I was supposed to be teaching our youngest kids grammar during co-op because it’s Covid times and everyone must do their part. And I was, just not with all my attention. As I was reading aloud, my mind wandered to how I could help Rachel finish her dining room. She needed a paint color and was thinking yellow. I have a strong aversion to yellow on walls- it’s a hard color, maybe I was burned by a light yellow paint that promised just the softest kiss of yellow but delivered a full-blown STD highlighter look that immediately had to be repainted. Maybe, just maybe that happened to me. Ochre, maize, golden yellows are easier and I have fond memories of my school bus yellow dining room in my old house but Rachel wasn’t feelin those tones so I jumped in with both feet with another color option that would get the job done.
Rachel is a collector of unique items that beg to have your attention. She finds treasures at local auction houses and I was gonna roll up my sleeves and find a place for all of them. Here’s the trick with maximalism- you have to go all in. You can’t half step it at all because instead of a visual punch your items will look crazy and ill-placed. With that warning in mind, she agreed all in and we began. Here is the room when we started. It was a fine room…
Those Chinoiserie chairs that she got for a song, ($40 for the set) are amazing, they just needed a new color to accent their sassy sensibilities. She sprayed them with an emerald green color and gave them a whole new vibe. We needed fun, unruly wallpaper and I told her to paint the room, Country Squire, by Sherwin Williams no less than 6 times-until she went and bought the paint. I let her have her yellow on the campaign dresser and she did an incredible paint job on both.
She had these 2 terrariums that she was going to sell to make some cash for the dining room fund but since she describes her style as a victorian, vintage, solarium-I told her that we had to keep them so we could flank the campaign dresser with them. I used a good bit of symmetry to help tame the patterns, but Rachel was not as interested in that kind of cohesion. Her personal motto is, “no place for your eye to rest”. Luckily, she humored me and bought matching oval mirrors for the wallpaper wall.
We also needed wall art and she just happened to find a vintage bird picture with a cork mat and a bamboo frame to which she said we could use it if we want to. Want to? How about just the showpiece we were looking for! The Boho macrame light fixture was a score from the Shades of Light outlet.
The wallpaper is by Milton and King, called “Hummingbirds Wallpaper” in green. Rachel and Alex hung the wallpaper themselves and did an incredible job. She was even nice enough to give me some leftover scraps to make into trays!
Now the one item of home decor that Rachel cares the most about is rugs. I picked out some fine rugs to cinch everything up. She has champagne taste for real vintage rugs but does not want to pay the price. I tried to find a middle ground store bought rug from Wayfair that shocked her husband enough to say, “I didn’t think we were wayfair rug people.” To which she replied, “we aren’t!” The rug promptly went back. She tried to slip in a shady “green” rug from FB Marketplace but I was having none of it. We compromised and went with a rug she already had in her sewing room until the mythical unicorn that she is looking for presents itself. This rug is a beautiful black and white houndstooth wool rug purchased after much deliberation from Tuesday Morning that adds a lot of graphic interest to the room.
That high gloss yellow campaign dresser steals the show. She put MCM legs on it to give it some height. If you look back at the first picture you’ll see it sits on the ground.
We moved a MCM china cabinet from another room into the dining room and put the busts of Robert Burns and Chopin on the top. The parson chairs that bookend the table will likely be recovered, but for now they will add to the overall drama of the room! We had nothing left to do but break in the space with a holiday dinner.
The dining refresh caused the den living room to need tweaked a bit. So we created an over the top maximalist gallery wall with fabulous aged brass sconces that I left Alex and Rachel to expertly install.
Rachel made the bird drapes a few years ago and the craftsmanship is amazing. I like to tease her that she excels at highly intricate projects- the rest just don’t interest her! Below is a rare sighting of my favorite red fox and the incredible shower curtain art that team Burton put together!
Now on to other rooms in the Burton estate and I just need to find a home for this guy!
To all you lovers of color, pattern, and texture: may all your dreams come true! Photos by the amazing Holli Coats! SM