Dramatic Dining Room

Patterns and textures in this Asian-inspired blue and white dining room make it a one-of-a-kind design sensation.

Even with its large, dramatic windows and grand, high ceilings, the Show House’s dining room, according to The Great Cover-Up principal designer Teddy Karl, felt dark and dreary. Known for designing rich, traditional interiors, Karl worked with senior designer Melissa Hummel to transform the dining room into an elegant, bright, inviting space.

The room features an Asian-inspired blue-and-white palette. “We wanted to see pattern-on-pattern in this space,” Karl says. Window treatments and walls are in the same print from Thibaut, making the room feel larger. The room is anchored by a hand-knotted Afghan Sultanabad rug, with deep, rich tones and dashes of blue, adding splashes of color to the blue-hued space.

Shield-back chairs upholstered in a traditional cut-velvet leopard print flank a dark-mahogany table, while host-and-hostess parson-style chairs in a blue-and-white color block provide statement seating at the table’s head and foot. The table is set with Mottahedeh’s Blue Dragon place settings. The pair also gave the home’s adjacent butler’s pantry a face-lift, lining the small space with a bit of leopard-print wallpaper to tie it in with the reupholstered dining chairs.

Audubon-stye original oil paintings fill the largest wall, and a large, gilded gold-leaf pagoda mirror over the mahogany sideboard creates openness in the space. Two large Chinese-export porcelain lamps on the sideboard provide additional lighting, as well as a large, multitiered chandelier. “I think the finished product, although full of pattern, is much brighter and makes the room feel larger overall,” Karl says. “We love using pattern and texture along with color – it is definitely a ‘happy’ space.