How to define the dining room from living room?


  #1  
Old 01-14-06, 10:41 PM
O
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 1
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
How to define the dining room from living room?

We have a new house where the dining room is only loosely defined from the great room by way of a partially dropped ceiling and beams around the space as seen here:

http://www.ifish.net/gallery/data/50...m/IMG_2334.JPG

and

http://www.ifish.net/gallery/data/50...m/IMG_2333.JPG

Will painting that area a slightly different color/texture be enough? We plan on putting in some raised panel wainscoting in that area to help.....but else could/should we do? I've mentioned an idea to my wife where we could hang nice curtain panels inside the dropped beams and pull them back against the vertical beams...but she's not so sure about that idea.

What are your thoughts??
 
  #2  
Old 01-18-06, 11:29 AM
Annette's Avatar
Member
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Midwest
Posts: 4,017
Upvotes: 0
Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts
Hi! Welcome to the forums!

i can't see the pictures, but i think i know what you're talking about. i've seen homes with floorplans like that. i'm assuming this is the formal dining room and that you have another casual eating area, in the kitchen maybe?

you could do your curtain idea, but i wouldn't. i think that would look like you're trying too hard to close off or hide the area, which would be directly working against the home's architecture of an "open floorplan" (unless your home is ultra-formal, then that would be a really dramatic thing to do with luxurious fabrics & ornately trimmed draperies - but i'm guessing that's not the case). plus, if there are windows on either of the walls, that'd be a lot of fabric.

i think it's wonderful that the ceiling has a separate ceiling treatment, and the square columns (i'm assuming that's what you meant by "vertical beams"??) are great. if this area is in a corner and it has 2 walls to work with, then painting them a different color would work nicely, so long as there's a natural break to end the color (like a corner). you can't just stop paint in the middle of a wall, of course. another good thing you can do is just use a nice big (at least 8x10 - your chairs shouldn't come off the rug, even when pulled out) area rug under the table. that will define the space without closing it off. and if there are windows here, use a different style of treatment on them than what you do in the great room. coordinating, but different.
 
 

Thread Tools
Search this Thread
 
Ask a Question
Question Title:
Description:
Your question will be posted in: