Hi Beth0301.

It's too bad your fireplace had to go to make room for the benches, but it's still a really handsome room. I'd go with the half-curtains of lace. Now, I'm not a big fan of lace, but you already have a hunch about why they'd be more appropriate here than the trendy crushed voile would be.

Normally, I'm not a fan of table runners, either, but this is one case where I might add one--narrow, and not too lacy--to lighten up the very heavy, masculine vibe of the ensemble. Traditionally, dining rooms were considered 'masculine' spaces & living rooms were 'feminine' but hey, this is the 21st century, and mixing things up a little bit isn't going to kill anybody.

And sure, the seating at your table may be a bit crowded at times, but that can have ts own appeal--think The Waltons, here--and overall, you've got a very welcoming vibe going on. Congratulations on that, too, because creating that feeling of welcome is a lot harder than merely matching colors or arranging accessories. That's why so many people's dining rooms sit there unused: not because they're not 'pretty' in a predictable sort of way, but because they're not appealing. If they were, people would want to eat in them: trying to keep people out of friendly room is like trying to keep a cat off a sunny chair. So when a room sits there unused, there's probably a good reason. Yours looks like one I'd want to visit.

Yes, I know, I've never been a lace person myself but it just seems like the thing to do. I drove around the square a little bit ago and found 3 shops using half lace (the bottom half of the window) and 2 using lace full length. Only one had panels, the rest were bare windows or shutters.

This is where I get in trouble - there are so many things I like that don't really go well together I tend to end up with a mismatch. Just today, for example, I found a painting that I absolutely adore. It's very "Americana" but I'm almost certain it's too "country/primitive" for the rest of the house. Country/Prim is definitely one style I do NOT like. Not in the least. Yet, for me, it's the easiest one to accidentally incorporate. I don't even realize it, then I look up and go whoa, how did THAT look get here?

{{gwi:1805900}}

It's large, it's high end and I really like it but I know if I brought that in to the room I would totally change the mood to something I don't want.

I have good news, Beth0301. While a whole room furnished in primitive/country things may not be at all to your liking, there's no reason you need to exclude everything in that style, especially if you like it. Too much of anything is never good, and moderation, in decorating, as in most things, is the key, but there's always room for Jello.

Here in Chicago, there's a very elegant living room furnished in country French-style (and here, I mean the real thing: 18th century carved wood paneling, comfortable honey-colored Louis XV-style chairs upholstered in cotton velvet in dusty plums & aquas & mustards, footstools covered in faded ancient tapestry--not a bunch of curly iron doodads on the walls & roosters on all the cushions) and the first thing you see when you walk in is a giant 19th Century American whirlygig that probably started out on top of a barn. It works.

In the banana yellow salon of a famous Chicago heiress, there was a gigantic jungle painting by Henri Rousseau hanging abouve a curvy 1770s Hepplewhite settee. The painting was worth millions of dollars, yes, but it was a primitve jungle scene nonetheless, at a time when all her moneyed friends were still going for sugary paintings of the Coy Shepherdess type. Again, the collision of Modernist art & traditional antiques worked.

At my own place, on a pale Directoire demilune table I have a gold-plated French candleabra lamp & a 1950s kids' crafts project: a robot made from scrap wood, bottle caps & an emerald green anodized aluminum popcorn bowl. It looks great.

In my old apartment I had a Chippendale-style table with a rotten, termite-eaten tree stump sitting on top. That little combination ended up in a magzine.

Here's the thing: as long as something in a piece--color, shape, material, period, whatever--relates to the pieces around it, specifics of origin, "style" or expense are irrelevant. In the first example, the whirlygig's stiff lines & cracked weathered surfaces have nothing in common with the relaxed refinement of the other pieces in the Lake Shore Drive living room, but its soft, faded coloring makes the visual connection, and it looks great.

In the yellow living room, too, it was the vibrant yellows & oranges of the painting that determined the colors in the room's furnishings, and made everything come together.

In my current living room, the robot's specific colors harmonize with those in the room. but their brightness intensifies the contrast, while the curves of the robot's arms echoed the curving arms of the elegant candlestick lamp next to it.

In my old aprtment, the roiling, twisting curves of the tree stump rhymed with the curves of my mahogany table's cabriole legs, while the color of the wood matched the chairs nearby.

All those different approaches can work, & once you try them, you'll find that, rather than looking 'out-of-place', the one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-others quality of an unusual piece is often what will lift a room out of dull predictability into something much more interesting & non-cataloggy.

I already quoted Dorothy Draper on another thread today, but for those who missed her words of wisdom the first time around, here they are again. "If it looks right, it is right."

Regards,
Magnaverde.

Ah yes, but there is an art and a talent in placing out of genre elements within a space and having it look right instead of thrown together.

My problem is I like too many things and too many styles. I wish I could have 5 separate homes. :-)

I did take everything out of my china cabinet today and par down what was on the open shelving. I reserved the bottom for liquor decanters (crystal) and took about about 1/3 of the dishes I had on the other shelves. I also added a neat old birdcage I found a long time ago at a flea market. It has a very turn of the century feel but isn't gaudy/ornate. I'm quite excited to go look for wallpaper (or fabric) to line the inside of the cabinet with. I think it will really make the white china pop.

Still stumped on the curtain issue. I agree lace is the obvious choice but most of what I'm finding in my price range looks cheap. I dislike cheap lace, it's tacky. I'm sure if I'm patient someone will discard their mom or grandmas heirloom lace curtains as "outdated".

On a positive note, my MIL brought me a surprise .... all four American Homestead prints, still in the original purchase sleeves. She purchased them 40 or so years ago and put them away in the file cabinet and forgot about them. I just need to mat and frame them and I think they'll look great in the dining room. The colors are good, the era is right and how can you possibly go wrong with Currier and Ives in an 1888 house?

Ah yes, but there is an art and a talent in placing out of genre elements within a space and having it look right instead of thrown together.

My problem is I like too many things and too many styles. I wish I could have 5 separate homes. :-)

I did take everything out of my china cabinet today and par down what was on the open shelving. I reserved the bottom for liquor decanters (crystal) and took about about 1/3 of the dishes I had on the other shelves. I also added a neat old birdcage I found a long time ago at a flea market. It has a very turn of the century feel but isn't gaudy/ornate. I'm quite excited to go look for wallpaper (or fabric) to line the inside of the cabinet with. I think it will really make the white china pop.

Still stumped on the curtain issue. I agree lace is the obvious choice but most of what I'm finding in my price range looks cheap. I dislike cheap lace, it's tacky. I'm sure if I'm patient someone will discard their mom or grandmas heirloom lace curtains as "outdated".

On a positive note, my MIL brought me a surprise .... all four American Homestead prints, still in the original purchase sleeves. She purchased them 40 or so years ago and put them away in the file cabinet and forgot about them. I just need to mat and frame them and I think they'll look great in the dining room. The colors are good, the era is right and how can you possibly go wrong with Currier and Ives in an 1888 house?