Open floor plans have become very popular over the past 25 years, and the trend continues. People like to entertain in a space that can accommodate many friends. That means opening up the kitchen and breakfast space into the living room.
This can sometime lead to a cold and unbalanced feeling. Sometimes, things just don’t seem grounded. Furniture is just floating around, especially if the home also boasts high ceilings.
I see many clients doing what I call placing “postage stamps” on the walls. Again, objects just floating and not grounded.
Let’s take the breakfast area. Even if the kitchen area is more segregated from the rest of the home, the breakfast area can get overlooked. Most people add a table and chairs and just consider it an extension of the kitchen.
I like to make the breakfast room a little more intimate. The space can still remain open to the kitchen, but things should be grounded.
First, add a rug for the chairs and table to sit on. If children and pets are an issue consider rig options such as a polypropylene fiber rug or a vinyl rug. These would be easy to maintain, and they come in many patterns and colors.
Adding drapery panels to frame the window can help balance out the look.
The fabric will frame your view and create a much more intimate space and help to separate the space visually from the kitchen. You can perhaps use the same fabric and create a fabric top treatment at the kitchen window to pull it all together.
Maybe you can use different hardware styles in the same finish; but the proof is in the pudding, without window treatments your kitchen and breakfast areas can feel a little cold.
Take a look at how this advice helped give character to the otherwise boring breakfast area.
