The Dining Room: Upping my game

We had our first dinner party a few days ago. Small but exceedingly lively. It lasted eight hours, which I suppose means it went well. It was all very casual because the dining room is far from done. In fact it’s laden with unopened and half-opened boxes. Not to mention the floors; in a nearly criminal move they’d covered the Point de Hongrie parquet with blue carpet. In any event our guests were kind enough to overlook the mess.

Not sure if you recall, but the concept was quite classic. Georgian influenced like the room below, but with Gustavian chairs instead (also painted.)

As I was sitting there for the first time the other day, I felt the room is going to need a whole lot more than just contrasting table and chairs. Before I forget, here’s the parquet:

The table takes six without extensions and eight with extensions. Or 12 with extensions and party chairs (instead of the Swedish chairs). Anyway, as I sat at the table, I thought the room was just bland. Even once the floors are restored and the paintings and mirrors are up it’ll still look bland. Unlike the other reception rooms there’s no panelling, no wallpaper, nothing. Here it is in all its blandness:

To make the room rise to the level of the rest of the house, I’m going to have to come up with something clever. I’ve been pouring over books and google images. At the moment I’m thinking we must find a monumental chandelier to go over the table. Something dominating, around a metre wide. In the end the dining room is the room where guests spend the most time. The ones I’ve enjoyed sitting in the most were those of the dramatic variety. Jewel colours, heavy fabrics, womb-like. Hopefully inspiration will come soon.

In related news, the dressing room has been repainted: