I have made a mountain out of a molehill. I have thought myself into a corner (literally. Twice!). I HAVE GIVEN UP. (Well, almost, at least.) The culprit behind my impending demise and omnipresent tension headache? My apartment’s 10′ wide, 15′ long pass-through dining room. She’s beautiful, she’s enormous, and y’all, she is FILLED TO THE BRIM WITH DOORS AND OPENINGS AND WINDOWS. Every time I’m like, “oh, maybe this is a good dining room layout to try,” there is an architectural feature in the way!!! (Such is life when you have a pass-through space, I guess.) But here’s the thing: even having a dining room in LA – much less one of this size! – is an incredible privilege, and I’M TOTALLY BLOWING IT. So today, I am throwing my hands in the air and humbly asking for your layout feedback. I’m breaking out some embarrassing, unstyled, unfinished photos of a room whose aesthetic can currently best be described as “Toontown-meets-flea market…but, like, not in a cute way” in the hopes that, well, maybe we can talk through my final three layout options together. THE INDECISION ENDS TODAY. Ready?
Current Layout
Some context: The dining room is the heart of my railroad-style apartment. There’s a 6′ opening that connects it to the living room; there’s a wall of windows with a door to the balcony; there’s a swinging door that opens to the kitchen (usually closed); there’s a door to the hallway (ALWAYS open because I’m STILL obsessed with ogling that paint color). You ready to see some actual progress shots?
AHHH. Sometimes I hear politicians say things like, “wow, I’m so humbled by (award/honor/something that would be an ego boost, if anything)” and I think ALL of those people should have to post photos of their in-progress houses for critique because THIS IS ACTUALLY HUMBLING. I can get kind of touchy and embarrassed about sharing my space as it is right now (like, in person, too) because I feel insecure about the discordance between my job and my actual life. It feels weird (and sometimes fraudulent, if I’m being super honest) to write about design while sitting in the middle of a room that doesn’t look cohesive or finished yet, you know? BUT I DIGRESS. Gimme a second to pull my head out of my literal butt and then we can talk about what’s working and what’s not. Got a little too earnest there for a second, huh???
My main gripe – outside the haphazard collection of much-loved vintage chairs and case goods that have been relegated here as placeholders – is that the furniture layout just kinda sucks. And by “kind of,” I mean that THIS LAYOUT BLOWS CHUNKS, guys. If there was a textbook about how not to arrange furniture in a pass-through dining room, my current dining room configuration would be a contender for the cover shot. You know what happens as soon as anyone sits down at ANY of the chairs? ADIOS, WALKWAY. Catch ya later, ability to open doors. And since my credenza is so big, my dining table is sliiiightly off-center from the light fixture above. There’s more that drives me nuts, but it’s reductive. The TL;DR: It’s like death by a thousand little design agony cuts in here. BUT…
There have been good parts, too! I’ve been REALLY slow in purchasing for this room, but I’ve also been much more intentional with what comes in here. It’s not glamorous (she said, staring at a sea of 1980s laminate – I had a long postmodern phase, y’all) and collecting pieces for this long is VERY anti-climatic – I wish I could be a One Room Challenge type! – but deep down, I know it’s going to lead to a result that I’m much happier with in the long term.
Case in point: I purchased this lucite ribbon chandelier for a song at the Long Beach Flea in July of 2019 and from the moment I saw it, I knew it would live in my dining room one day. 3 years have passed, but I’m just as excited about hanging it up today as I was back in 2019. (“My affections and wishes have not changed” – technically Mr. Darcy, but also my internal monologue when I think about this light fixture getting installed.) I love how its tubular ribbons speak to the chimes of my doorbell and how the brass echoes the gold in the wallpaper. If taking a long time to design a space means that all of these elements I love will get to shine together, well…I’m glad, I guess
James Home Renovation 