French Inspired Dining Room

Donna's clients Chantay and Kenneth Brown have lived in their house for several years, but they've never been happy with the decor in their dining room. Chantay loves French-inspired design, and the dining room somewhat reflects that, with ornately carved wood in the table, chairs and hutch, and a Fleur de Lis pattern on the walls. But Chantay feels the room is bare and doesn't have enough seating for guests, and she'd like to do something that gives the room a much more dramatic and elegant feel. One side of the dining room opens into a circular turret that houses only two forlorn chairs and is definitely underutilized. Donna replaces the dining room table that sat on four legs, thus limiting the number of chairs that could be placed around it, with a pedestal-based table that opens up the seating area and allows for eight chairs instead of the previous six. The new table is substantial dark wood, with a Fleur de Lis carved in relief in each of the four corners. Surrounding the table are eight stunning custom-made corset chairs, whose contours mimic a svelte human figure, upholstered in a fabric featuring a French style pattern on the front, and which are laced up corset-style in the back. Donna replaces the existing, dated hutch with a grand, European style solid-wood hutch with intricate scrolled carving bordering the cabinet doors, and regal walking lions in relief in the middle. Donna totally transforms the turret area into a natural extension of the dining room, furnished with magnificent custom-built banquettes that hug the turret's rounded wall, and upholstered in the same fabric as the corset chairs. Another client, Kara, has a western-themed living room that could use some colorful touches, so Donna and Ashley create custom-made pillows using vintage clothing and other unique fabrics that can't generally be found in fabric stores. They add fringe and sparkly tuft buttons to create unique accent pieces that add a touch of panache and blend in perfectly with Kara's existing decor.