Organic Glam Dining Room 2D & 3D Design
If you spend any substantial amount of time around me, you're bound to hear me say at least twice, "Everything happens for a reason!" I say this often and I believe it wholeheartedly, and this project is a clear example of that.
Working on this dining room, from beginning to end, definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone & challenged me because I hadn't necessarily encountered a client with this aesthetic before... much less 2.
What was a design that I'd originally intended to submit for a 3rd party project bid -- but didn't -- turned out being the exact inspiration someone else needed, helping them arrive at their exact style & aesthetic.
“I tried to do our dining room myself and realized everything I had in my Pinterest board, I hated in person.”
I wish I could say this was the first time I'd heard of something like this happening but all too often people find themselves pulling together a design based on their Pinterest boards only to have it come to life and, hundreds of dollars later, hate it. What we may love on the internet isn't necessarily what we want to see every day in our homes, especially when we're not actually seeing a pulled together design.
She knew she wanted an "elegant, glamorous, bold, dramatic" design for her formal dining room; however, after painting and receiving a few pieces, she realized maybe that wasn't what she actually wanted. What she thought was dramatic, was actually too dark. What she thought was bold, was too bright. And what she thought what elegant & glamor was too overpowering.
After sifting through her Pinterest boards, she came across a mood board I'd posted on my Instagram and knew this was her style. She reached out to me, and after a few DM exchanges, we were getting to work on her dining room! Thanks hashtags! We put together her design brief, assessed her needs, and after a few tweaks, we ended up with a glamorous design that featured lots of organic & textural elements.
Transition From Original Organic Glam Dining Room Concept Board to Revised Board by Albie Knows
One of her big concerns was the room's wainscoting -- she wanted it gone! Because she had no plans of doing any "work" to the wall, she thought painting the wall -- wainscoting and all -- one color would drown it into the background. WRONG! Instead, what it did was create a very muted backdrop, that was more of an eyesore than its previous condition.
A lot of times we don't have any control over architectural features. Whereas some people love these unique details, others could absolutely do without them; however, in an attempt to hide them, they draw even more attention to them. Painting isn't a solution for quieting these details; instead, you work around them and let other elements of the design to balance them out. In this case, I wanted to use two complimentary colors from our design palette, with the wall color being the primary, more dominant color, and the wainscoting in a more neutral tone that would allow it to naturally fall into the background. I sent her a few swatch pairs to see in person and also test out on her walls, and we decided on a great combination that would carry the entire design.
Believe it or not, the hard part was over! With such a gorgeous palette and backdrop, sourcing pieces was a breeze. I also do my absolute best to never source from more than 5 vendors so that shopping around & coordinating deliveries can be easier. Because she already had some preferred vendors in mind that aligned beautifully with my preferences, we were able to quickly pull together a shopping list.
Final Design Walk Through by Albie Knows
I think the best part of working on this design -- aside from how the universe still allowed me to bring it to life -- is that I got to meet someone who still believes in having a work life balance, just like I still believe. it's easy to be jaded and just resolve to have way more on our plate than we can handle, but I'm still [cautiously] optimistic that there are little things that we can do & intentional tweaks we can make in our lives to get us closer & closer to achieving our version of a work-life balance. Deciding that actually dining in the dining room is more important is one of those tweaks.
