Working on a Budget : A Traditional Breakfast or Small Dining Room

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

Holiday House 2014

Greetings All,

I noticed that the last post I wrote was about Holiday House in November of 2014. Just WOW, where does the time go! That was a post about the room which was not yet installed. Today, that room is just a memory, here are pictures of what it was like. I'd like to thank Traditional Home for their beautiful photograph and Michael Ricca for the others and of course all of the people at Holiday House who do such marvelous work.

Working on a Budget: The Living Room.

Greetings to one and all,

It's been a long while since I've written a blog, mainly due to time and work but also because to be honest, I haven't much been in the mood for writing. But here I am thinking about various things and I've recently met with a lovely young couple who were looking to put together a house, on a limited budget [FYI ALL budgets are limited] and so as an exercise I am working on finding high style items and decorative elements that won't break the bank. So look forward to a series of affordable and high style rooms done if not on a shoestring at least on a shoe.

After the kitchen the 'Formal" Living Room is often the most expensive room in a house, sadly it's also the least used room in a house, reserved for Sundays, holidays and company. I've never understood why people continue to have them, no one, or almost no one lives formally anymore and it certainly isn't needed  for show when you're building an enormous house, But there they are, always in the front and always wanting to be decorated first....so everyone can skip right thru to the kitchen!

The look is classic transitional, you can do this in various style houses from a white box interior to a period room and it will work beautifully.  Keep your colors subtle and patterns minimal and it will look modern, or use patterns for a more eclectic feel.

An nice pair of slipper chairs in old leather. Just leave them as they are, the patina will give the room added depth.

It helps if you already have a Braque or Picasso, but if you aren't so lucky a Venetian mirror would be a good touch, OR you could commission Ric Best Art to paint something for you.

It's aways nice to have a few low tables, why not choose some that are like small pieces of jewelry

Lighting is important and you could decide that a little drama might lighten up the mood. Venetian sconces fit the bill.

Add some strategically placed uplights and your lovely, freshly painted walls will glow. I'm liking lampshades less and less, so the ambient light will declutter your visual sight lines.

If there's room, why not add center table.  A simple vase with branches is all you need in front of tall windows.  You could also decide to use this as a side table between armchairs.

A long and low slung sofa will give the room height and scale

Let's throw in a couple of other chairs as well....different types of seating ....always important.

Under foot? Why not a beautifully worn rug. Muted colors and a little texture will unify the room and give you that not store bought feel.

Nothing like a place to sit and write, or just browse online. Why not this French cartonnier. These Louis XVI chairs are always easy to find new, vintage or antique and if you buy a set for your dining room you can use a pair in the living room.

Yes, this could all be achieved for what one would expect to pay for a new high end reproduction dining table.... How? Knowing how to shop, where to shop and making a phone call.

Look for the dining room next!!

And that's all I've got for today.

On to Holiday House NYC

Greetings Everyone!

It's Monday November 10th, the first day of installation at Holiday House NYC. I'm thrilled to be participating in this year's event. We've had 3 weeks to put our rooms together, gather items form vendors, in my case have everything custom made including some fabric and now we have this week to install. It's always a surprise when rooms are put together, it's like cooking, things come together like magic, but behind it all is a lot of care and hard work. Here's a sneak peek of a few items.




About the room:

Mischievous Night

The room is designed as a sitting room for daydreaming or plain reflection and relaxation. The mythical client is a Boho chic, lightly goth artsy type. We weren’t after a dark room for Hallowe’en as every night is mischief night if you’re so inclined, but more of a theatrical interpretation for an artistic spirit. After all November is the start of the Holiday Season, the first frost and winter fun.

Sketch for the room

Napoleon 3 chaise

Lining for the daybed canopy

Bronze legs on my daybed

This is the sketch for room's layout. I'm old fashioned and like to actually draw everything out on paper.

Stop by if you can, below is the link.

That's all I have today...off to work!

http://www.holidayhousenyc.com/contact/

Good Old NEW 834

Greetings All,

So what has kept me away from blogging the last few months? Finishing up a project out in the country, a new OTT job on Park Ave, an addition to a client's house and last but not least, we finally bought a small apartment on Riverside Drive which needed a lot of work and of course a trip to Europe that had been planned last January when we didn't know any of this would be happening.

 The apartment is in a prewar building and had had no work done on it for over 30 years. It was in fact used as storage.

The front hall

This was the original living room with french doors

you can see the door and wall on the left which was added at some point

Sort of odd pass thru made the apartment feel dingy and poky

We started by removing all of the trim and wallboard and then went about restoring the floors

Removed the partition that had been put up to make an extra bed room, not original to the apartment

Widened all of the openings and raised them almost to the ceiling which  created a sense of space

The opening before we opened it up

Bathroom is now clad in floor to ceiling marble tile with small marble tiles on the floor

Our color palette

We carved out a nice hall by modifying a deep closet and moving the door to our bed room. All of the original doors from 1910 were stripped 

Looking from the bathroom to the hall and beyond

Created a new smaller entrance hall that opens directly into the living room

New kitchen painted F&B Clucnh

The new space furnished. We added built ins and cleaned up all the surfaces

One of our side tables

Looking into the Living room. Bookcase before it was filled up

A corner of the living room

The small bed room with a large picture on steel by Ric Best

It's been a long summer, but we're finally in the new space and it's just about perfect for us. We're very grateful

and that's all I have for today