Fresh Inspiration
by Susannah M. Wilson

dining room
Garden Party

The star of the dining room is the Garden-Inspired Wallpaper, the First Installation in the Country of this new pattern.

Designer Patricia McLean of Patricia McLean Interiors planned the dining room around garden-themed, hand-painted wallpaper. Crystal, glass and chinoiserie touches complement her garden motif.

Showstopper wallpaper picks up the yellows and peaches of a Sultanabad rug.  Customized wallpaper panels feature a flecked, antiqued background, and the pattern was designed to custom-fit the room's dimensions and doorways.

Two tables, not one.  English rosewood Regency-style tables, 60 inches in diameter, seat six or eight and establish an intimate dining setting, whether you entertain six or 16.

Three vases, not one.  Each dining table showcases a trio of flared glass containers filled with lillies, roses and verbena, all light and airy.

Lots of crystal and glass is a big trend.  Lamps, candlesticks, vases and mounted chandelier finials bring light to this interior room.  On the dining tables, a simple crystal pattern keeps the look fresh and contemporary.

Brown with black, heavy with light.  This room brings together a black Regency-style cabinet, black-and-gold chairs and brown dining tables.  Brown softens the harshness of black.  "There's a distinct place for brown furniture in this world,"  McLean says.  The furniture's dark colors anchor the room with its many light-toned elements.

Plates as art.  Celadon, also a hot item, adds a decorative element above a Regency-style chinoiserie cabinet without competing with the wallpaper.

A softly ragged ceiling ties in with the wallpaper's antiqued background.  "Put color on the ceiling so that it blends with the rest of the room," McLean advises.

Gold paint gives an iron chandelier a garden-gate, chinoiserie appearance.

Real Bamboo Poles were reinforced with iron rods and painted gold for the plaid silk draperies framing dining room openings.  Glass bead embellishment captures light, adds another glass ingredient.  Instead of finials, the poles were finished with gold-painted raffia wrapped around the ends.

Crystal and Mirror.  In the dining room, an Italian-style console (one of a pair) is topped with a mirror that shows off the shape of the table, reflects the wallpaper and amplifies light.  The console exhibits a European cut-crystal lamp and finials from 18th- and 19th-century chandeliers mounted on marble stands.

A Purse Stool next to every other chair in the dining room holds a woman's handbag.  The Regency-style stool is covered in a woven fabric featuring embroidered springs.