Making the “Dark Dallas Dining Room” Light Again
We Recently made an appointment with a client in North Dallas. Her home was a little dated – especially the dining room. I could tell that the previous owner had invested quite a bit to make this room beautiful. The walls were faux painted a deep red with brown and gold highlights. They had plantation shutters on the windows and also a heavy drapery treatment in red. This was definitely the traditional trend that was popular a decade ago. But now it is dark and uninviting.
Our client has a light and fun personality and this room definitely did not reflect that. She likes a more transitional look and definitely wanted to brighten up this room.
The Design Plan
She loves her dining table and chairs, which have that transitional look, so we used those as our inspiration. We also kept her sideboard, plantation shutters, and a few accessories. But that was it, the rest had to go.. starting with the heavy drapery.
We began with a new window treatment – new fabric and a new design. We chose a fabric from Fabricut that has a beautiful neutral pattern and we knew it would hang beautifully. Because less is more for this type of design, we custom made simple drapery panels to frame the beautiful shutters. We raised the rod up to give the feeling of height and we also made the treatment wider to allow more light into the room.
We pulled out the light tan color in the fabric to paint above the chair rail. Paint can change everything and immediately the room brightened up.
The Finishing Touches
This was the fun part! We took down the small framed mirror that hung above the sideboard and replaced it with a large arched mirror. This gave a lot of reflection to the room making it appear lighter and larger all while adding some character. I love this mirror by Guildmaster! Then we added two matching lamps and just a few accessories (some new and some old). We also removed the red runner on the table and replaced it with the large tray. The tray was the clients before and wanted to incorporate it into the new design so all we did there was rearrange the accessories. We suggested that in the evening she leave the chandelier off and turn on these two lamps and she let us know that she does this every evening and loves the way it looks and feels! She also commented on how beautiful our custom drapery panels are.
This was a fun project from the very beginning to the end and I think we achieved the objective and made the room light, livable and a true reflection of our client’s personality.
Call Read Design Plano or Southlake for Your Next Interior Design Project!
Read Design has been a leader in Window Fashions and Interior Design for over 25 years. With two generations of the Read Family working together, we are dedicated to making your home beautiful and a true reflection of you. We can help you no matter how large or how small your project is. Stop by either of our stores to see the latest in Hunter Douglas window treatments and to learn about PowerView Motorization. After all, smart homes are the future! Our designers can help you visualize and give your personal service to help you find the perfect solution for all of your projects.
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