Design an Italian dining room to evoke a Tuscan summer.
Design an Italian dining room to evoke a several hundred-year-old villa in the remote Tuscan countryside or as a contemporary ode to urban modernism in Rome. Consider using sophisticated Italian materials such as terra cotta and marble, as well as playful touches such as trompe l'oeil wall murals. The key feature of any Italian dining room is the appetite-inducing feeling of warmth, style and conviviality that makes mealtime one of the most important parts of every day.
Instructions
1. Think modern Italy with old-school roots. Incorporate high-quality Italian marble into flooring, or use a long, narrow slab to top a vintage sideboard. Choose an open wooden china cabinet to display handcrafted Italian ceramics you collect on trips abroad or order online. Group terra cotta pots filled with a variety of Italian herbs such as basil, oregano and parsley on a sunny window ledge. Use high-design contemporary Italian chairs covered in white leather with a sleek, streamlined table for a cutting-edge bistro look.
2. Take ideas from traditional Italian pizza parlors. Build a brick oven between the kitchen and the dining area if you have a passion for the perfectly puffed-up, charred crispy crust. Opt for faux finish walls in a stucco style to emulate an especially charming restaurant's warm tones. Try a heavy wooden farmhouse table with benches for seating instead of formal dining chairs. Make the room casual and playful with framed posters from Federico Fellini films.
3. Design an open-plan dining room and kitchen combination to create a connection between the cooks and the guests. Emphasize the mingling of sounds and smells between the spaces, and encourage everyone to develop and indulge a healthy appetite. Fill the windowsills with boxes of red geraniums; hang fantastic, functional cookware from iron pot holders; and install wide French doors opening onto a kitchen garden to show off the natural warmth of home-grown ingredients like tomatoes and eggplants. Select an antique iron dining table with a glass top that is suitable both for indoor use and classic Italian al fresco dining.
Tags: dining room, Design Italian, Italian dining room, , Italian dining