Pepper Design Blog

Dining Room Update: Curtain Call Part 2

Yesterday I posted on my curtain dilemma. Six great designs but how to decide which one? Or are any of these right for this space? These are the questions that keep me up at night.;) (But hey, that’s far preferred to the usual spreadsheets or parenting quips, so I say bring on the design conundrums).

I couldn’t help but throw together a rough photoshop version for each – sometimes a visual is all you need to get the brain juices brewin’. Here’s the space as is right now (boo for capturing the seam of the pendant shade, now in every. photo.):

Here’s that lovely Tilbury in Lapis that I’m sure I’d be 100% head over heals for if I didn’t have some sort of suzani/ikat print for curtains in the guestroom and in our bedroom:

I’ve always loved this Thomas Paul print, but when it was featured as curtains (hadn’t though of that!) in May’s BHG issue, I fell for Perch all over again. Bah, beautiful!

Here’s a modern print that I really dig. I love that the pattern immediately updates the space but that the colors still play nicely with the slightly muted palette we’ve got going on in the dining room. The catch? I’d have to make the curtains out of an Orla Kiely duvet cover!

Cannot go wrong with a classic suzani like this Ubud by Iman Home Fabrics. I’m leaning least towards this one at the moment, I think the weight of the fabric might drown out too much natural light from the space.

Such a fun print! Is that bright yellow too much of a pop or just right? Dahlia by Thomas Paul:

One more Thomas Paul print that I love. Botany features an illustrated pattern similar to the Perch above but with just florals. The nice white background is soft and perty

Can you guess which one I’m leaning towards? Do you have a favorite? The right fabric might not be any of the above *sigh*, but then again maybe I’ll just have to sleep on it…

Read the full dining room story by starting here: curtain call part 1, newly styled bookshelves, a buffet-over, upgrading the lighting, the before.

Dining Room Update: Curtain Call

Hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day! Our neighborhood hosts a parade, pick-up basketball games and relay races every year – it’s a big deal around these parts – and we loved it all. Plus, there’s nothing like waking up on Monday morning to realize that you have another day of weekend, another day of family fun. Despite all of the sunshine and relaxing, I’m reminded of what the holiday really stands for and I’d like to offer a big thank you to all of our service men and women. Especially those readers who have family members serving us today! You might remember that Kevin served in the Marine Corp and that I think the world of the sacrifice that you all make as families.

Back to that post title. Curtains! The dining room could use a splash of color near the windows and while we have white wood plantation shutters for privacy (from the previous owners) I can’t help but that think this is the perfect spot for bright curtains that will compliment the color of our buffet:

The room gets an okay amount of light. Nothing drastic, just enough to light the space during certain times of the day but not enough to keep the room from feeling fairly dark on a regular basis.

For that reason I’ll probably have to stick to something light and fresh in here rather than a thicker fabric with darker details (like the fabric I chose for the bedroom), fabrics that I am inevitably more drawn to.

Here are a few I have in mind:

Orla Kiely – Lichen Flower Blossom, Thomas Paul – Dahlia, Thomas Paul – Botany, Tilbury – Lapis, Iman Home Fabrics – Ubud, Thomas Paul – Perch

I love each of these for so many different reasons! I have a few reservations that some of these prints will be too dark (such as the Iman Ubud or Tilbury in Lapis) in the space while a few of the lighter, whiter ideas might not have enough eye popping detail (Thomas Paul’s Botany). I’m hoping that I might find the first Orla Kiely in a fabric (I’ve seen it out there before… but linked to the wallpaper) and I do love that dahlia print! Is having too much suzani or ikat print a bad thing? I’m using it alot in the house these days but I still love these Tilbury and Iman patterns.

Kim Cornelison’s dining room from the May 2012 issue of BHG has really inspired me, and seeing her Thomas Paul Perch curtains has confirmed how much I love that fabric:

I could not find this image online for the life of me, so here’s a snapshot of my BHG magazine. Hard to see in the above photo but flip open to page 38 in your May Better Homes & Gardens for a great injection of inspiration – if you don’t have a subscription I highly recommend .

Here’s our window near straight on:

The shutters are closed to prevent a serious washout of the window, but see what I mean about fairly dark? Dark furniture and those dark branches in the corner do not help. Right now I have a sheer tan on the windows (and I’ll probably reinstall the curtain rod 6″ higher – we thew this guy up over four years ago) and I’m ready for something new!

Here’s a cool little tool I’ve been using to get a better curtain visual of several of my Calico Corners fabric choices: www.CurtainsMade4You.com (and possibly a great resource for those of you who prefer to have the curtains made by the professionals!). It’s a sister site to the popular Calico Corners fabric store.

Oooh, that Tilbury Lapis is a good one!

Still on the hunt though… Maybe I should try something completely out there on the opposite end of the color wheel, or maybe I should go peruse my local Joanns for a bit of variety. We’ll see what we find!

Read the full dining room story by starting here: newly styled bookshelves, a buffet-over, upgrading the lighting, the before

Dining Room Update: New Finds for the Bookshelves

Thank you for your birthday wishes!

The dining room has been on my mind all week… it’s making such progress! We have the new light fixture installed, the buffet was made over and now it’s time to tackle the bookshelves on the opposite wall.

Looking at the buffet the bookshelves are actually behind you, leaning up against either side of the arches facing into the living room.

Here’s a ‘before we moved in’ to give you a really clear idea of the wall space available there (that second door is now sealed up and a part of the new bathroom, and that older kitchen you see in the first door is now here):

This was a hard spot to figure out how to utilize. Big clunky bookcases would stick out like a sore thumb but I knew the wall space could be so much more than room for hanging photos. This was also right about that time when the leaning bookshelf craze was in full effect, and I really liked that they were backless, the depth narrowed from the base to the top, and that they were much less obtrusive than your usual variety.

When I found a set of leaning C&B bookshelves on Craigslist I knew they would fit perrrrfectly. Here’s a slightly awkward, coming in to the dining room from the guest room shot to show how these bookcases fit:

The leaning bookcases hold just enough storage – I keep wine and beer glasses, cookbooks and extra dining dishes on these guys – plus they’re lean enough to allow plenty of walk around room.

I had first styled them like this:

We didn’t repaint, those are just grainy, washed out pictures from last year. Darn camera settings that I must conquer.

And after yesterday they look more like this:

One day I will master the focus on the camera. One day.

A few of my new goodies include pictures and prints that I’ve collected over the past year.

It was hard to get this shot without a horrible glare, but this black and white is a photo that my mother-in-law gave me for Christmas – she had taken it in college as an art major and had framed it for me for Christmas. The juxtaposition is amazing (the ‘Beware of Dog’ sign in the foreground and the kind looking observer just a few feet behind) and I can just picture Eileen at 20, stopping to see this ironic pose and kneeling down to get closer to the dog’s eye level, hair flipped back in some feathered 70′s do.

The next shelf up holds a picture of Bodie when he was just a couple of months old by my mom with his big sweet nose close against the camera lens, and next to that a Mother’s Day print that I picked out when we were at Balboa Park. The arboretum there is one of my very favorite buildings and I was thrilled to find a local artist in the park selling his paintings and prints.

I chose a warm wood frame that compliments a handmade cup from our wedding from Kevin’s best man. My little silver bird is attempting to hide a candle wax stain that discolored the bookshelf! Bummer. Ha, in this particular shot it kind of looks like something else…

The other bookshelf is home to my new favorite vignette which includes a cloche (a thrift store find and a gift from a friend who knew I was dying to find one) and a water color by the etsy Honolulu artist behind Pineapple Bay Studio.

The colors provide just the pop of contrast this space needs!

The cake platter and pitcher are Target finds from way back, and I’m pretty sure the white ceramic water lily is from West Elm. The galvanized metal letters at top are from Anthropologie and that picture on the same shelf as my square basket (to hold votive holders and what not) is a poster of giant magnolias that I cut apart and framed – sometimes framed art is as easy as taking apart packaging or gift cards!

There’s something about filling in a backless bookcase with sporadic art and height that keeps the shelves feeling airy, but brings in enough content so that it doesn’t feel sparse and lonely.

My favorite suggestions are to work in odd numbers, keep a variation of height on each shelf (with at one least one over-sized or tall piece) and mix up the colors while keeping some sort of consistent theme throughout (in this example I’d say it’s my white ceramic dishware and vases that show up frequently throughout both bookshelves, and maybe a basket or two).

One more item checked off of that list. Next up is a new rug, new curtains, reupholstered chairs? or maybe cushions? plus some huge piece of art or a mirror for that big blank wall where that extra door used to be. But in no particular order, it’s all part of the adventure .

Read the full dining room story by starting here: a buffet-over, upgrading the lighting, the before