Alise O'Brien
Dining Room
Sixteen years ago, a couple moved into this Chesterfield home, at a time when their son was in first grade. Today, he’s a college junior in Colorado who likely won’t return to St. Louis. So the parents took a path well traveled: They hunted for a new place to live.
“They looked at The Crescent, The Plaza [in Clayton condos next to The Ritz-Carlton, St. Louis], and Old Town Clayton,” says Mark Kramer of Mark Kramer and John Thompson Interior Design (314-406-6467). “They’d come back each time and say they like their floor plan more.”
So the pair stayed put, deciding instead to update the decor in their 10,000-square-foot home. They hired Kramer and Thompson, decorative painters with whom the family had worked for nearly two decades. They began with a single room—then, as so often happens, went on to redo every room on the first floor.
“They love California,” Kramer says. “They go to Carmel a lot, and they stay for a month at a time. When we did the new furniture, we said, ‘Let’s do something that will work in a little bungalow in Carmel or at The Crescent or at The Chase or whatever.’”
They started in the wood-paneled living room. “It kind of reminded [the homeowner] of a big casket,” Kramer says, laughing. So the designers painted the walls in a strié technique that resulted in subtle stripes. They added trim to the beams, completed the crown molding, and installed dentil molding in the archway. Thompson repainted the fireplace. All of the furniture, with the exception of a Baker cabinet and a wing chair, was replaced (and the remaining chair was reupholstered).
They then moved on to the kitchen, where the cabinets were repainted with the same strié effect and given crown moldings. They installed a toe kick at the bottom of the cabinetry, a pantry, and a subway-tile backsplash. They also replaced what Kramer calls a “funky little triangle desk” with a butcher block–topped cabinet.
Of all the rooms, though, the dining room ranks as both the designers’ and the home-
owners’ favorite. “I wanted something unexpected,” Kramer says. “I wanted it to already possess history, yet at the same time, by contrasting design elements, feel new.”
The inspiration for the room came from the Scalamandré fabric used on the cushions of the dining-room chairs. The table was passed down from the homeowner’s grandfather. The room is a crafty mix of old and contemporary. Kramer and Thompson added picture-frame moldings above and below the chair rail, as well as a Stark rug from Allen Interiors, a mirror from KDR Designer Showrooms, and Circa Lighting lamps from Design & Detail. Jim Wittich of Wittich Upholstery created new drapery from a striped Clarence House fabric. On the walls, Kramer and Thompson completed a custom finish with layers of two-tone strié paint, followed by metallic faux bois (wood grain).
“I love that faux bois on the wall,” Kramer says. “It has this character, age, and romance that just draws you right into the room.”
