SCENARIO: After a few years you finally find it: a dreamy fabric for
draperies that works perfectly with the transferware dishes you now
collect. It sets the elegant tone you've come to admire as your tastes
and budget have matured. It's time to go for it!
TACTIC: Finish out the room, taking color and formality cues from the
fabric for a brave new wall paint, a rug, dinnerware, and wall
elements. Use pieces you've carefully gleaned along the way and
enjoy with pride the look you've built comfortably over time.
COMMITMENT LEVEL: High. But you've taken your time and know it's
you.
 Arrive
With an exciting drapery fabric in hand, you have the road map to make the rest of your design decisions with confidence. Keep what you love, add what excites you.
Curtain Call
This rich floral drapery fabric stands strong with the black table and introduces accent hues of amber, coral, and brown. With table and draperies in place, it's finally rug time. A subtle grid of sand, brown, and black ties into the room hues (and the nylon fibers are easy-care).
Dinner For Eight
Leaves elongate the table to a formal scale. The addition of two slipcovered, upholstered chairs adds seating stature and the striped fabric reverses to solid brown for a change of look.
Paint Punch
Enough of safe colors, you're ready to take a leap! Plucked from the floral fabric, coral becomes banding on the curtains, the color on the wall, and fresh flowers for centerpieces.
Take a Transfer
Melding a color-themed collection into this decor jump started the final phase. Start with one serving piece, then ease into place settings as your collection grows. Amber glass chargers, bowls, wineglasses, and curtain rod finials tie to those tones in draperies, slipcovers, and rug. Grandma's silver? Still there, tied in a new faux-suede napkin.
Wall Plates
That mirror is still going strong, but now plates and platters join it. The beauty? The wall arrangement can expand and reconfigure as the collection grows. Atop the bar, a lamp adds height and ambient lighting to the composition.
Repeat, Reuse
The same linen runners from stage two grace the table and bar with the addition of matching square napkins as place mats. Decanters also remain. |
