Design Plan: Case Study
A family in Hampshire contacted me online looking for help transforming their front reception room from a little-used home office into a glamorous ‘but not too sparkly’ dining room.
At the heart of their planned redesign was a recently-inherited 250-year-old Georgian dining table.
The room, in a 17th Century townhouse, already boasted an abundance of period features including panelling, fireplace, and low ceiling with timber beams, providing a lovely backdrop for the mahogany table, yet calling for some modern updates to avoid the overall look feeling too formal or dated.
I proposed a statement floor-to-ceiling wall mural to create a focal point in the room, introducing contemporary pops of colour yet in an elegant painterly-style design.
The clients loved this idea, so with the key component of the design agreed, I built their bespoke design plan around this mural.
I recommended using a soft off-black on two of the remaining three walls to reflect the backdrop of the mural & the blackened timber beams above.
This also brought additional ‘evening glamour’ to the space, which was a key requirement of the brief.
A contrasting milky white paint was suggested for the remaining wall & across the ceiling introducing a modern, monochrome update to the space while also helping to bounce light around the room.
The traditional chandelier, wall lights, velvet dining chairs, bar cart and a bespoke sideboard were recommendations within the plan, together with the rustic sisal rug to ‘ground’ the more polished notes in the room and bring a relaxed informality which was also on the client’s wish-list.
All elements of the scheme were included in the plan, from fireplace repairs to final styling accessories - which the clients were in the process of sourcing when I revisited a few months later to consult on another room.
We had our first dinner party on Saturday and everyone adores the room. The number of compliments we’ve had from people popping in over the past two months has been wonderful. Even my painter complimented me on the paint, the colour and the mural which he never ever does!
We are thrilled with the room, there’s no way on earth we would have been creative, or brave enough, to have made a room like this so thank you!
- Camilla B. Wickham