How to Turn a Formal Dining Room into a Glam Pool Room: Part 1

 I have some clients, a young family with 3 children who live in a fantastic mid century house on Lake Ponchatrain.  Before I joined the project, they had already renovated the house saving as many original features as possible, like the marble and terrazzo floor in the entry and great room.  They did open the kitchen to the great room, creating an enormous space that has room for two sitting areas and a dining area for 8 by the kitchen:

 

While they do entertain quite a bit, they have a very informal lifestyle, so with a large casual dining area, they didn't feel like they needed a separate formal dining room.  Furthermore, they had converted the large downstairs guest room to a t.v. room for the kids, so they didn't need another seating area.  However, they did think they would enjoy a pool table.  They had already purchased a large formal rug in shades of grey and champagne and had inherited the crystal chandelier when they bought the house.  We may replace it one day, but decided to work around it for now.

 

Since the pool room is open across the center hall to the living room, we needed to make sure it comeplemented the white, gray, and black color scheme, as well as the mix of sleek furniture with rustic accents.  You can see the cased opening to the pool room to the left in the photo below.





 

I decided that we needed a strong statement on the wall you face entering the room.  Because of pool sticks, I was hesitant to use art or a mirror for that statement, so decided that a contemporary faux treatment would be stricking.  Plus, it would give me the chance to blend the warm  and cool grays present in the existing rug and wall color.

 

 

I started off by drawing a grid of rectangles. 



I used Modern Masters metallics in a range of silvers and champagne.  The key to the technique is to keep your paint in "stripes" in the pan.

 

 

I think carefully rolled a roller in the pan, trying not to blend the paints, and rolled the stripes onto the wall.  I then quickly and lightly softened the stripes with a dry brush.

 Here's a shot with the sleek new pool table in place and the existing rug .

Next installment:  furniture and painting the trim