A newly decorated dining room in New York City includes a new rug from Medallion Rug

Holiday Decorating & Entertaining Post:
A new rug from Medallion Rug helps to transform my dining room giving the small space a richer, more layered feel.  I am happy to note this gift arrived just in time to spiff up my home and prepare for our Holiday dinner party!

Haj Jalili rugs are the perfect family heirloom,

and this one is a hand-woven area rug made in Pakistan.  These pile rugs are known for their vibrant vegetable dye and also their rich colors.  It soft to the touch with a superb quality, but also quite resilient, which explains why they often last generations. 

It's been awhile since I've written about my own personal decorating, and although I have shown glimpses of my home in New York City, I have not written extensively about how I decorated this historic apartment when I moved in years ago.  We recently added onto the design.  Our apartment has "good bones" with high ceilings, a detailed fireplace and lovely original crown moldings and trim.  The doors are large and solid wood, and the handles are the original glass knobs.  It's warm and worn and meandering, but there are flaws.  As many New York City dwellers know, there are almost always sacrifices when living in the Big Apple.  You inevitably give up something important to live here.  When I found our apartment I had to pinch myself because of the quality construction and location to Central Park but it was beaten up and tired looking, and there was a serious lack of natural light in some rooms.  I constructed a wall to split the expansive dining room in half giving us an extra bedroom, and a cozy dining room.  We scraped what felt like 50 years of layered paint off the trim and walls.  Now, several years later we updated with a fresh new coat of paint to the walls, trim and ceiling, re-wallpapered the dining room, polished and stained the floors, purchased new art and lights, as well as adding this new rug under the dining table. Come take a look at the new dining room...

table set and ready for the holiday.

this new area rug arrived 
today from Medallion Rug!

I love blue, but recently indigo and moody navy have me smitten.  This particular blue rug has an unusual pattern for this typically traditional genre, and because of the various bands layering around the edges it works well with a many design styles.  It is classic but the versatility allows it to also have a modern appeal.  I fell in love with it immediately.  We had a sea grass rug in the space before and although it looked fine, the room needed more pattern to compliment the muted yet detailed wallpaper.  Years ago we wallpapered the room with a tone-on-tone pale blue/green floral against ecru background from Brunschwig & Fils that looks like vines climbing.  It has gotten worn and faded with several scratches over the years, but happily we had enough paper left to completely re-paper the room.  This gorgeous rug arrived after all was complete, and just in time for the holiday party we planned.  The rug with myriad textures and designs adds depth and color to the space, grounding the room. 

Decorating Sources:

 1. pair of Vaughan mirrored Chinoiserie sconces, man & woman etched glass 

2.  Ceramic Chinoiserie lamps, Beall & Bell Antiques 
3. Vintage John Rosselli tole chandelier 
 4. Convex mirrors, Beall & Bell Antiques

5. Art: antique prints Clarence House wallpaper matte, Nest by Tamara etsy shop

6. Landscape oil, Sarah Harris via Teters Art

7. Vintage flower oil painting,

Lauren Copen Antiques

7. Dining room table, Country Swedish

Holiday Entertaining Tips:

1. This weekend we are hosting a Thanksgiving dinner, so I  created textured vignettes in the small space using antique and modern pottery from my Vintage McCoy collection and planted topiary.

2. I like to use place cards because it dresses up a dinner table while directing guests where to sit.

3. I combined china pattern Bernardaud Limoge Artois with antique blue and white Chinese side plates and a little bit of sparkle with fuchsia napkin rings and blue napkins from Kim Seybert.

4. I set out a tea/coffee service before dinner for an easy transition to dessert when entertaining.  Here we plan to sip Japanese tea and Saki using my vintage Luster ware sets from The East Hampton Antique Show. 

5. I bought new silver, fluted chargers to illuminate the plates  at World Market.

Stop back soon to see how I channeled the late, great talent Albert Hadley and 

his gentleman's style to create 

a teen bedroom with a grown up appeal

Happy Nesting

XO Tamara

note:  

Medallion Rug generously gifted me this rug.