Inspiration- Neutral dining room

Today's design board is a nod to the neutral color palette lovers. Neutrals are a great way to play with pattern and built a hierarchy with scale and theme. Hierarchy, you say? Yes! Just like a diagrammed sentence, Manslow's hierarchy of need, or a Venn diagram, there is a visual hierarchy in place in all rooms. Building this hierarchy with patterns, colors, size, scale, texture, or a mix is what makes a room great. When you eliminate some of these options, like color, or pattern, it is easier to see the built environment's hierarchy.

For this space, I added one color that is different from the rest- a green buffet. It is the top of the hierarchy, because you see it first. It is the lead singer in the band. The next is the arabesque wall paper, it is the most graphic (greatest contrast in tones close together) pattern and it is the tallest and biggest item in the room. The hutch is the tallest furniture in the room and breaks up the wallpaper, which would be overwhelming with out the visual breaks of the hutch and the art. The art provides a place for your eye to rest from all the pattern. It ranks third. Lastly, are the table and chairs, they are why you are in the room. You are naturally going to gravitate to them and you will physically interact with them, so there is less reason, design-wise, to make them the star.

Laurl Designs boards can be found here.

Another hierarchy to think about is the senses. You see the space first, let your first sense get the top billing for all the reasons listed above. Then, you hear the space. Is it loud or quiet? Carpets on the floor, drapes and other textures change the noise level in a room. Fine dining has carpets, texture wallpaper, tablecloths and sometimes draped interior spaces. They are very quiet. In fast food places, there are no soft fabrics... I'm not counting the dust mats at the doors. You want your space to sound like fine dining, not McDonald's or like McDonald's, you will be leaving the space quickly. Last sense in a space is touch. The things that you would touch in a space, the chairs, table, possibly the buffet, should have textures that are interesting to feel. In this space the chairs are cane and linen, the table is zinc topped, and the buffet is painting wood. These are all interesting textures to feel and contrast with each other.

Then there are the smallest of details, the brass tray that moves the light around the room, the pretty buffet lamps that add a warm glow and the antler chandelier which add an unexpected element in the space.

If you are interested in any of the items on the board, you can find there here!