Today I have for you my favorite child/room in the house – not because it’s the BEST room (it sure might be) but because this room has brought me almost zero stress (comparatively). The design/decoration was relatively easy, I had an idea in mind and it has given me many happy years working here. She’s bright, cheerful, energetic and comfortable. So with so much pride, I would love to introduce you to my favorite child – our sunroom/formal dining room/my writing studio.
P.S. You are welcome if you’re just landing on this page for the first-time. don’t forget to read about the process posts about how we designed the mosaic tile and border, the installation, and built this room from the ground up. While I say it was “easy,” it was still so much hard work by so many talented people and that’s more of a comparison than a fact. A huge thanks to the ARCIFORM team – Anne, Stephyn (that tile design/order was NOT easy to calculate), Adam Jamie (our building leads), and Level Plane Tile & Stone (our tile installers).
Please go and watch it! They are so much fun to make. Here’s a little teaser if you wanna get a taste (just wait for the short ad to run:)):
Skylights | Dining Chair | Tile | Pendant | Windows | Skylight | Wall Paint
My design for this room was clear from day ONE – this room was for my own personal inspiration and daily JOY while working from home. I wanted an indoor space that had the exact same color scheme, pattern, and feeling as my patio in LA which I loved. And y’all, it does. It just sings. All my favorite friends came to play here – the blue and white Victorian tile (please note the border in the other shots), farmhouse table, contemporary chairs, vintage-inspired lighting, and just tons of blue, green, wood, gold, and all day long stunning natural light.
We decided to style it out for a dinner party (with dinnerware I already had) because you’ve seen snippets of this room enough that I wanted to show it off with a dress on it 🙂
The color palette works so well – the green of these incredible Athena Calderone for Crate and Barrel chairs worked so well with the blue of the Pratt + Larson tile (and somehow I found that perfect lampshade at a thrift store!). The chairs are technically different from the table, but they share similar undertones. They’re both matte and not shiny. When the chairs were placed in this space, they were exactly as I had imagined (and are very comfortable).
Y’all these windows are INCREDIBLE. We designed and manufactured them custom with Sierra Pacific, as I mentioned on Friday. The diamond pattern from the second floor windows was specifically matched with the traditional/modern grid found in the first. These are beautiful. Some of them can be opened if desired. Velux skylights here provide a lovely soft light that lasts all day. We didn’t have them in for a while and the living room and sunroom didn’t have the light we wanted. Once we installed them, the problem was solved in both rooms. These light-filtering shades can also be opened to vent. Even in the rain it’s such a dream to be in this happy room and hear it on the skylights 🙂
The tile is featured in its own post, but I wanted to make sure that it was worshipped appropriately on the big reveal post. We designed the color with Pratt + Larson, heavily inspired by so many Victorian mosaic patterns that I’ve been pinning for years. Again, a huge thanks to Stephyn from ARCIFORM for helping figure out how much of each tile we needed (I basically did the pattern with paper, but as you know I’m not good with “details” or “counting” and there was a LOT of details and counting – see below). Level Plane was our installer and they were excellent. They cared about the pattern being perfect and did a fantastic job.
Lighting is from the Rose City Collection by Rejuvenation. It’s unlacquered Brass that will age with time. I love this fixture because (like all of Rejuvenations lights) you can really customize everything – the length of the cord, the finish, and of course the shade (I LOVE this deco shade and have forever). If you have a faulty ceiling, the chain (rather than a stem), will make it fall correctly.
The table was custom-sized from a design by Elsie Green – a small furniture maker (with reclaimed material) in the Bay Area. It’s incredibly perfect for this space. We needed narrow (but not too narrow) and really long (120″), and I wanted curved ends and some round legs to offset all the squares from the tile and the windows. The chairs could not be more perfect with the table – the soft curve on the back was also what I wanted (to offset the squares) and the velvet feels so warm, comfortable, and earthy in a room with no other textiles. The room was in need of fabric, as are most rooms. It wasn’t just wood chairs and a wood table with a wood credenza.
Black Tray| Chair (vintage) | Lamp | Art (vintage) | Black Tray | Wrapped Stone | Bookend Sculpture | Radio | Outlet Cover
This piece by Crump & Kwash out of DC is so beautiful and timeless, high quality with some extra details that take it next level. It was hard for me to find the exact piece in here – there are a million great credenzas out there, but I didn’t want it to go too “TV stand” and couldn’t be as high as a buffet would be. Plus it needed to be shallow – no more than 19″ deep. This is where I keep my printer and all the samples that I need for this house. Please take note of the legs!!! I love (and looked for) a darker wood tone so it pulled you over there, grounded that wall, and didn’t just match the table and chairs.
Wooden Bird (vintage)
My antique wood bird arrived inside, and I’m even more fond of it now. It was a bit alarming to people at the front porch. Maybe it needed a more whimsical setting? It looks fun in here (sorry I don’t think we got another shot of it). The other plants all came from either Arium Botanicals or Drake’s 7 Dees on Scholls Ferry. Both have an AMAZING selection of indoor plants.
Napkin or Placemat | App Plate | Dinner Plate | Napkin | Placemat | Flatware | Water Glasses | Coup Glasses (similar) | Small Candlestick Holder | Large Ring Candlestick Holder | Green Candlesticks | Vase Pitcher (similar)
This is what I would do if I had a casual, but slightly elevated dinner party. The items were all already in my home (like those Target white plates and placemats, which I love so much). It’s amazing with a few pops of color (navy, sage-y green, and mauve) and some fresh flowers (these are from my garden). I highly recommend adding a candlestick-colored color to your color palette. It will add a special touch.
Planter in Terracotta | Tall White Planter (locally sourced) | Terracotta Planter
It’s such a great room to spend time in and I’m endlessly grateful that we could and decided to add it onto the house. This room is a great example of how to use bold patterns in the right spots.
Oh and don’t forget to watch that YouTube video!
Sunroom Resources:
Tile: Pratt + Larson
Sierra Pacific: Windows and Doors
Skylights: Velux
Lighting for Rejuvenation
Sherwin Williams SW 7006 Extra white wall paint color
Dining Table: Elsie Green
Dining Chairs: Crate & Barrel
Credenza: Crump & Kwash
*Design by Emily Henderson and ARCIFORM
**Tile Installation by Level Plane Tile & Stone
***Photos by Kaitlin Green