Nicola's Dining Room
Before & After

Sometimes we post extreme Before & Afters, in which the before photos look like disaster sites or crime scenes. But it can also be enlightening to admire a room that simply has a new look, whether from a re-tooled color scheme, a paint up-lift, or just a few new furnishings. Nicola wanted a lighter, airier version of her already lovely dining room...

...and here are her results. Pretty, isn't it? We liked the "before" rug's bold, bright red, but with the dark table and chairs, it did create kind of an "island" effect, interrupting the spacious, open feeling of the room. The new dining vignette blends beautifully into its white surroundings; and yet, the gray seat cushions and the cherry finish of the arm chairs offer enough contrast to give the room some depth and unify it with the dark sofa in the background.

Nicola's new table and the Arne Jacobsen-style chairs can both be purchased online.

If you'd like to see more of Nicola's house, check out her lovely blog, Nicoletter, or her Flickr page. She's a graphic designer who also makes stationery and paper products, which you can find in her Etsy shop.

(Images: Nicoletter)

Comments (27)

Beautiful, light, airy! Clean, but still warm!

any sources for that rug?

I agree that it's an improvement. In general I find solid-color rugs to be pretty boring. The new one, even though it's not colorful, is more interesting and integrates well w/the rest of the furnishings.

I like both, but confess that I prefer the Before pic...

I am CRAZY about that silver lamp and I'm glad she kept it. Where can I get something similar?

I loved the before with its splash of color to lift the room. In contrast the after just looks insipid to me.
Is vignette AT's favorite new word?

Wow...a change in table & chairs make a huge impact. Nice!

I am confused by the first picture, the letters, cell phone sitting on the left appear to be the same size as the table? Is this some weird photo app?

The after is much better, love the wood chairs. I think the photos are odd though, before and afters should be from the same angel then add other images to give you the bigger picture so to speak.

nipplesip, i have that rug. it's from ikea.

I love how the after has a seamless look and the cherry chairs tie in the wood frames from the living room. I typically prefer color over neutrals but I love this and the orchid and contrastic woods keep it interesting.

*contrasting woods

Now she has to extend the lighter, airier feeling to the living room and get a lighter colored couch!

I prefer the before.

The "after" seems to blend in with the space much better. And I've seen that same type of arc lamp lots of places. I know cb2 has something kind of similar, but with a round shade.

i like before... after looks dated and bland

any ideas on that lamp by the dining table? Is that vintage?

@00Nat00 and bekbecker3 - The lamp appears to be a true Arco lamp (not a knockoff). I got mine at Room & Board.

@LoriSF - In the Before picture, I think the mail is in the foreground, which is why it appears large compared to the table. Or else she just gets REALLY big mail! =)

I prefer the "After", but I'm actually not crazy about the cherry chairs. I would put them somewhere else, like the living room, and only bring them in when additional seating was required.

that may be a new couch. the living room is different in the "before"

I like both looks. I don't know that I would go for a white carpet under a dining table where food can fall on it, but if it's fairly easy to clean, then it wouldn't be so bad.

both are pretty. i think the before might wear better than all white.

I rather like the before as it felt airy as it was, the red just gave the room a jolt of color and life, which I don't get with the new neutral color scheme and what kept the room from being heavy despite the red rug is that the floor itself is light in tone and the walls white so the red then acts as a foil for all that light color which by itself doesn't do me much.

And I love that Arco lamp and would love one myself.

spoted the pic again and what makes the space seem heavy in the before are the dark Ant chairs and table so in the end, I'd keep the rug, perhaps the table but do white for the chairs to help balance out the darker elements in the room.

I like both but I think I like the "before" pic a little bit more.

The Before is awesome. I really like the table (don't like the After table at all, it's not very distinctive). I would've gotten some chairs that were lighter colored just to have a bit of contrast and more nuance. I don't have an issue with the red carpet... I agree with ciddyguy that it adds a nice jolt and gives the room some good focus with all the white already there. The only thing is maybe having a slightly bigger red rug, so the chairs and table don't seem like they're confined to a smaller area.
The After is not horrible, but just seems blander and less distinct. I actually like the end "cherry" chairs and they would've been great with the Before dark table too.

In fact, I'd like to know the origins of the Before table -- it looks very intriguing.

In general, what a nice big airy space.

I hope she just repainted the chairs and didn't buy new ones, way too wasetful!

That is the arco lamp...classic modern. You can get a reasonably price one from white to white in NYC.

The after is much, much better - more striking, cleaner, more modern.

I wrote about this apartment back in May, you can view the complete post here with additional photographs if you'd like.

http://decor8blog.com/2009/05/11/nicoletter-paper-goods-a-pretty-apartment/