As I mentioned in my last post, I was inspired with all of the scroll and detailing I saw in the architecture of the buildings throughout my travels to Spain, Italy and France. I wanted to incorporate those concepts in the Mediterranean Palace theme for the Dining Room, and also address the theme of a grand scale. The room itself is an offset 12 x 12 so I would have to achieve scale by pulling out some design tricks, or tromper l’œil as the French palace dwellers say.
Inside the buildings many of the walls would employ ornate moldings and carved plaster in intricate patterns. It also seemed you couldn’t have too much, and more was better.
Since we just repainted the dining room, which may or may not have been associated with last year’s decorating involving a lot of vinyl decals that pulled paint off the wall (allegedly), I had to employ another technique.
It just so happened that I had a bunch of these baroque-style frames I had hanging on the fences of the previous two locations of the Xmas Museum. There aren’t any fence structures at the new location so they were stacked in the corner of the shed, doing little more than harboring hundreds of camel crickets.
I also happened to have a few ornate black frames that were waiting to be hung with family pictures on the picture wall; however, that project hadn’t happened yet. So with a few cans of spray paint I get them all the same bright yellow color.
I decided to use these frames all on the back wall of the Dining Room to create the feel of ornate moldings seen in the palaces. If I spread them throughout the room, they would just read as a series of fancy frames, but grouped as a gallery style hanging they would achieve more of the impact I needed.
I measured my wall space and replicated that on the floor. I then laid out the frames to get them spaced out properly. I used a sticky note to indicate how far down the top of the frame was from the celling, to make the transfer easier. I also marked the frame location on a roll of painters taper, that I then transferred along the celling edge of the wall.
I started in the middle and worked my way outward, alternating sides after a few frames were hung. Oh, and I used nails for most of these since their weight varied but most felt too heavy or didn’t have the right flat space for the Command® hanging solutions (I’ll use those for other projects in this room).
The finished wall looks great and it covers the themes of detailed moldings, grand scale, more is more, and brings a large amount of the Lemon yellow to the space.
On the opposite wall I used the coordinating candelabra and planters above the display case. This allows the baroque theme to be mirrored in the space and create some continuity.
I have a different treatment idea for the remaining walls. More on that in a later post.
NEXT UP: I tackle the ceiling and chandelier.