design gig: dining room in the mission

 
I’m very excited to share another peek at my client project with you! We’ve just finished the dining room of their lovely 1920s home, located in the Mission district of San Francisco.

This dining room had some great pieces to start with, but needed some polish.  I’ve omitted the before shot this time, but the Eames chairs, the art, the rug, and the amazing raw wood table are all theirs. These folks have a great sense of style, which is one of the many reasons I love working with them. And getting to explore their gorgeous neighbourhood is definitely a bonus.

When we started this part of the project, they had some pretty specific requirements for me to go after, which included finding the perfect antique mirror for the space. I’m thrilled with the mirror: it’s authentic (circa 1900), totally them, and a real conversation piece to boot.

Glorious, isn’t it?  This mirror may be my favourite purchase for this project so far. I love how it works with the modern table and chairs.

On the same wall as the mirror, a hefty black bar cabinet was replaced by this very sweet bar cart. The mirrored shelves and delicate lines give this cart a refined look. We originally missed out on this same cart in a true gold finish, but I feel like the subdued brass keeps things from looking too over-the-top. (And stay tuned – I’ll be sharing all of my other bar cart picks in an upcoming post, for they are plentiful.  My secret pinboards are brimming with them.)

A new buffet is now below the large abstract art piece, styled up with a mirrored tray which echoes the bar cart’s shelves. Repetition is a great tool for unifying your space.  As is restricting your colour palette (one of my great learnings from AB Chao).   I tried to be very intentional about these elements in this space, while incorporating my clients’ pieces, like the bright orange pitcher on the bar cart, and still having a bit of fun.

To style the buffet, I ended up using just one lamp instead of a pair.  I am pretty sure this is breaking some sort of sacred design rule.  But what fun are rules if you can’t bend them a bit?  The lamp is balanced by the owl sculpture, so it works quite well to my eye.  The mirrored tray keeps things corralled and organized. Trays are a great styling tool if you have a collection of objects to display.

And there are those blue midcentury tumblers again. Repetition, yo. It works.

And that’s all for now.  We still have a few more rooms to tackle in this project, which I’m looking forward to.  I hope you’re enjoying this as much as I am, because there’s more to come!

All photos by Karolina Buchner