Dining Dreams

I believe in living bigger, bolder, and having your home be a true extension of your personality. As such, when I'm asked to work on more than one room, I put extra effort into making the flow of these spaces known. When a living room and adjacent dining room just jive, it's really good vibes only. There's a way to go about this without particularly seeing double, or getting too matchy matchy. That's why, when my clients from last week's living room reveal asked me to go on with my bad self and also design their dining area, I set out to create a space that seamlessly worked from living to dining, and back again. Often times we use both of these rooms to invite, comfort, and entertain our loved ones. Thus, you know it's gotta be epic.

So for this space, we chose what might be my favorite wallpaper in the whole entire wide world to add interest to the back wall. With this being an open space to the living room, there was only one wall that it made sense to paper, but I love how it draws your eye to the back of the space and creates layers. 

We let the rug and wall color mimic each other and by doing that, they act as neutrals that we built on with vibrant primaries. The client's already had the furniture pieces in the space and we just strategically updated them. The corner cabinet was painted to pull a color in from the living room and we put Schumacher fabric on the chairs that also brings in color represented on the big, beautiful, pattern-positive sofa.

We paired the traditional furniture with this modern pendant from Anthro and brought in a mixture of vintage and modern accessories to pull the two styles together. With the open plan, some extra space serves as a little reading nook with a comfy chair that can be pulled into the living room for extra seating when needed. 

There's a space that comes up every now and then, that you just really wish you could keep for yourself and this living/dining combo is def one of them. I mean, that wallpaper is everything my dreams are made of. 

Happy Sunday, friends! 

XO, Amanda Louise  

Photos: Luke Cleland

 

Color Cultured Living Room

If I don't say this often enough, I absolutely love re-designing living rooms. It's where we spend the majority of our time, that re-charging center of our home. Where we go to relax, but also where we find ourselves gathering with friends. Hosting a happy hour or watching the National Champ (cue cadence count). It's like the heart of your home, and when I'm invited to take part in its transformation, I get all sorts of color-coma giddy. 

This living room truly takes on the personality of it's owners. These lovers of color and pattern were on board with our plans for all the hues from day one. The lovely peeps that reside here are full of both warmth and creativity. When you're in the room with them, you get all the good vibes. So obviously, their living room should feel the same way. An uber talented artist and graphic designer, a rad real estate agent who sees too much gray in the world, their cool and crafty, gymnastics-loving daughter, and Willis, the chillest cat in all the land, abide here. We wanted them to have a space as baller as they all are. 

We started with a few key pieces and built the rest of the room around them: the big blue beauty, the rug in my favorite shade, and those green goddesses of chairs. On top of these key pieces we layered pillow on pillow on pillow on pillow. We used an acrylic table to keep the center of the room visually open. An old door with hairpin legs acts as a perch for lamps to flank the television and a trunk serves as beautiful storage. 

The back wall of the room, has to be my favorite part of the whole darn space. It was the best feeling, when on a snow day not too long ago, I heard the fam spent the entire day by the window with a cheese tray and a stack of books. My dream life, basically. We had the custom window seat built by John Fulton and his uber talented team at Summit Design Woodwork. It truly is the best perch. 

The client's have a great art collection of pieces that they created and gathered.  That's Gary there on the wall. He was the homeowner's friend in college and when going through a nutso stack of paintings and prints by the homeowner, I thought Gary and his stack of books needed a prominent place on the wall nodding back to the days of art school.

Huge moments of high/low here. We spent where it counted, like with the Schumacher Chiang Mai used on big cushy pillows... because it compares to no other. We went all out on the staple pieces of the room but brought in so many crazy deals, like the green velvet pillows in the reading nook that were literally $5.99 from World Market, vintage accessories sourced locally from some of my favorite Greenville spots: Rock House Antiques and Cottage Grove Vintage. 

So this space is a personal fave. It's extra rewarding when you just jive with clients, enjoy the same pallets and patterns, and they are down to let you do your thing. We set up some Pinterest action so you can get the look here. Peace, friends. 

Photos: Luke Cleland