Decorating Dilemmas: Diana’s Entry and Dining Room

Decorating Dilemmas is a weekly column in which our stylists answer your design questions, so you can tackle your home decorating project with complete confidence.

Dear How to Decorate,

My front entry is part of my dining room, so I need the two spaces to complement each other. I want to keep my existing furniture and the large print, but otherwise, I’m open to ideas. If the new pieces could work with my existing curtains, rug, and table runner, that would be a plus, but I’d like to hear any thoughts.

I definitely need art by the chair and decorative items on the table in the entry. Help, I have no eye for design nor color matching. All of the pieces in this room as moved from another home.

Diana

Dear Diana,

Thank you for your Design Dilemma submission. We want to suggest a few small changes to help your entryway and dining area function for your everyday living and look fabulous at the same time.

To begin, we think it’s always important to have a proper sized “landing place” as you enter the home. We like your round table, but think it might be better put to use in the living room. Our narrow Martin 2-Door Console in Walnut Brown will give you an appropriately scaled spot to land keys as you walk in the door, but can also store things out of sight. We’d love to see a pair of our Maria Buffet Lamps topped with the Jute Twine Buffet Shades. They will add height to the table and will also be great soft lighting for the room. We think the antique brass finish will work well in your home.

Over the Martin Console we think one of our Gallery Wall Mirrors would ground the grouping we have planned for this space. We noticed that you have other prints with black framing and so we suggest repeating that finish on the Gallery Mirror you prefer. One idea we had was to incorporate our Nature’s Plum Art on either side of the mirror. They compliment the style and coloring that is already present in the room.

This next idea is more of a drastic change, but we hope you are up for it! While your present rug matches the chair in your entryway, we would love to see you try our Catherine Rug. It reminds us of your fabulous wall color, and we think it’s a softer look that still complement your chair. The wood tone of your dining room table, as well as the Martin, will blend nicely with the Catherine Rug. Another option would be to move the narrow bench pulled up to your dining table over to the half wall by your kitchen, then bring two new head chairs into your dining room to work with your existing four chairs. We think a strong pair of head chairs will help differentiate your dining room from the entry space. Maybe consider our Upholstered Camel Back Parsons Chair in Trilby Charcoal or Trilby Natural.

At the entrance to your home, the Fleur De Lis Door mat in gray, can be personalized to greet your guests. You also have room for the Vine Umbrella Stand. It’s the extra touches that you add to your home that really complete the design.

We hope we’ve given you some ideas to inspire a few simple changes. We think these pieces will add beauty and function to your entry/dining room, and make you want to gather around the table and stay a while.

Happy Decorating,

The Design Team

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