Room We Love: Balancing Act

LUCY & COMPANY'S Beth Keim had complete freedom when designing her personal assistant’s two-story, traditional brick Huntersville home. She didn’t waste the opportunity, utilizing some of her favorite techniques not often approved by other clients. While some of the design choices were bold, each one helped create a chic dining room that’s still casual enough to use every day. 

Patterned Wallpaper
Keim was thrilled to finally use this print. “I’ve always loved it,” she says. “I’ve pitched it to three or four people, and they thought it was too busy. Trust your designer!” The dining room is often the first room you see when you walk into a home, Keim says, so she’s a “firm believer” in making the room dramatic with eye-catching prints such as this one.

Black and White
In her quest to make the dining room an easy-going place that can be used regularly, Keim employed a black-and-white color scheme. “To me, anything goes with black and white,” she says. “You can kind of work off of that. It’s a neutral that goes with anything.”

Symmetry 
The dining room can feel busy. To counter that and keep it relaxed, balance elements such as chairs, mirrors, and lamps. “I’m all about symmetry. It just makes it calm to me,” Keim says, noting that it is especially important to have symmetry with patterned wallpaper. “If it wasn’t so symmetrical, it would be a bit chaotic.”