I just finished rug selection with clients. After they made the decision, my client suggested I write about her story for my blog. So here it is.
A few years back we did her living room.
We are now re-doing the dining room as part of an addition. They are adding a kitchen, family room, mudroom, guest suite, powder room, and master suite. She wants a lighter, more transitional look for dining room as well as for the new part of the house, but we still needed it to flow with the existing formal, living room.
My suggestion? Change the proportions of color around. Swap the accent and dominant colors. The blue and green in the rug and fire place become the dominant colors in the other rooms. Keep the taupe and gold tones, as desired.
Put in a bit of touch of rust, but a softer hue, perhaps a persimmon pillow somewhere. For consistency, keep the dark wood tones, but straighten the lines to get the transitional look she is after.
At the rug showroom my client said, "You pick the 2 rugs you like best to bring back.
I said, "If we take 2, we might as well take 4. You never know how they are going to look." We agreed on 2, she liked a third, and I picked a fourth, a rug she wasn't crazy about, but I wanted to take one that was a little different and I had a feeling about it.
Here are the rugs we took in order of our preference:
Once we were in her home, the clear winner was the lightest one, her least favorite in the showroom. It never ceases to amaze me that you just can't tell.
From the front door, the colors in this rug are perfect with the stair runner and the existing living room rug. It will transition nicely to the taupe cabinets in the butler's pantry. The scale of the patterns are right for the room. There's just enough contrast with the center field and the border. I could go on and on. It is so pretty and just right. My client liked it a lot but since it wasn't what she had had in mind, needed time. No problem. It's a big decision.
When her husband got home, he LOVED it. (Sold!)
Now on to furnishings!