Rebekah’s Design Dilemma
Rebekah’s entry & dining room is bursting with some serious potential. Here’s her letter:
I’m SO excited for your help! We bought our 125-year-old house and redid it, and after all that work I’m stuck on the decorating part. Our dining room and entry room feels SO empty! I’d like it to flow with the adjoining rooms and feel cozier. I like comfortable modern with a touch of traditional. I’m loving your home’s neutral style with white accents and pops of color/pattern. The paint has to stay, as do the light fixtures and the dining table/chairs (I do want to replace them someday, so a suggestion would be great- I’d love a dark wood table that can expand to seat 8 people). The curio cabinet and rug can go. I’d like a bigger buffet and some of the icons/art above the curio have to stay, but the ones on the adjacent wall can go. I’d also like something else to store dishes in, even just a few. I need a little mudroom action like you have to store coats and shoes and we need window coverings (but don’t want to cover the original trim too much). Oh and I’m planning to paint the living room a different color (any suggestions?) because the red is just too dark for that room. Thank you! I know it will be great!! – Rebekah
This space is primed for a major makeover. Here’s the plan:
And now for the mood board breakdown.
1. Our color scheme will incorporate chocolate brown tones (in the furniture), warm wheat hues (to keep things cozy) and pops of green with soft cream and white for a fresh and crisp feeling that says welcome home. Rebekah also mentioned that she’d like a recommendation for a living room wall color in place of the red so we think a soft goldy-green (Benjamin Moore’s Sesame 381) will add to the flow and feel serene and inviting in the adjoining space.
2. Here’s the handsome deep-toned buffet that we’ll bring in to replace the small curio on the back wall. It has tons of concealed storage for plates and dishes as well as anything else Rebekah would like to keep tucked away, and it’s about $300 cheaper than anything else we could find. Score.
3. Rebekah mentioned that the table and chairs must stay for now, but down the line she’d like to replace them. We think painting the table and chairs a deep chocolate brown tone would be a quick and inexpensive way to tide her over in the meantime, and tossing down this vibrant green runner will freshen things up even further.
4. Rebekah wanted to keep her windows relatively unadorned to show off that crisp original molding so these white faux-wood blinds will look perfect (inside mounted) on each window for privacy and a bit of horizontal texture.
5. This is the top part of Rebekah’s mini mudroom which will be located to the right of her front door as you face it. We love the dark chocolate color and the semi-industrial vibe of these slide-able and oh so functional hooks.
6. Two of these gorgeous ivory ceramic based lamps (on clearance!) will look great on the buffet on the back wall to draw the eye back from the door and provide a gentle ambiance when they’re on in the evening.
7. Here’s the bottom component of our mudroom to the right of the front door (as you face it) that Rebekah requested. Of course she could go for a padded storage ottoman but we loved the price and the tiered shelves on this baby (which actually comes in blond wood but would look great stained or painted darker to complement the other furnishings in the space).
8. We couldn’t help but add these leafy green dishes (on sale!) for more of our vibrant accent color. They’ll look chic stacked on the buffet, laid out on the table, or even displayed on the wall in a clean-lined plate rack like this (also on sale!) which could be hung between the doorway & window on the right wall as you face the buffet.
9. With two matching lamps and a larger buffet on the back wall, one substantial piece on the wall above everything will feel more cohesive and inviting. We love this big round mirror to bounce light around the room, add texture, and bring in some soft curves to balance all the angled pieces of furniture in the space.
10. Here are the table and chairs that we dug up for Rebekah to snag down the line. The price for such a stunning table (which comes with an extendable leaf to seat 8 per Rebekah’s request) is nothing short of amazing. And the padded chairs are chic & cozy, plus they’ll look great with the new rug.
11. And speaking of the new rug, here she is in all her glory. We love the warm tone on tone colors and the interesting and textural pattern that will add boundless warmth to a space that once felt sparse. Plus the 8 x 10 size will work beautifully and really ground the table in the center of the room.
12. No space is complete without the little touches that make it feel like home, so a sweet welcome mat by the door (which ties in with the tones in the dining room rug) and a few leafy green plants on the table and the buffet will really polish things off for a cozy and welcoming entry and dining area that’ll make Rebekah smile every time she walks through the door.
So there you have it. A whole new room full of clean and inviting style. We can’t wait to see what you guys think!
Update: We sadly can no longer find the time to take on client commissioned mood boards (we now whip up general inspiration boards instead) but if we ever reinstate them we’ll make a big announcement!
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Two words: bird mites. Google it…and don’t handle that nest!
I bought those same faux wood blinds at Target (they were cheap). I’m shocked that you offered up absolutely no art for the walls….there’s so so many walls there. I wish I had big expansive walls for big art pieces. I think when you have those you should steer away from cluters of small things and really lay on the big eye catching piece of art somewhere. Everything else on the mood board is fantastic and I love the color scheme of cool green.
Hey Kristy,
You may not have noticed it because it’s just a link in the breakdown and not actually pictured in the mood board, but in lieu of art we dug up an amazing plate rack that will look like 3-D art once it’s filled with gorgeous platters and green glass plates (we’d love to see it between the door and the window on the right wall) and we’d also love to see the round mirror from the mood board above the buffet with the ceramic lamps on either side for height and interest as soon as Rebekah walks in the door (the round shape will look so great with those soaring ceilings, so that’s why we went the mirror direction).
You’re certainly right about a room with such high ceilings calling for larger pieces on the wall to really hold their own in the space, which is why we selected both the large round mirror for above the buffet and the plate rack for sculptural interest between the doorway and the window on the right. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Glad to see this up here — your help had been superb!! We have already recieved the rug, blinds, and lamp and we’re waiting on a few other things, and still deciding on a few more. The rug is AMAZING. I got it and seriously squealed — it’s beautiful and cozies up the room like none other.
We do have a ton of wall space… thankfully the husband is an art teacher/potter and we do several art peices to hang up yet. In lieu of the plate rack, we may go with some floating shelves for that space. I’ll be sure to send photos when we’re done.
Thanks so much again!
Hey Rebekah,
Sweet. So glad the rug is as fabulous as we hoped it would be! Can’t wait to see the finished product. Don’t forget to send those after pictures our way! Happy decorating…
xoxoxo,
Sherry (& John)
Hi Sherry!
I love this board. Where do you all normally look for inexpensive large rugs? Is overstock a good resource, any others?
Julianne
Hey Julianne,
Overstock.com is far and away our favorite rug resource on the planet (you can search by size, so entering “8 x 10 rug” will yield about a gazillion choices). We also like thecompanystore.com, cb2.com, jcpenney.com, target.com, and worldmarket.com (where we got our bedroom rug) and of course potterybarn.com and crateandbarrel.com (which are a bit pricier but also have some great sales). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
This is a great space. Can’t wait to see the after pictures!
I noticed that you recommended a dining room table and chairs from Target that are a great deal and I love the way they look. But whenever I suggest to my husband that we buy furniture from there he says no. I think he’s nervous about the quality of large pieces like that coming from an inexpensive chain. When we buy a dining table and chairs we want it to last. Do you think something from Target will hold up and look nice over time?
Hey Kathleen,
Well, our very own dining table and chairs are from Target and almost three years later they’re still holding up really well (we definitely rely on the customer write-ups over on target.com and try to purchase things that get praised for their sturdy construction). They probably won’t be around in 20 years but by then we’ll most likely want something different anyway (bigger? round?) and might move them into a playroom for arts and crafts projects anyway. So unless you’re looking for heirloom quality pieces I think Target it a great resource! Hope it helps. Happy hunting…
xo,
Sherry
I agree with what you said about the Target table. I actually own the exact set pictured here. It’s great quality for the price and stands up to our everyday use.
Rebekah,
Love all of your Icons! I hope you are keeping them in the new space.
Love the mood board! I have the JC Penney faux wood blinds in my living room and they look great, good choice!!
Nichole –
My husband would have a cow if we got rid of all the icons. I’d like to reduce the amount though, and limit them to just over the curio (where the new buffet will live soon) and arrange them all little better.
Jesus to the right, above the curio, is actually from the 18 century!! So he has to stay, and the hubs has painted a few others.
I got my pub table set at Kmart for $199 on sale. Everyone that comes over comments on how nice and sturdy it is. When I tell them where it came from and how much I spent they are amazed.
I love the mirror!
http://pearlsandgreentea.blogspot.com/
That rug is wonderful, I can’t believe the price. What a steal! I also really love that table, the tapered legs are a nice touch.
I think as long as your table is made of solid wood and not particle board you should be fine. My table set is from KMart as well and it has held up nicely for four years so far. It really is solid (I had to put it together by myself) and I think it will last a lot longer.
Great moodboard! I think this is the first time I’ve noticed y’all recommend blinds (and not bamboo blinds) without any curtains.
Heather………is it the chestnut set w/4 stools? Mine is and I love it. Perfect size (39.5″ square) for my little apt. kitchen.
–Jill
Just had to chime in here and say that we bought those exact Target chairs as well and LOVE THEM! They look great, no one believes me when I say they are from Target, and they are actually really comfy. We originally bought them thinking they would do until we could afford better but now I love them so much I can’t imagine replacing them! Just wanted to add my two cents :-)
ahh thanks for your answer here….to my art confusion. I love you guys. I am learning so much.