How to Take Your Dining Room from Drab to Fab!
by Nisha MacNeil, Design Manager
Our client for this project is a fun and outgoing woman living in a beautiful home built in 1937 in the Westside area of Vancouver. She came to us in need of a major renovation as her basement was leaking and her bathroom was in dire need of repair.
Design for personality
While we were in the throws of that renovation, I enticed her to update her dining and living rooms. It just wasn’t right that this bright, smart, lovely woman was living in spaces that did not match her personality one bit. So, our design staff got together and came up with a game plan to update her living spaces to something that truly reflected her and would make her happy.
Get rid of the unnecessary
In the dining room, we found our client was overwhelmed with “stuff.” So our first step was to pare back, then donate or store the unnecessary items. Once that was done, we saw the beautiful original oak floors with a walnut border. These became the basis of our design.
Brighten the space
From there, we needed to brighten the space. As our client was not afraid of colour, it was the perfect time to be bold. We lightened the walls to a buttercream yellow vs the dull beige they had been before. We took cues of that brighter palette and had fun with floral parson-style chairs in a red poppy pattern. The old dining table was redone in a new black painted base to ground the room with a stained wood top. The tabletop was stained in a contrasting colour to the floor so it would pop in the space. We took a further design leap and added a rustic red sideboard to pull from the poppies in the chairs.
Add personal items
I love to add personal items to my client’s spaces. So we added the original artwork that she purchased on a memorable trip to Italy. To amp them up and make them truly special, we had them all custom framed with linen matting and gilt frames.
Add a jewel
Finally, the jewel of the space is the gorgeous crystal chandelier. We toiled for hours over which one to choose and finally decided on this opulent chandelier with dripping crystals.
This dining room is now ready for a party!