Today I have for you my favorite child/room in the house – not because it’s the BEST room (it sure might be) but because this room has brought me almost zero stress (comparatively). It was pretty darn easy to design/decorate, I had a clear vision, and has provided me years of happiness, working in here. She is just bright, happy, energetic, and comfortable. So with so much pride, I would love to introduce you to my favorite child – our sunroom/formal dining room/my writing studio.
P.S. If you are just landing here for the first time (welcome!) don’t forget to read about the process posts about how we designed the mosaic tile and border, the installation, and built this room from the ground up. While I say it was “easy,” it was still so much hard work by so many talented people and that’s more of a comparison than a fact. A huge thanks to the ARCIFORM team – Anne, Stephyn (that tile design/order was NOT easy to calculate), Adam Jamie (our building leads), and Level Plane Tile & Stone (our tile installers).
We, of course, made a really fun YouTube video so please go watch and subscribe!! I just love making them. Here’s a little teaser if you wanna get a taste (just wait for the short ad to run:)):
Dining Table | Dining Chair | Tile | Pendant | Windows | Skylight | Wall Paint
My design for this room was clear from day ONE – this room was for my own personal inspiration and daily JOY while working from home. I wanted to create an indoor room that had the same feeling, level of color, and pattern as our patio in LA that I loved so very, very much. And y’all, it does. It just SINGS. All my favorite friends came to play here – the blue and white Victorian tile (please note the border in the other shots), farmhouse table, contemporary chairs, vintage-inspired lighting, and just tons of blue, green, wood, gold, and all day long stunning natural light.
We decided to style it out for a dinner party (with dinnerware I already had) because you’ve seen snippets of this room enough that I wanted to show it off with a dress on it 🙂
The color palette works so well – the green of these incredible Athena Calderone for Crate and Barrel chairs worked so well with the blue of the Pratt + Larson tile (and somehow I found that perfect lampshade at a thrift store!). And while the wood of the chairs is technically different than the table they have similar undertones and are both matte (not shiny) and work perfectly. The second the chairs came in this room they were everything that I wanted them to be (and they are so comfortable).
Y’all these windows are INCREDIBLE. As I wrote about on Friday, we custom-designed and made them with Sierra Pacific to specifically marry the diamond pattern of the second-floor windows with the more traditional/modern grid of the first floor. They are just so beautiful (and yes, some open if we want). The Velux skylights in here create such soft light all day (they are north-facing which tends to be the best softest light). We didn’t have them in for a while and the living room and sunroom didn’t have the light we wanted. So once we put them in it solved this problem in both rooms immediately. These have light filtering shades and can open for venting, too. Even in the rain it’s such a dream to be in this happy room and hear it on the skylights 🙂
The tile has its own post (go here) but I want to make sure it feels properly worshipped on its big reveal post. We designed the color with Pratt + Larson, heavily inspired by so many Victorian mosaic patterns that I’ve been pinning for years. Again, a huge thanks to Stephyn from ARCIFORM for helping figure out how much of each tile we needed (I basically did the pattern with paper, but as you know I’m not good with “details” or “counting” and there was a LOT of details and counting – see below). Level Plane were our installers and they did an excellent job and really cared about it being perfect which matters with a pattern like this.
The lighting is the Rose City collection from Rejuvenation in an unlacquered brass that will patina with age. I love this fixture because (like all of Rejuvenations lights) you can really customize everything – the length of the cord, the finish, and of course the shade (I LOVE this deco shade and have forever). Also if you have a faulted ceiling the chain (versus a stem) makes it still fall correctly.
The table was custom-sized from a design by Elsie Green – a small furniture maker (with reclaimed material) in the Bay Area. It’s incredibly perfect for this space. We needed narrow (but not too narrow) and really long (120″), and I wanted curved ends and some round legs to offset all the squares from the tile and the windows. The chairs could not be more perfect with the table – the soft curve on the back was also what I wanted (to offset the squares) and the velvet feels so warm, comfortable, and earthy in a room with no other textiles. This room needed fabric (as most rooms do) and not just wood chairs with wood table and wood credenza.
Credenza | Chair (vintage) | Lamp | Art (vintage) | Black Tray | Wrapped Stone | Bookend Sculpture | Radio | Outlet Cover
This piece by Crump & Kwash out of DC is so beautiful and timeless, high quality with some extra details that take it next level. It was hard for me to find the exact piece in here – there are a million great credenzas out there, but I didn’t want it to go too “TV stand” and couldn’t be as high as a buffet would be. Plus it needed to be shallow – no more than 19″ deep. This holds our printer and all my samples for this house for easy access. Please note the legs!!! I love (and looked for) a darker wood tone so it pulled you over there, grounded that wall, and didn’t just match the table and chairs.
Wooden Bird (vintage)
My antique wooden bird came inside and I love it even more in here. It did alarm people on the front porch so maybe it needed a context that was more whimsical? It looks fun in here (sorry I don’t think we got another shot of it). The other plants all came from either Arium Botanicals or Drake’s 7 Dees on Scholls Ferry. Both have EXCELLENT indoor plant selection.
Bowl | App Plate | Dinner Plate | Napkin | Placemat | Flatware | Water Glasses | Coup Glasses (similar) | Small Candlestick Holder | Large Ring Candlestick Holder | Green Candlesticks | Vase Pitcher (similar)
I wanted to show you what it would look like if I was having a casual (but slightly elevated) dinner party. These are all things I already had (like those white, lightweight Target plates and placemats I love SO MUCH). It’s amazing with a few pops of color (navy, sage-y green, and mauve) and some fresh flowers (these are from my garden). Highly recommend using a candlestick color in your color palette to add just a little extra something special:)
Fluted Planter (no longer available) | Tall White Planter (locally sourced) | Terracotta Planter
It’s such a great room to spend time in and I’m endlessly grateful that we could and decided to add it onto the house. This room definitely makes a case for going for bold pattern in the right places:) xx
Oh and don’t forget to watch that YouTube video!
Sunroom Resources:
Tile: Pratt + Larson
Windows and Doors: Sierra Pacific
Skylights: Velux
Lighting: Rejuvenation
Wall Paint Color: SW 7006 Extra White by Sherwin-Williams
Dining Table: Elsie Green
Dining Chairs: Crate & Barrel
Credenza: Crump & Kwash
*Design by Emily Henderson and ARCIFORM
**Tile Installation by Level Plane Tile & Stone
***Photos by Kaitlin Green
THIS POST WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED HERE.
