As a tribute to the upcoming Thanksgiving feast, today’s post will focus on the dining room. I usually travel to the east coast to be with my family on this holiday, but things were too crazy here this year, what with the house in shambles and moving out of our townhouse any day (I also would be dreading taking my 22 month old on a 5 hour flight, so am lucky I was able to get out of it). It feels less “thanksgiving-y” in LA than on the east coast, and without all the stress of travelling, I keep forgetting that its coming up tomorrow! But when I went to see the progress on the house today, I was reminded of what will someday be our formal dining room and I got excited all over again.
This house has a formal dining room – a REAL dining room – not just a nook off somewhere near the kitchen (although we have one of those too). This means I am officially a grown up and will have to figure out how to cook meals and host guests in the near future. Here are some progress pics of the house as it is today:
This is the kitchen. Say Hi to our new beam!
This is the walkway to the office and mudroom past the kitchen.
This is the dining room looking into the kitchen/family room.
Things are moving so fast! The house feels unbelievably open and I can’t wait to start seeing things built.
So the dining room is the first room that you see when you walk into the house. It is very open and you walk right through it to get to the kitchen/family room. At first I thought that was odd, but then I thought it would be a great opportunity to make a welcoming yet exciting space. I have had a few flashes of visions for this space, but figured I might as well start honing in on them and getting this space sorted out because otherwise people will walk into my house and be immediately greeted by an empty room.
I am planning to keep this room somewhat light, as in no dark or black walls (will be dong that in Brady’s room – stay tuned). I do think it would be nice to add some soft wallpaper to this room to define it as its own, like in this Southampton dining room by Tamara Magel:
I love that this room is supposed to be “kid-friendly” according to the article in My Domaine I read. My kid would DESTROY those chairs. However I do like the grasscloth walls, it gives the room some glam and warmth.
I also have been really into the idea of using vintage chairs for this room:
I LOVE both these dining rooms. They really bring the wow factor – mostly by lighting and awesome chairs. I am thinking definitely vintage in this room and a to-die-for fabric to reupholster. Sometimes I look around on Scout Design (based in Dallas) because they have awesome vintage finds at unbelievably low prices. Check out these 80’s brass chairs that would look so amazing in new upholstery:
When I am off in a fantasy land, pretending I am one of my clients, I take a peek on 1st dibs to see what I can lust after:
Milo Baughman, Paul Evans, Saarinen…can’t go wrong. I will probably end up scouring some flea markets with the pennies I have left after this renovation.
Something else I have been into lately is camel leather upholstered dining chairs. Leather is so easy to clean (my family is so messy) and the camel color is really warm – and goes well with bold colors like navy or emerald green:
Lots of vintage-y looking chairs here too. These spaces are so warm and depart from all these cool, gray tones we are seeing so much of these days. And even though I said NO WHITE furniture in my house, these white leather chairs seem easy enough to maintain and give the rooms a crisp, clean feeling:
I am anti-Donald Trump but I am pro Ivanka Trump’s NYC penthouse – I have loved her dining room (above) for years. These spaces also benefit from the beautiful Lindsay Adelman light fixtures. Ugh dreamy!!
Nothing quite brings a space together like a big brass sputnik-type fixture. I will definitely be on the hunt for something jaw dropping over our table:
I have been lusting after this piece by Lambert et Fils (sold by twentieth design in LA). Its got the height and width to really fill a space but also feels light and airy. It also feels half vintage half modern, which is amazing:
This reminds me a lot of the Apparatus arrow pendant that we just used in our Westlake dining room. Their pieces are on fire right now, so amazing!
I hope everyone enjoys their day and their feast. See you all next week! xo, AE
