Friend's elegant apartment : Annie Elliott Design

You can’t teach taste.

Yes, you can teach basic design principles, and color theory, and how to light a room…but really, when it comes to taste, you either have it or you don’t.

My friend does. That and an excellent sense of how to put things together.

This is her apartment, with its fantastic wall colors, family furniture with strategic upholstery, kind-of-matching-but-not-really rugs, a thoughtfully and lovingly assembled art collection…the overall effect is wonderful.

This is hardly a “before” picture, but it’s the closest thing I have. She had called to get my opinion on a few things for her dining room.

Despite the golden walls, the room felt a little stark. She was thinking about reupholstering the chairs and was considering a rug…she also thought the light fixture was a bit small and was about to install a new one (which is on the table in the picture above).

Ta-daa. The new light fixture was a great start. It’s Louis Poulsen’s Collage Pendant, and the designer is Louise Campbell. Isn’t it beautiful? It’s much larger and lighter than the other; we moved that one to the guest room and installed it right near the ceiling.

My friend was toying with using two different fabrics on the chairs. In the end we decided to upholster all of the chairs in the same fabric. (I’m sorry – I can’t remember what it is, but I’ll try to track it down.)*

In the end, there was no need for a rug. I think it’s more modern to skip one in the dining room anyway.

Here’s the breakfast area of the kitchen. (Hello, kitty.) The soothing lavender walls were a great choice on her part.