Greetings All,
Let's continue our exercise in doing a budget interior, this time a breakfast or small dining room. The key with all decorating is to develop a point of view. This is a traditional room with classic elements that will be as relevant in twenty years, as it would have been 200 years ago or as stylish as it is today.
The trick with classic decorating is not to do anything too splashy, sure you want your room to be special and it will be, but don't try too hard. The most difficult thing to do in decoration is to make a room feel as if it's always been there. Grounded, simple, elegant and beautiful.
The most expensive element in this room would be the wallcovering, but it is well worth it and if you happen to have lots of windows and doors you'll need less paper. there are also more affordable printed versions rather than the hand painted variety. If that is still undoable maybe instead of covering every surface we use only framed panels or if you happen to be artistic you could paint them yourself.
The sideboard is a reproduction of one at Althrop House and very stylish.
Usually there would have been a wine cooler underneath, today you might decide to store linens rather than wine.
You'll be surprised how well this simple convex mirror will work over that sideboard. We'll paint the frame pink or black and it will look amazing. OR we could shop around for a 19thc version.
I often prefer arm chairs around a table, especially in a smaller room. While looking delicate these are extremely comfortable and sturdy.
Architectural elements add a sense of scale and break up the monotony of just having furniture and if you take off the lids the urns can hold branches or flowers on special occasions. These could easily flank a doorway, the sideboard or stand in front of your windows.
The centerpiece of every dining room is it's table, this is a small Georgian example that will comfortably accommodate the six armchairs, if you happened to have an enormous room one could easily set up a separate areas for more intimate dining.
An old Greek key lantern is less formal than a crystal chandelier and not as expected, it's more sculptural form echoing the urns is also a bonus.
There are many ways to go about decorating a room, the important thing is to really be aware of what feeling you'd like to convey, easy elegance is never out of style and keeping it simple will really give much more in return than you'd have expected.
Our budget is again what a new high end reproduction dining table would cost [depending on the paper].
How is that possible? Knowing how to shop, where to shop and making a phone call!
That's All I've Got For now.
L
