Tame Space With Warm Color and the Right Light by Rose Bennett Gilbert on Creators.com

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Tame Space With Warm Color and the Right Light

Q: Our dining room is really large — 23 x 21 feet with 10-foot ceilings and long tall windows. You're probably going to tell me that it's a nice problem to have, but it is still a problem, making the room feel warm and comfortable when you have people in for dinner (we usually eat in the cozier family room). I hate to let such great space go to waste. Please advise.

A: It is a nice problem because it's easier to solve than you think. Bring in color — lots of it, in warm tones. Add fabrics — cushy, sound softening and noise absorbing — on floors as well as upholstered chairs, and those long windows.

Use over-scaled furniture to fill up some of the wall areas, and harness the amazing power of light (chandeliers, table lamps, sconces, candles) to bring soaring space down to more human-size.

In the grand dining room we show here (borrowed from a terrific new book, "The Decorative Carpet" and written by Alix G. Perrachon), top designer/author Bunny Williams has pulled out all the professional stops in order to tame the space and make it feel inviting

Let's analyze her process. She used a cantaloupe color to warm the walls and bring them in closer to the dining table. She darkened the ceiling to make it look lower. She spread a room-maker of a silk-and-wool Tibetan rug almost wall-to-wall underfoot. Its over-sized, abstract animal print picks up the cantaloupe color at the same time it anchors that large dining table.

William's also ratcheted-up the size of the furniture in deference to the height of the walls: The over-mantel painting is huge, but in perfect proportion to the wall space. She even perches a marble portrait bust on top of the already-tall bookcase.

And don't miss her unusual choice of lighting fixtures: two large hanging lights for general illumination, supplemented by a pair of porcelain lamps on the dining table itself.

They add a warm circle of light to each end of the table, creating a low, cozy mini-climate within the larger room space, where you can bet the dinner guests linger long after dessert.

Q: I'm planning to redo our townhouse over the next couple of years and wonder if you can tell me if there are any trends coming I should be aware of — color, furniture styles, stuff like that.

A: Lucky you that my reporter's notebook is still warm from all the info I recorded just this week at a trends presentation by veteran visionary Doty Horn, founding director of a new forecasting service called ColorVoyant (colorvoyant.com). Speaking to the International Furnishings and Design Association, Horn ticked off several "undercurrent influences" she sees coming that will affect the way we live — and decorate our homes:

The Post-Oil Era: As we let go of our "oil addiction," expect such innovations as fabrics that radiate light; entire cities that are LEED-Certified green; underground gardens (already growing in Tokyo); and a return to the warm calm color palette of the l970s.

The Force of Nature: We should learn to really respect it! Blackouts from tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes and solar flares (by 2013) will require grassroots living and a renewed interest in things that operate by hand. Colors will be volcano hot on the one hand, tsunami-cool on the other.

Creative juices will flow freely. "The Right-Brain will renew the culture," Horn promises. And, she predicts, colors will grow clearer and fresher.

Rose Bennett Gilbert is the co-author of "Manhattan Style"

and six other books on interior design. To find out more about Rose Bennett Gilbert and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2011 BY CREATORS.COM.