Continuing with an Open Floor Plan

Hey everybody!

I hope you saw the post yesterday about Samantha’s living room design ideas.  If you didn’t, go back and check it out before this one.

Brace yourself for another long post…

Samantha’s house is an open floor plan, so I’m trying to give her some ideas for these adjoining rooms that flows, but doesn’t feel like the exact same thing.

My inspiration for the living room advice was this floral fabric:

Samantha said she loves yellow and turquoise and her style is traditional.  This fabric is perfect for that.

So I wanted to pull out this yellow and blue, plus neutrals (white, gray, linen) into the rest of the space in small ways to make it flow.

Today, I wanted to talk about Samantha’s little dining/breakfast area.  Here’s what she’s working with:

Here’s the other side:

I have a couple of ideas for this space to carry through what we’re doing in the living room.

One possibility is painting the brick – again, you can pick and choose from these.  But painting the brick would really smooth it out and make it a focal point to design on that wall.  I think it works as it is too, though – I do love old brick.

Remember we painted our fireplace white?

For us, the white paint made this fireplace a focal point in the room.

Going beyond the fireplace, you want to give this a consistent palette that flows from the living room.  I know Samantha mentioned light gray paint for the rest of these areas and I think that is a great idea!  It will feel different than the darker gray in the living room, but the gray and white bones throughout these areas, even if they’re different shades, will flow well.

Table and Chairs:

Beyond that, my first thought was the table and chairs.  I love mis-matched sets that immediately say character.

I love how these white chairs contrast with the dark wood table.  I think this could work great in this room.  You could get some slipcovered chairs like these:

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But a cost effective option could be just painting the chairs a lighter color to add contrast.  I love wood tables with white chairs.

Rug:

Next, is the rug.  I think a natural jute rug would go really well here.  With so much pattern in the living room and some pattern I’m going to add in here with fabrics, I think this will warm things up without competing.

You can find these really anywhere.  Ours came from IKEA:

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Light Fixture:

Nothing says wow like a cool light fixture.  I think you could go a lot of ways with this light fixture that hangs down over the table, but here are my two favorite options.

You could find a chandelier and paint it a cool color.  Remember our dining room chandelier re-do post?

We found an old brass chandelier for $15 bucks at a thrift store and spray painted it taupe.  With what I’m suggesting in this room, the table, rug, curtains, etc. will already be pretty neutral.  I would make the light pop.  Maybe a cool, but subtle blue or green?  Something that picks up on the teal from the floral living room curtains.

There’s many options with blue/green spray paint, but this one would look great:

This is called Catalina Mist from Krylon Spray Paints.  Not too bright, but definitely a cool touch.

If you didn’t do a chandelier and wanted something a bit more casual, I love the idea of a lantern:

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I do think this second option would be harder to find as cheap, but I have seen them at Overstock, etc. 

Curtains:

Now for curtains.  I think this beautiful bay window would really be set off with some neutral curtains.  I really love the Lenda linen ones I posted yesterday.

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Since you can see this room from the living room, I think I would use floral or patterned curtains in one room for a punch and some neutral linen in the other.

Reading Nook

On the wall where the desk is currently, Samantha mentioned wanting a reading nook.  I think this is a wonderful idea.

Can you picture it?

I think you could find a comfy chair or two in a neutral and use printed pillows, or you could really go all out and use a printed chair.  Chairs can be expensive, so Samantha, if you’re a thrifter, I bet you could find something cool at a thrift store, if you search.  It may lean towards the neutral side, but you could use some of these fabrics I’ve picked to spice it up.

Here are the fabrics I’ve chosen for this room to coordinate with the living room:

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These would be awesome as throw pillows for the reading nook or in a dining chair and a table runner.  Every table needs a pretty runner!

In the reading nook, I would also throw in a subtle blue throw. 

{source – Target has a good one also, but not online}

Every reading nook needs a throw to cozy up with a good book, but this is also subtley tying to the living room blue palette.

Last piece of advice for this room, I promise…I know this has been long, but thanks for hanging in there with me…

Art Wall

I would do an awesome gallery wall over this reading nook.  You could do some special family photos, a big family initial, and/or some paintings.

Here are some of my favorite mix and match gallery walls:

Not sure of source – from Pinterest.

{Milk and Honey Home}

Well, that sums it up for today.

I’ll have a few remaining ideas for her kitchen and foyer tomorrow and then we will officially be closing up the Samantha re-design project.  I can’t wait to hear what she thinks!

 

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3 Comments

I am so impressed so far!! I have a million ideas running through my head!! I LOVE the throw pillow fabric for the couch and the rugs! I can’t wait to see the last post to put it all together in my head!!!!

Samantha – I am soooo glad! I was really hoping you would be. And as I said, you (or anyone else who likes the ideas) can pick and choose what works for you and what doesn’t. Just ideas to get the creativity flowing!