daily decorator

Below is a letter from a new mother who needs a little help making her space cheerful.





Your Room Service has been delivered Jennifer!  Here is a look at Jennifer’s living room and dining room in their current state.





These rooms have lovely details!  Great floors, nice molding, french doors–lots to love, but I do see where the decor is bringing it down.  So here is what I came up with.  A cheerful color palette of yellows, grays and sage.  First, Jennifer’s living room.





I know Jennifer is partial to her cream colored paint, but I would love to see a sage on the walls (at the very least on the fireplace focal wall).  The contrast will really make the molding pop in the room.  When you have cream walls and white molding,  all the beautiful molding is hard to see.  I also noticed that there is a door propped open behind the end table.  If this is a permanent position for the door, I would go ahead and take it off the hinges and out of the room.  This will give you the illusion of a little more space.  I actually love the ottoman so please keep that in your design.  You will appreciate it when the baby begins to start walking around.  Placing a tray on top of the ottoman will allow you to place drinks etc. down easily.  Now for the design.  Since it is a small room and there are many doorways I chose to keep the furniture placement the same.  Here is a breakdown of this concept board.

1st pillow in top, left corner etsy.com(seller: pillowmio $20), bird pillow etsy.com (seller: joom $28), new sconces from wallsconceuniverse.com (Murray Feiss Casual Luxury Wall Sconce $139), matte black finish round mirror for above fireplace from lampsplus.com ($99), Canyon Twill Sleeper Sofa from amazon.com ($719.99), gray pillows from etsy.com (mariescosycushions $20 for 2), Leick Favorite Finds Round Fluted End Tables from accent-furniture-direct.com ($99), Spindle Gloss Black lamp and floor lamp from lampsplus.com($79.99 & $199.99), Jill Rosenwald Fallon Yellow Rug from csnstores.com ($295 for 5X8), Polly Upholstered Chair in Dove from Target.com ($299), Benjamin Moore paint match to Sears Ash Grove.  To bring in more light I would remove the current window shutters and replace them with the roman shades shown in the next concept board.


Since the rooms are connected, the color scheme should tie into the dining room.  Jennifer wanted to keep her pine dining table and buffet, so I brought in soft parson chairs to bring the gray in this room.  Here is the concept board for the dining room.





I think replacing the chairs and adding a new wall color to the upper walls will give this room a whole new look.  There is a mix of styles which keeps it interesting and far from boring.  Here is the breakdown…

Cream Jute Roman Shades from overstock.com ($mid 30-s depending on size).  Bringing in a more stream-lined look is this updated pendant chandelier from wallsconceuniverse.com (Murray Feiss Casual Luxury Pendant $139.02–matches the wall sconces in living room).  For the wall facing the living room this mirror set will help reflect some more light into the room (potterybarn.com $129).  Removing the bulky chairs and replacing them with these elegant Ice Linen Parson Chairs from homedecorators.com ($159) will be a great contrast to the pine table.  I also selected a beautiful black table runner with an embroidered leaf design from etsy.com(seller: kainkain $24) and a large glass hurricane from westelm.com ($39) helps dress up the table.  The last piece is the storage bench from homedecorators.com (Bosworth $249)  for the wall under the windows.  I wanted to select something that can be tucked away and not block the windows and that could provide extra storage.  It is in the same color family as the buffet, so it helps tie things together. 

Well there you have it Jennifer.  I hope that cheered you up a bit!  Have fun with your project and enjoy your time with the new baby!