classic living room design 2012

what i'd like to talk about is what makesfor successful decor. this room, this whole home actually, the colorscheme is gray. the backgrounds are all gray with white andbright yellow, to kind of ignite the room. so the important thing, when you have richwall color like we have here, which is a nice, warm gray, almost taupe, is contrast. you have to bring it to life with some othercontrasting color, and in this case, it's white. so what we've done is a very affordable wainscotingtreatment with chair rail and applied molding in a flat stock.

and below that, this is drywall, and the drywallis left smooth, and then the whole element is painted with latex enamel to match thetrim. so it actually looks like a full wainscot,but for half the price. this is a very nice contrast. it brings a lot of drama to the two colors. and then, reflective surfaces are also importantin bringing a room to life. you can see we, of course, have the mirrorover our sideboard. but the mirror has a reflective metallic,wonderful, beefy frame to it. we always like to use white lampshades wheneverpossible in a room, because the white lampshades

also provide contrast, and they're brighter,and also just give off a nicer light. and then these lamps have crystal accentson them, and they're silver, so again, it's very reflective. and since our scheme is yellow and white andgray, we chose orchids, that are white with yellow on the inside. and then, our formal dining room table isformal, but not too formal, and we brought it to life as well. we've got the dark table, so we use lightplacemats with yellow stitching to contrast to the dark table.

and then, we have layers of plates, with onebright yellow plate below the bowls in the center, to bring a smile to your face. it kind of lightens everything up. and then, to top it all off, we have the silvercandelabras in the center, very elegant. and then, one last thing, the silver insertsin the sideboard. very, very elegant, but at the same time,a friendly, warm environment for a formal dinner party.

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