ROOM WE LOVE: A Kid’s Zone
The team at New South Home seamlessly incorporates a kiddie corner into a Matthews dining room
Melissa Lee’s clients’ two-story Matthews home was built in 1972, and the homeowners had changed a few paint colors and light fixtures since moving in five years prior, but now they were ready to modernize the choppy layout and make it more functional for their growing family. Lee and senior designer Ashley Sussman oversaw the renovation, which involved converting the formal dining room into an everyday space with a kid zone that’s visible from the kitchen. “We went from a small kitchen with a breakfast nook and a formal dining room to this open concept,” Lee says. “When the homeowner is cooking and kids are in that kid zone, she has sight lines.”
DINE IN
Lee and Sussman carried the paneling from the kitchen into the dining area and wallpapered the remaining three walls in a spa blue Akari pattern from Thibaut. “It’s a performance wallcovering so it can stand up to kids, and it has a little texture,” Lee says. “It looks like grasscloth, but it’s actually vinyl.” The blue indoor/outdoor rug, from Erin Gates Collection, adds another layer of durability. For a statement piece, Lee had an upholstered banquette custom made. “It was a splurge,” she says, “but those are the things that make the room so special.”
FLEX SPACE
“We were going to go more formal,” Sussman says, “but once we figured out their family life, there was a little bit of a switch.” The homeowner opted to put the kids’ toy kitchen in the dining area so they could “cook together” when she was preparing dinner. “We thought maybe we’d give them a storage piece there, but right now, bringing some sort of toy in was better,” Sussman says. “Eventually they can turn it into a homework area.”
ON VIEW
As they had a design meeting over Zoom one day, the homeowner spotted Sussman’s Pottery Barn corkboard in the background. “She loved them so much,” Sussman says. “I told her she needed the one with the gold frame and it would work there.” They hung the boards above the toy kitchen to display artwork and added gold gallery lights from Visual Comfort to add some dimension and ambience.
