ROOM WE LOVE: A Durable Dining Nook

Brooke Adler had a very specific timeline when she redesigned the breakfast nook in her client’s Myers Park home. The homeowner was expecting her third baby so she needed furniture that was in stock or had a reasonable backorder date, and everything had to withstand the daily wear-and-tear of three small children. “What’s cool is that we took four basic components—table, chairs, benches, and lighting—and made them all look really interesting,” Adler says. “It’s kid-friendly, but it still looks very updated and different.”

ATYPICAL NEUTRALS

The homeowner didn’t want typical grays and soft neutrals in the dining nook, so Adler built a palette around the caramel leather West Elm barstools in the kitchen. She chose a table from Four Hands with caramel tones and woven chairs and benches from Gabby for more visual interest. “She loves texture, so we swapped in a woven chandelier from Currey & Company to tie it in with the leather and black accents from the windows,” Adler says.

DURABLE DINING

With constant food droppings from three young children, the homeowner knew she didn’t want a rug beneath the table. “Everything had to be wipeable and easy to clean,” Adler says. The furniture also needed to be compact enough to fit into the tight nook and still accommodate four people and a high chair. “Those bench stools fit under the table with no room to spare,” Adler says. “There was a whole lot of working with dimensions to make it all fit.”

TACTILE PIECES

Adler says another challenge was mixing and matching different furniture brands for a cohesive look. Since texture was so important to the homeowner, she looked for ways to complement the woven benches. “Like the black leather strapping on the Gabby chairs—it makes them different, and they don’t look like chairs you’d find anywhere else,” she says. “All of the details on the benches and light fixture work together to make that space work.”