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RE: Startling New Look for a White House Dining Room - 2/11/2015 6:54:39 PM

NorthernGent

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That yellow thing on the wall looks hypnotic. Wonder if they'll seat the Chinese governor at the end of the table facing it.

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RE: Startling New Look for a White House Dining Room - 2/11/2015 7:27:53 PM

GoddessManko

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I love everything about it but I would have upgraded the window treatments vs getting rid of them all together and opted for brighter/airier curtains. Would have made such a dramatic difference. Everything else I love, love love!

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RE: Startling New Look for a White House Dining Room - 2/11/2015 8:27:11 PM

Zonie63

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quote:

ORIGINAL: dcnovice

The ACA? The stimulus? Taking out OBL? Small stuff compared to a true Obama legacy: redoing the family dining room on the first floor. (Note: For privacy and convenience, First Families now generally eat in the presidential dining room upstairs.) Hate to say it, but the design repels me. I think it reflects the caution, even timidity, that have been such hallmarks of this administration on many fronts, with the result that it's a mishmash--neither ancient nor modern. I actually do *like* the idea of bringing the WH beyond the 19th century, but I don't think this effort succeeds. Thoughts, anyone?

Learn more and see earlier incarnations: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/02/10/old-family-dining-room-made-new-again

Well, it doesn't really have that "lived in look" that one might ordinarily expect from a family dining room. Something more like this:

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RE: Startling New Look for a White House Dining Room - 2/11/2015 8:50:08 PM

DesFIP

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I find the ornate light fixture is a good match for the ornate plaster decorations. Which are visible in the first photo but not very noticeable in the others.

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RE: Startling New Look for a White House Dining Room - 2/11/2015 9:02:22 PM

TheHeretic

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quote:

ORIGINAL: DesFIP
mid century modern is very collectible.

Forget collectible, I want functional. I could see tying someone to one of those chairs, but who would want to sit in them for a conversation that goes far past the staff clearing away the plates from dessert?

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RE: Startling New Look for a White House Dining Room - 2/12/2015 9:28:21 AM

kdsub

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Hey DC... what do you think?... You've a lot more style than I and would like to hear your thoughts.

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RE: Startling New Look for a White House Dining Room - 2/15/2015 12:02:31 PM

dcnovice

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quote:

Hey DC... what do you think?... You've a lot more style than I and would like to hear your thoughts.

Why thank you, Butch! What a kind thing to say.

I want to like this room. It takes the state floor of the White House into the 20th century, and it clearly resulted from a lot of thought and good intentions, as Mrs. Obama explained on the Today show.

Yet . . .

Somehow it just doesn't come together for me. For starters, it seems cold and uninviting, perhaps due to the gray walls. It might also help to accessorize it more generously. The tea set looks lonely on the sideboard, as does the glass vase atop the chest of drawers. The candlesticks on the mantel look overwhelmed. The table could use a few more chairs. Even the flowers seem austere rather than welcoming.

More important (imho) is the lack of visual unity. A big part of that problem, I think, is that there are two competing palettes. The modern art and not-so-modern curtains emphasize primary colors, with gray as the neutral background. But the rug and seat covers take us into the world of earth tones. Having a single palette would unify the room a lot, I think.

I like eclecticism and don't feel every room has to be a slave to a single style. Indeed, my own LR/BR blends "dead grandmother" with "hipster wannabe." But here I think the contrasts are too sharp. The heavy, old-fashioned curtains look particularly out of place, and the dainty chairs don't have the visual weight to hold their own with the in-you-face artwork.

Does this make any sense?

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RE: Startling New Look for a White House Dining Room - 2/15/2015 12:12:51 PM

dcnovice

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A designer friend on Facebook took a stab at tweaking the room. I think his fixes help a bit.

Attachment (1)

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RE: Startling New Look for a White House Dining Room - 2/16/2015 4:00:56 PM

kdsub

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I certainly agree with you that it seems cold…almost bare to me. But I admit I love 19th century decoration. I am not a fan of modern although I have seen it done quite well.

It just seems incomplete with competing themes.

I will say the lighting was softer during the interview and I think soft light with highlighted art work would make the room look very different than the hard light of the photographer. Lighting I will bet is a big part of the plan and very little is allowed to come through in the photo you posted.

Butch

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RE: Startling New Look for a White House Dining Room - 2/16/2015 4:46:07 PM

kdsub

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I will bet it looks more like below:

Butch

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RE: Startling New Look for a White House Dining Room - 2/16/2015 6:13:05 PM

smileforme50

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quote:

ORIGINAL: DesFIP

If this is the family dining room, not a public one, then I think that trying to warm it up to make it someplace people like to sit and talk should have been the focus. And that doesn't say warm and cozy to me, good place for kids to spread out and talk over their day.

For starters....the room is too freaking BIG! I realize they couldn't do anything about that....it being the WH and all, but to me, huge rooms are never "warm". They may serve their purpose, like parties, but they aren't warm or intimate like I would want with family and close friends.

I don't like the furniture. I like more casual or traditional furniture. I do kind of like the rug and the artwork, but I don't think they go together. But then.....is there any chance that one of the daughters created the art? If that's the case, then it belongs wherever the family wants to put it.

I don't think this is any crazier than when Nancy Reagan spend a couple hundred thousand on new china back in the early 80s.

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RE: Startling New Look for a White House Dining Room - 2/17/2015 6:54:16 AM

ExiledTyrant

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quote:

ORIGINAL: dcnovice

Yet . . .

Somehow it just doesn't come together for me.

Does this make any sense?

It's the "jazz" of decor. Everything is discordant... you have to work with the room or change the room. The fireplace, mirror, molding, and vaulted ceiling are colonial. You have to change it or work with it. The modern art does not lend an eclectic flare to the room, it gives a garish clash to the room. I think Jackie O was the one that brought the modern furniture in, and I think it was a mistake. I think they should've left it the way it was during Grant's administration and just accented, updated fabrics, owned it through "additional" accent pieces, but wot do I know (shrugs)

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