Your Desk Chair Might Belong in Your Dining Room — Here’s Why
Gwendolyn Hillesheim lives in a 550-square-foot co-op in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that she’s owned for about a year now. After retiring, she downsized to a unit that would better suit her needs and then went about putting her own personal stamp on it. “I had lived in a one-bedroom in the same building for eight years, and I was unhappy with the amount of unused space,” Hillesheim says. “So when the chance to downsize and remodel occurred, I jumped at it.”
Hillesheim considers her home to now be more efficient than her last place, as well as more organized, eclectic, and comfy in terms of its aesthetic. “I took the time to assess my wants and prioritized things, like a great kitchen for baking and a flat surface with good light for projects,” she says. Being that this is one of the smallest spaces Hillesheim has ever lived in, she had to be strategic about the design elements and accessories she picked. Visual continuity and flow were important to her, but she also hoped the rooms would stand on their own as distinct. “I wanted each room to be unique and ‘separate’ from the others, so I utilized rugs and color to define the spaces,” she says.
When it came to furnishing, Hillesheim made a few interesting choices that set her home apart. Her dining room might be the area in her co-op where she made the most unexpected furniture move: Instead of selecting more traditional seating for her round dining table, she opted for four bold, pink desk chairs on casters instead.
Typically you’d see chairs like this in a home office beneath a desk versus pulled up to a dining table, but this idea works for a few different reasons. For starters, broadening your search beyond the usual dining and accent chair offerings gives you even more design choices. These look super-comfy, sturdy, and add that pop of pink that Hillesheim has used elsewhere in her home to both set off and unify certain areas. Additionally, in a space with hardwood floors, chairs with wheels or casters can make it that much easier to move them around, whether you want to roll them out of the way from time to time or just like some extra mobility while sitting down for whatever reason.
When asked which space in her home is her absolute favorite, Hillesheim says it’s a hard call. Ultimately, though, the kitchen and the dining room take the honors for her. “These spaces are where I spend most of my time, and I couldn’t be happier with them,” she says.