such great high ceilings (the first pic is the living area and the second pic is the adjoining dining area) deserves some fantastic furnishings that make entertaining a snap. So without further ado, our sparkle and shine mood board for our hostess who will soon have the mostess:
Here’s the mood board breakdown.
1. Our color palette is elegant and understated- full of deep chocolate woods, light creamy fabrics and glittering mirrored pieces for that glammy modern look that Mai so desires. We’ll even bring in some natural stone and suggest a sophisticated slate blue as the accent color (for everything from pillows to pieces like the amazing blue coral above). For the walls, we’ll set the stage with Glidden’s Shimmering Sky; a subtle silvery-blue-gray paint (similar to the color of the numbers in the mood board above) to accentuate those tall ceilings and really make that gorgeous white fireplace mantle pop- along with the curtains and the new pieces we’ll be introducing…
2. And speaking of that stunner of a fireplace, we think all that it needs is a big shiny mirror above it to reflect lots of light and up the glam-factor in a snap. And we love how this one feels extra sparkly and airy thanks to a detailed mirrored frame that’s a lot lighter than a wooden or gilded one would look.
3. Here’s the Borghese dresser that Mai wanted to work into the space, and we think it will look great as a buffet/bar against the dining room wall under the black and white canvases in the before picture above. Topped with some gleaming bottles of brandy and rum, a glass decanter or two and a silver snifter and serving tray, this piece will transform into a fabulous yet functional dining room focal point that can also hold all of Mai’s formal flatware and fabric napkins thanks to those three handy dandy drawers.
4. When it comes to the furniture arrangement in the living area, we picture two arm chairs flanking the fireplace and angled in towards the coffee table which will be centered on a rug floating in the middle of the living space. Then behind the coffee table facing the fireplace will be the oh-so-glorious sofa that we dug up, but you’ll have to wait to hear more about that. For now we’ll reveal the fantastic art deco inspired chairs (which even have a subtle diamond detail on the fabric back) that we thought would look just stunning on either side of the fireplace facing the center of the seating area. Plus the circle on the arm even references our circular dining table on the other side of the room (don’t worry, we’ll get there soon…) and thanks to a sale Mai will save $400 when she pick up two of ‘em.
5. We really wanted to pull out all the stops for Mai’s grand vision of her oh-so-grand new room, and we think two of these amazing dripping capiz fixtures would look great in the space (one centered on the fireplace over the coffee table so no one will ever hit their head, and one centered over the dining table which again means that no one will walk into it). These two fixtures alone will immediately transform the space, and for such a dramatic chandelier, we think the $259 price tag is really very reasonable. Especially since our master bedroom capiz chandelier was worth every penny of the $99 that we spent, and is only about a forth of the size. Oh and the key is to hang them almost flush to the ceiling since the less cord that is showing, the better. It will even look like Mai has three of them from certain angles thanks to the new mirror above her fireplace which will reflect and double the one in the living area. Oh the drama!
6. Here’s our biggest piece for the space, and since Mai had a larger than average budget and was starting completely from scratch, we wanted to select something that would last her a few decades and never go out of style. This great 93″ velvet sofa is big enough to hold its own in that gorgeous and glamorous room, and the lines are dead on for the clean and timeless chic look. It really makes our heart go pitter patter. We’re in love.
7. And here we have our other large item for the space, this time for the dining area. This grand (and expandable!) solid mahogony pedestal table can host a small intimate dinner as well as a pretty big holiday meal (thanks to a leaf that can transform it into an oversized oval). And we think it will look simply divine centered under our dramatic dripping capiz chandelier. Plus by pairing this table with upholstered chairs (coming right up…) and the glittering mirrored buffet, the room will look collected over time and high-end… instead of suffering from matchy-matchy wood overload. This piece definitely isn’t a cheapie, but the solid wood construction and timeless design will really make it last forever (and the affordable chair solution that we dug up should help Mai save some dough in other areas of the dining room).
8. Next we have the fabulous stone topped coffee table that will really help to define the seating area while adding another luxe texture to go along with all the gleaming mirrors in the room. The gunmetal base will really help to ground the stone slab and add substance to the piece that will live under the seating area’s amazing capiz chandelier. And the generous size will look high-end and glamtastic.
9. We can’t express how much we adore this rug. An 8×10 (on sale!) will be perfect. And the subtle texture and neutral color palette will add that rich finishing touch for a magazine worthy living room (especially once it’s floating in the middle of the living room, centered on the fireplace- it’ll help Mai place the rest of her furniture and create balance and order in a snap). Plus the faux-wood texture also plays off the other natural objects in the room, from the capiz shell light fixtures to the stone topped coffee table. Ab fab!
10. This simple and low dark wood TV stand will balance out the dining table on the other side of the room, and hold all of Mai’s media components with simple style and modern elegance- without detracting from the other more ornate pieces (like the stone table, the mirrored buffet or the super fantastico side tables that we stumbled upon).
11. And speaking of those amazingly memorable and stylish side tables, here they are in all their geometric glory. Again tying in that glam reflective theme and also bringing in some art deco elegance, we couldn’t have found two better tables to sit beside each chair by the fire. They came out just days ago from West Elm and their timing could not have been better!
12. And even though Mai had quite a generous budget, we still like to save a penney when we can, and when it comes to the dining room chairs we think Mai can actually save quite a chunk of change. Sure she could grab some upholstered cream chairs from Ballard Designs for around $150 each, but we dug up these $19.99 dining chair slipcovers from Target that we think would look great slipped over any existing or newly purchased chairs (Mai can hit up JC Penney or Target to find something comfy yet inexpensive). They’re removable and washable, which is priceless to people who love to entertain, and they’ll add simple elegance and softness to the solid wood table. Yummy.
So there it is. Mai’s glammy modern living and dining room- with a splash of deco in there for good measure. We can’t wait to see what you guys think- especially you Mai! And if anyone else out there is in need of a custom mood board of their very own, just click here to get things started.
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Comments
Wow, Mai. You are in such good hands here. Those rooms are going to be incredible. I <3 that gorgeous buffet–what a great starting point. John and Sherry, I <3 <3 <3 what you came up with so much. And I’m excited to say that I have one of those exact same sexy capiz pendants coming my way too. But it’s been on back order until November 20 since May!! I am dying!
Sounds like it’s going to be beautiful! Mai did a good job of hanging her existing curtains high to balance out the vaulted ceilings – but I would also suggest getting slightly wider curtain rods so the windows don’t look so strangled.
Hi Sherry!
Thanks so much for everything. Can’t wait to start shopping. I’ll send you after pics soon.
Have a fabulous weekend,
Mai
Beautiful! I love the arm chairs.