{Decorating Dilemma} Katie

Katie’s ready to tackle her dining area so she asked if I could help. Here’s what she wrote:

Hi Wendy! I recently found your blog and I love your style! I am looking for a little help.....not quite a full design board, but help finding the perfect dining table and chairs. We have a open great room and just one eating area, so it has to work for casual family dinners and having people over. I am looking for something rectangle, about 72ish inches long, good quality (2 young kids), or already distressed. I go back and forth on color, I was thinking espresso, but I like some of these newer whitewashed looking tones or grey tones. 2 tables that I keep going back to are a modern country table that has a X base on the bottom, and a Vivaterra X base table in a grey (can't seem to find a Canadian substitute). For chairs...I was planning on doing a brown leather parsons chair, but if I do a brown table it just seems too boring. I would love a little more contrast from the table. We would love some sort of upholstered chairs.....but they need to be able to be wiped off. Last time I visited a furniture store about the modern country table she said that it was possible to do it in a distressed cream.....so that's a possibility too. So....given all that info....what do you think? Could you come up with something? Thanks so much! Katie

Here are the simplified design boards I provided...


Option 1

This board is meant to represent a modern farmhouse look. The table in the middle is meant to showcase the natural wood while the table in the upper right corner is 'the' table to consider because it extends to accommodate 10 people. The chair in the lower right hand corner represents a stackable chair option for get-together. 

Option 2

Here's an example of an 'X' table. A designer friend of mine had it custom made for a client of hers. Two chair options work well here, either faux leather chairs or sisal chairs depending on the how casual or formal she wants the overall look.

  

Option 3 

#3 is the charm! This is the board Katie likes the best. This option offers a more formal look for the space. The nail head faux leather cream chairs paired with the double pedestal table will definitely be attractive. The table extends to 104" so it would certainly fit 10 people comfortably. *Given this dining area is part of a greatroom, an area rug will help define the space. I've chosen neutral colours not to complete with the existing familyroom area rug.

If you would like to love walking through your front door, it would be my pleasure to help, contact me for my decorating services.