If you’re new around here, thanks for stopping by and welcome! I am Lauren Caron, an interior designer and the founder of Studio Laloc, an interior design firm based in Seattle, Washington. On the side my husband and I are remodeling our home that I’ve given its own hashtag #ourseattlecraftsman. We’ve renovated our kitchen, scullery, and in the last One Room Challenge, we renovated our powder room. I’m excited to be participating as a guest again and hope you’ll follow along as we remodel the next space.

It’s that time again when we embark on a grueling 6 week overhaul of one room in our home! With a long to-do list, I have been debating on which room is the best one to remodel for this season’s One Room Challenge. I narrowed down my list to 3 rooms: the laundry room, my dressing room (closet) and the dining room. In the end we decided on the dining room and we are so excited to make our main floor feel that much more finished!

Let’s talk about the current situation of the room and discuss the plan for how we’re going to take this room from okay, to amazing. I’m pretty excited because this time, it’s not really a ton of build out or construction. And you know who is really excited about that? My husband, because he only has one small project in this entire room this time, unlike in the powder room where he basically carried the entire project last time.

The dining room is located on the main floor, towards the center-back of the home. It’s just behind the living room and separated by bookshelves and plinths with a nicely framed out doorway. It’s the closest to open concept that you can get for a 1916 build home. I love the way that the dining room is framed. You can see it from the street, through the large picture window, beyond the living room. The far wall of the dining room showcases a mirrored built in china cabinet/hutch. It almost feels as though you’re looking through the home entirely. The walls feature tall, dark, fir wood paneling and moldings with two doorways that flank the hutch creating a nice level of formal symmetry. Although it’s south facing, it’s not the brightest room on the main floor. I think that partially has to do with the wood paneling and the fact that our neighbor’s house blocks much of the direct sunlight throughout the day.

Design Challenges

I decided early on that I would never paint the paneling and moulding. Although some days I would like to, I have to remind myself that I’m not painting them out of respect to the home, the wood paneling is a wonderful original feature. I knew that decision was going to make the design solution for this space come with a little more exploration. There are not many craftsman homes that I’ve come across with the original wood paneling, where I’ve felt drawn to the design. So this room really was going to have come completely from my head.

When we built out the scullery, we decided to close up the doorway to the left of the built-in hutch. The door is still intact, but it now leads to nowhere. Since we wanted to maintain the original architecture and symmetry in this room, we’ve decided it should stay. However, now we’re going to have to figure out a creative solution for utilizing this small space behind the door.

The last design challenge, is that there is a deep molding at the crown of the paneling that I believe was designed to hold plates. It has a narrow groove that runs entirely around the perimeter of the room. A feature that was probably pretty cool at the time, however it presents a challenge to hang artwork throughout the space. with the depth of this molding detail, nothing can be hung across it, only above or below.

Design Inspiration and Direction

Over time I’ve saved a few dining rooms for inspiration that I loved for various reasons. Not necessarily because they would work in our home, but that they had the feeling of formality with a certain level of comfort. A mix of energy and eras, and not too specific in style.

In the room above designed by Martha Mulholland for Jacey Duprie, features the same style of dark wood paneling as my dining room. the modern chandelier and woven chairs with the strait backs make the space feel contemporary. In the image below, designers David Nastasi and Kate Vail take the elements a little more traditional, as well as a bit more formal. The soft blue hue paired with the wallpaper moves your eyes around the space. I love the idea of pairing a modern table with contemporary interpretations of cane back chairs. The two styles in theory don’t really make sense together, but they pair well because of the curves.

The next two images could technically be a close combination of how my dining room will end up looking, the Hepplewhite style sideboard in the one photo paired with a cream and black toile, with black and cream checked accents, and a traditional persian rug. The room on the right is designed by Jane Moore and the source is unknown for the room on the left.

Design Board

The design direction in this room is to add layers, lots of layers but to keep it all pretty monochromatic. The dark wood is quite heavy and masculine, so adding light, feminine and soft elements will help to balance out the overall mood.

I decided early on that I’d want to wallpaper this room and more specifically, a floral pattern. For a while, I planned to paper it in a darker floral to accentuate the dark room, and to run with the masculinity. I pulled several House of Hackney patterns as well as a Farrow & Ball paper, however in the end I landed on another Gucci paper. I know what you’re thinking! I didn’t choose the Gucci paper because I love Gucci per say, but because I love the fact that it’s a cream ground with black, it’s a floral, and it’s a version of a toile. The texture is also quite wonderful, looking like a silk slubbed material, although it’s not silk.

The wallpaper will brighten the mood of the dark wood paneling and the floral pattern will soften all the masculine lines of the arts and crafts architecture. Bringing in another layer of floral pattern, I’m going to use my long time favorite pattern designed by Albert Hadley the Pyne Hollyhock print in the charcoal colorway. I know, this pattern at this point is a little basic, but it’s classic and I have loved it for quite a while. Did you know that the Pyne is for the name of his client for which he designed the print? Nancy Pyne.

I’m planning to keep the dining table that we currently have, it was a nice find when we first moved out here, and I think the oval shape is the way to go for this space. We need to bring in more curves and this table will definitely do the job. The vintage sideboard also adds curves to the room, as well as a touch of formality. Another item remaining is the light fixture. It’s contemporary in style and a bit unexpected, which is why I like it. The rug was a find on Chairish that I originally purchased for the living room, but I think (hope) it will work in here! I have some special plans for the chairs as well as the ceiling, which I’ll discuss in later posts.

THE FULL TO DO LIST

Finalize the ceiling color
Order paint
Order fabric for window treatments
Order fabric for doors
Order fabric for wall sconces
Order hardware for window treatments
Order hardware for doors
Order glass and mirror for inset cabinet
Order rug pad
Order chairs
Order fabric for chairs
Prep and paint ceiling
Wallpaper back interior of hutch
Wallpaper room
Upholster chairs
sew curtains for doors
Install hardware
Install window treatments
Oil and finish wood
Install furniture
Install accessories
Style room
Photograph room

The to do list doesn’t seem as long this time as the last ORC, however I am depending a lot on other makers and craftsman this time and I have to admit, it’s a bit stressful. I’m also doing this in real time, I have not started the process yet! The reality that we are dealing with lead times and in these COVID times, those lead times can take longer. Shipping lead times are longer, less people are employed and overall it just feels like the production process has slowed down a bit. Although I’d love to finish in time, I at the very least hope we’ll have a wonderful dining room to celebrate Thanksgiving in! Make sure to check out the other One Room Challenge participants by looking on the ORC website!