Specific Requirements: Antique Dining Room Furniture

Antique dining room furnishings can be rather large.  Fitting these old behemoths into a decent sized dining space is challenging to say the least.  How on earth does one bring them and the dining room into this century?  A current project attempts a path.




While admiring the skills of the early 1900's American furniture designer, John D. Raab, I'm swearing at clearances needed for chairs and serving and drawing a blank on an updated inspiration.
Think buffet, server, 10 chairs and an expanding 60 inch round table that will be used with various numbers of leaves in place.  The china cabinet got lost somewhere in history.  The furniture is in need of repair and finish restoration.

It is hard to know where to begin with a project like this.  
But, you can always start by sorting out the specific requirements.

Requirement 1, fixing and fitting it all in:  I documented dimensions of furnishings and the room itself.  I noted outlets, lighting, windows, heat vents, traffic flow into and out of the room and how the traffic circulated on the rest of this floor.  I carefully checked for needed repairs and the condition of the original finish.



Requirement 2, how the space is to be used:  I made sure I knew how the space was to be used and how often.  Then, I checked to see what was needed to use the space the way it is intended.

Requirement 3, bringing the room into this century:  Not only does the space need to be updated somehow, it needs to fit the client's definition of updated and current.  The rest of the house has a mix of antiques, contemporary art, and an assortment of clean lined styles.

Requirement 4, understanding the need and wish of specific feel or character for the space:  Obviously the old furniture is important.  Other accessories and objects in the house were collected on travels and from places of residence.  The table service is a family heirloom and there is a wish for younger members to enjoy and learn to appreciate it.  A space where all family and friends will feel special and possibly connect to the space in a personal way is desired.

Requirement 5, colors and textures or other elements of design important to the space:  The rug stays and other colors found in the house flow and cross over from room to room.  New window treatments and chair seat cushions are needed.  Some kind of wall treatments or art with a personal connection to the family is wanted.  A desired mix of old and new is apparent.

The requirements come together in a plan for the space:

Requirements 1 and 2:  There is to be large and small entertaining in the space, both sit down and buffet, sometimes all in the dining room, sometimes the family and guests will be free to roam.  The space will only be used for dining and entertaining with food.

There is one full wall and one partial wall (walls without windows and doors) to work with and the window view is important.  Darn if there isn't a central vacuum connection in the middle of the partial wall.  One wall has the double door entry and opposite this was a wide bay window.  The partial wall space was at the window end of the room with the door to the kitchen on the other end of this wall.

Specific Requirements Often Dictate Floor Plans

Getting to the buffet from the kitchen while guest are seated is a requirement. Using the buffet for buffet style entertaining where guest come and go from other rooms is also important.  Ah ha!  Put the buffet where it is the easiest to get to from the kitchen AND the main dining room entry.

The dining table is five feet across, no matter which way you turn it.   The table should be situated where guests can easily move their chairs back and go to the buffet or server.  We also need room to walk around the table while guests are seated.  The table will seat 8 without any leaves and will be used for more than 8 once or twice a year.  That darn central vacuum connection!  Can we move that center chandelier!  And darn it,  a china cabinet would be useful, but where would it go?

The server is not so large and is open at the bottom making it feel lighter.   This is a good thing as there is only one place for it if a china cabinet enters the space, the bay window.  Both the buffet and server housed on the same wall would be too heavy feeling on one side of the room.

Even with the server in the window, the round table can be placed back further into the room, leaving the forward space for serving and gathering areas.  The chandelier can be moved further back into the room to hang over the table center, but it will require pulling new wiring from the switches.  The central vacuum hook up can be moved using the basement access.  A slim depth, wide and tall china cabinet will balance the large buffet while leaving room for seated guests and roaming guests.

The server will go on the partial wall until a china cabinet is fabricated.  

Floor plan done.

Budget Dictates Materials and Finishes

Other variables may also influence how and where money is spent.  This furniture finish is varnish.  Restoring the pieces to their original look with the original finish treatment and using repair materials that are to the period of the pieces are a big deal and expensive.  The restoration folks recommended an appraisal of the pieces to help make the decision of 'full to the period restoration' or 'partial' or just 'repair and touch up.'

Issues or problems are often opportunities

Okay, what about the need for a china cabinet? After research and thought, many of the available styles of china cabinet would be out of place in this space.  A piece from this collection or something close has not been found via antique stores, online, and auctions.  This is an opportunity for a custom designed piece that works with the original collection but has clean lines with an updated feel while sitting closer to the wall than the original would have done.

Requirements 3, 4 and 5:  The classic oriental style rug has to stay, but we can pull colors from it.  The rug already works with the colors, furnishings, and accessories in the rest of the house.

Use the new stuff to meet requirements not met otherwise

The rug and the furnishings give us the old world appeal.  The possible new custom china cabinet as well as the fabrics of the window treatments and seat cushions are the starting points for new world and updated style.

Fabrics can be expensive and custom draperies for large windows can eat your lunch.  Luckily this space has a window view that we don't want to hide.  The bay window area has a lower ceiling than the rest of the space so a feeling of height at the windows is important to stay in scale with the rest of the room and furnishings.  Simple vertical panel style window treatments with minimal fabric fits the requirements.  This style of treatment and vertical feel will help guide fabric selections.

Additional lighting and accessories are also ways to bring in more modern elements.

The architectural reality of a space often dictates design elements and style

Hmm, that friend and family personal connection requirement?  And, the updated wall treatment or art?

These are major projects themselves.  I've combined these requirements  into one inspiration and you can read all about it in the article I wrote for Plinth and Chintz,  Road Trip to Rome for Project Inspiration.  You will find the link on my Articles and Link Page above.

A design path is established!  Accomplishing all this and keeping the character of the room soft, inviting, unpretentious, and peaceful will be an ongoing challenge.  Stay tuned for more on this project.