“The dining room is a bit of an odd space and very visible in our house, which was both fun and daunting when we decided to redesign it,” recalls homeowner Carolyn Wethington.
Wethington’s quasi-hexagonal dining room sits in the middle of an open floor plan, with two columns and three wall openings staggered on one side.
The Arlington resident, along with her husband, Bryan, and two daughters, enlisted trusted friend, neighbor, and designer Erin Tripodi to help reimagine the space with fresh design and added storage.
“It has an interesting layout, so having the space feel cohesive was important,” Tripodi says.
The first step toward achieving the desired outcome was to install a custom-cut wool area rug in soft antelope print. The next was paint.
“The room was originally painted in Benjamin Moore’s Blue Spruce, with white moldings and a white ceiling,” says Tripodi, noting the preexisting color the homeowners loved. “We decided to flip the paint color to the trim, paneling, and ceiling, creating an option for using wallpaper.”
As a tribute to Bryan’s mother, an artist with a penchant for Asian art, the family selected a beautiful chinoiserie wallpaper from Thibaut featuring soft ivories, powder blues, and silvery sages.
“The dining room’s palette also ties in to the rest of the home, which has a preppy coastal feel with lots of blues and natural elements,” adds Tripodi. “But [this] is more saturated and moodier.”
To address the additional storage requests, Tripodi designed a custom wood-top cabinet to conceal a wine and beverage fridge.
“We painted its doors in the same color and finish as [the] dining room’s woodwork so it melts into the paneling,” Tripodi says. “We also selected a blue sideboard, with rattan doors, to hold dishware, while further complementing the room’s palette and design.”
Other pieces that have been added include an oval table with a pedestal base, which allows those seated in the upholstered chairs plenty of legroom, and a sculptural glass-and-brass chandelier that doesn’t compete with the wallpaper.
“The dining room should be the room where you have dinner parties and stay up too late with friends,” Tripodi says. “The color palette and elegant furnishings now reflect that and create that mood.”
Echoing that sentiment, Wethington now calls the room “the place where we are proud to host family and friends.”
Feature image by Robert Radifera for Stylish Productions
This story originally ran in our November issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to our monthly magazine.
