Eclectic Home Design with Formal Dining Room

Eclectic Home Design with Formal Dining Room

Recently moved into home. Prior home was warm tones with traditional brown leather furniture. Current home is more light and contemporary, so we are 'resetting' most of our furniture and art, etc. The first floor has a large living room that flows into the formal dining room. The dining room connects to the kitchen through a standard size doorway. The kitchen is open to the 'den' or secondary living room which is smaller than the formal and is where the TV / couch area is. We have already made some furniture purchases for the dining room which we are happy with and some art for the dining and formal living which we like. We bought ~$10k worth of furniture from Pottery Barn for the formal living which we have 'so-so' feelings about. We are contemplating painting the cabinets in the kitchen from white to blue and taking a gray color from the dining walls into the kitchen and den to make things more cohesive. Den needs a furniture overall. Need advice on art and accessories throughout. Mainly, we want a cohesive design across these 4 rooms and to avoid buyer's remorse after a major investment. We believe our target design is eclectic and are looking to mix some traditional with contemporary, but would welcome some support in thinking through this.

As for the kitchen, at minimum, we want to re-color it, but are also open to design suggestions that would include new granite countertops and new backsplashes. We think changing the countertops and backsplash (along with the sink) would give some opportunity to modernize and make cohesive with other parts of the first floor design. Doing these changes will depend on cost, so we're open to the notion of doing it. We think we'll keep the existing appliances in the kitchen for the time being (though they are aging somewhat).

• Inspirational Pictures.docx

Formal Living Room

Neutral

Mid-day light

The room can be quite beautiful when fully furnished. The prior owners had a baby grand piano in it with contemporary art, a leather couch and modern chairs which all together looked stunning.

We thought to make it an 'art gallery' of sorts and use it for company and as a room to visit and talk (a non-digital space...no TVs). Our concern is that this won't give the room enough of a true purpose and we may never use it (e.g. as the prior owners had the 'piano' feature to bring some life in...we don't really have that concept yet). So any thoughts or inspiration on use and "life" for the room are welcome. Maybe wine, listening to music on the overhead speakers, and discussion is enough??

We even toyed with the idea of a large aquarium against the large back wall, but don't want to maintain that and think it's pretty out of date to do so. Probably a non-starter.

The blue leather couches were purchased from Pottery Barn and were originally meant to be a single, longer (7-8") couch opposite the fireplace with 2-4 chairs to complete the sitting area. PB didn't have the longer couch in that particular blue leather, so we shifted to 2 loveseats facing each other. These were custom-made and about $4k each, so we feel committed to keeping them, and yet we aren't thrilled with how they turned out either. So we'd prefer to work them into a design and incorporate them better with throw pillows and such, but if they end up being a major blocker in design, we can try to sell them to get back as much money as we can and move on to an L-shape sectional or something else entirely.

The 2 large pieces of art on either side of the fireplace should stay, but can be moved/shifted around. We bought these from a gallery recently and like these fairly well. We are thinking the larger one with the dark frame needs to 'swap' walls on to the other side of the fireplace and then put some kind of grid of abstract or contemporary art over the modern desk. The desk should stay in the design and get a chair added to it. The Italian landscape currently to the right of the fireplace might be moved into the hallway or elsewhere in the house. Maybe in the den?

The large mirror over the fireplace, the sconces should stay. The female sculpture between the windows should stay.

The curtains should stay in the design as we really like these a lot. Since the curtains are staying, it may mean we keep the wall color as is, but this is up in the air. If we need a different color to make the whole first floor (all 4 rooms) more cohesive, we can discuss doing so, but would need to accommodate the curtains.

The coffee table should stay...it's also from PB and is white marble.

The rug needs to be replaced and probably needs to be bigger...it's old from a prior house and is currently a 'placeholder'. We're open to doing a large rug over most of the floor and then possibly a smaller rug in the middle under the coffee table potentially to add to the design (e.g. an animal print???).

We need to add art on the big blank wall...likely abstract or modern to balance out the traditional big piece. We need to add seating around the fireplace. We need to add shelving in the corner next to the dining room to put artifacts / accessories on. Or we could consider putting a large feature piece of art here...a sculpture maybe?

Maybe

Yes, Area Rugs

• House Floor Plan and Room Details - Formal Living.jpg

Here is a link to a walkthrough of the whole first floor including the Formal Living: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gq4m7jcl6w4nvk1/Video%20Oct%2023%2C%204%2013%2050%20PM.mov?dl=0

Here is a link to a set of 3 large wall giclees at High Fashion we are considering for the big empty wall across from the fireplace (definitely can consider these in the design, but very much welcome other ideas):
https://www.highfashionhome.com/collections/canvas-art/products/one-fine-day-i
https://www.highfashionhome.com/collections/canvas-art/products/one-fine-day-ii
https://www.highfashionhome.com/collections/canvas-art/products/one-fine-day-iii

Den

Neutral

Mid-day light

The wall colors are not working. The drywall could become the same gray from the dining room. We would paint the built-in cabinets the same blue as the cabinets in the kitchen. The crown molding needs repainting to match the butter cream color in the dining room.
We don't care for the tile floors...they are dated. If a very large rug is put in the Den, that would cover most of the tiles in there so it might work and help us avoid having to redo all the flooring right now.
The couch has to go. We need perhaps an L-shape sleeper that is very comfortable. This room needs to be the most comfortable in the house as its the 'plot down on the couch and watch TV room'.
We don't like the gold hardware on the doors throughout the house. All the door knobs need to be replaced eventually.

The chandelier can stay in the design. We bought the credenza / TV stand from the prior owners as we liked it a lot. The TV will stay, but needs to be mounted on the wall instead of sitting on the credenza.

The black chair ($1,100) and shag rug ($1,000) were purchased at the same time as the blue loveseats and coffee table in the living room from PB. We tried them in the living room, but they didn't work, so put them in the Den for now. The chair probably stays in the house and can be used anywhere in this design, or it can be moved upstairs somewhere. The shag rug isn't working in the space yet, so it may need to go.

Yes

Open to both

Maybe

• House Floor Plan and Room Details - Den.jpg

We considered doing something interesting with in the inside of the fireplace. Instead of leaving it white, it could have tiles on it with some kind of detail or design. We like the tree art above the fire place, but that spot has two spotlights in the ceiling right on it, so we should probably swap in something really cool there. It's a good opportunity to highlight a really nice piece.

Note: Painting the built-ins blue is one of the bigger decision points in the design. We definitely need some consultation before jumping into this, but we do like the idea of bringing color and warmth into this room.

Here is a link to a West Elm sofa we had our eye on for the Den potentially, but there are likely even better options we can find: https://www.westelm.com/products/harris-2-piece-terminal-sectional-h4618/

Kitchen

Masculine

Mid-day light

It is (and feels) quite small. The layout is a bit challenging when it comes to cooking.

The countertops and backsplash feel dated.

The white paint needs more warmth...we're thinking a mid blue (we have looked at Jean Jacket Blue and Arrowhead Lake from the Behr Marquee line) for the cabinets. We are thinking of pulling in the same grey from the dining room for the drywall in the kitchen.

The appliances are also aging, but we're likely going to leave them for now due to cost.

The sink faucet needs an update.

The fruit prints we like, but they likely need anti-glare glass instead of the plastic shiny stuff on them now. The painting of Venice we like, but it could be moved elsewhere in the house.

Yes

Paint

Maybe

• House Floor Plan and Room Details - Kitchen.jpg

In summary:
- We want to paint the kitchen walls gray and the cabinets blue (open to steering from designer, but this is our current inspiration)
- We are interested in seeing designs with new countertops and backsplash (this is an investment we might be willing to make depending on lead times and total costs)
- We can change the hanging light fixture over the sink potentially
- We can do something around the art on the wall, but most likely will want to upgrade the glazing on the the fruit pics we have and stick with those (open to discussion)
- We can evaluate doing something on the floor, but likely won't want to start ripping up tiles and replacing it all
- We will likely leave the appliances to keep costs in control for this project

Dining Room

Neutral

Very little sunlight

We do not like having a double door leading to the outside (back) courtyard. The door is never used and does not lead to anyplace one needs to go. We are considering having these doors removed and replaced with windows.

The rug in this room is 'ok', but from a prior house. Could be upgraded / updated.

We like the Italian landscape prints in this room, but need to fill in some additional wall decor to make it complete / cohesive...likely something more contemporary or abstract for balance. We need to hang the piece that's sitting on the credenza, but are waiting for our designs to come before putting any more holes in the wall for now.

The table and 8 chairs as well as the credenza are new and we like them (from https://www.homesourcetx.com/), so they will need to be in the design. The Horchow chandelier can stay as well.

We like the pieces of art - a print of San Pietro, a framed poster of a cathedral we toured in Venice, and a Tuscan landscape above the credenza. We can adjust placement of these or potentially even shift 1-2 into the Den to bring more balance in with other, more contemporary subject matter. But these pieces will all need to be somewhere in the final design.

No

Yes, Area Rugs

• House Floor Plan and Room Details - Dining.jpg

While this room might have the fewest changes of the 4 in the project, it was important to include as we are thinking to take the gray color from the walls in the Dining and paint the Kitchen + the Den in the same color on the walls (sheetrock). Then the cabinetry in the kitchen and the den (on either side of the fireplace) would be blue. I'll describe the color we're considering in the descriptions of those two rooms, respectively. The main point as far as the Dining room goes is that we're thinking of taking its color into the kitchen and den to bring more cohesion.

We do like the Italian landscape art we have, but also realize we're probably maxed out on it as a subject matter. We need to diversity our wall decor at this point and bring in some other subject matter to complete the design and room.

We would like to put up new curtains or perhaps a cornice board with curtains similar to the living room. Open to design suggestions for the window coverings.

Finally, we think something should go in the space in front of the double doors (which may get changed into windows). Maybe a bench seat in the middle or some kind of artifacts / sculptures on either side of it.