The Breakfast Room: 2020 Pasadena Showcase House
Breakfast room ideas! How do you put together a breakfast room that is both fun, practical AND sustainable? You draw from all the trusted furniture and accessory vendors – the same ones you sell to the trade and also use for your own design projects. For the Pasadena Showcase House 2020, I contacted our favorite vendors and we put together a breakfast room table that is colorful, comfortable, stylish, and nothing short of inspiring. The truth of the matter is that there are no rules when designing a breakfast room and we didn’t follow any either, so this year’s Breakfast Room is our intepretation of a space that I would want to start each day in.
THE THIRD TIME'S A CHARM
This year we returned to design a room for the Pasadena Showcase House for the third time. Unlike our last Showcase stint, this year we took one of the smallest rooms in the house – the Breakfast Room. There are more open doorways and windows than walls in the compact space. Windows were used along the exterior walls to offset the room size. With so much glass, light floods through the windows all throughout the day. This is what the room looked like on the first day of the Designer Walk Through:
THE DESIGN PROCESS
Completed room submissions were due 4 days from the walk-through. One thing that was different than in past years, is that this year there was a theme – sustainability. With that information, I drew up my concept and designs and put together 3D color renderings so that those on the other end could understand my design intent. At the same time I kept the theme of sustainability top of mind. This is was our original design and what we submitted way back in October 2019. We had so many creative small breakfast room ideas!
SUSTAINABILITY
We made sustainability and the idea of “conspicuous consumption with a conscience” a major theme in our breafast room design. A symphony of color, pattern, texture and material gently guides the eye throughout the room.
My recent travels to Venice, Italy inspired several design elements within the room. The attention to color and detail in each palazzo, museum, and church was simply mesmerizing. I wanted each visitor to the Breakfast Room , whether it be in real life or virtually, to experience the same feeling that I felt while visiting Venice. There are a number of delightful details at every turn, whether you look up, down, left or right. The compact size likens the room to a jewel box. The rich jewel tones, hand-blown glass, and dynamic play of design elements add to the illusion of a jewel box. This image from the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice was the inspiration behind the glass curtain that we used.
Almost floor to ceiling paned windows stretch from one end of the room to the other on two walls. We commissioned a Murano glass curtain especially for the space. Not only does it gently obscure the outdoors, but it also helps to keep the viewer’s eye focused within the room while still allowing light through the window.
The Process Behind Designing the Glass Curtain
The glass curtain blurs the view to the outside and also keeps the viewer’s eye within the room. As you can see, the color of the glass looks drastically different when hung, so we had to be very careful in specifying the colors. What may look too harsh when against a white background may be perfect when hanging in the window. Look at the difference it made in this room:
THE ARTISANS THAT MADE THE BREAKFAST ROOM POSSIBLE
The architectural elements of the room – the woodwork, ceiling and floors make up the base layer, cloaked in a warm white (Dunn Edwards White Picket Fence) and deep charcoal grey (Dunn Edwards Black Tie) On the ceiling, black tree branches and magnolia buds are hand painted by Arpy Dabbaghian of L’Artist on a high gloss white ceiling using a Japanese brush technique.
Painted white oak reverse cerused plank floors that we had imported from Italy utilize the same warm white and charcoal grey color palette. Vibrant vintage Moroccan rugs from Mehraban Rugs define the important spaces in the room and flood the room with color.
The Walls
How many creative ideas were we able to pack into our small breakfast room? A lot! We incorporated so many innovative ideas – it isn’t your average breakfast room, that’s for sure! Intermittent accents of color in the form of embroidered 3-dimensional butterflies are scattered on the ceiling between the painted branches. In keeping with the theme of sustainability, the walls are lined with a woven wallcovering made of recycled newspaper from Weitzner. The woven newsprint acts as a neutral backdrop for the artwork and vintage plate wall, both of which add vibrant bursts of color. The art on the wall consists of upcycled, deconstructed luxury goods boxes and shopping bags. The artist uses a variety of embroidery and embellishment techniques which totally transform the “designer waste”. (We carry a large assortment of upcycled designer art in our showroom ) And the painted “littles” in the built-in are by my friend, Kari Kroll and my go-to for styling bookcases!
Sustainability in the Breakfast Room - Responsible Design
The Plate Wall
The plate wall consists of a variety of vintage china patterns from Replacements, including delicate florals, Fornasetti etchings, and scenes including those from Versace that were personally selected by yours truly along with help from Julie Robbins over at Replacements. She’s a real gem!
The Breakfast Table
A maximalist spread of mismatched vintage china patterns and colored glass (also from Replacements) along with an assortment of fringed napkins, beaded coasters , and brass chargers from our friends at Kim Seybert adorn the surface of the grass cloth wrapped breakfast table, custom made at a taller counter height. The modern family often enjoys breakfast while standing and on the go so the taller counter height is perfect.
The deep blue grass cloth wrapped table surface adds texture. The catalyzed finish makes it impermeable to liquids and stains – it is a surface that combines fashion with performance. There is an unobstructed view to the pool, expansive lawn, and mature trees when seated at the breakfast table. The fashion-forward counter stools were made by Dowel Furniture in a striking, textured velvet from Clarke & Clarke through Kravet. The banquette, which isn’t seen in many of the shots because it is perched against the window, is made of a stunning art deco inspired print by Osborne and Little. The vibrant colors is a cohesive mix of almost every color in the room.
You’ve probably figured out by now that I have an obsession for glass – especially Murano glass. In addition to the glass curtain, I also incorporated a custom Murano glass and antique brass light fixture above the breakfast table. The custom fixture has translucent, hand-blown glass orbs that hang at varying heights. This was another situation in which we sketched everything to scale and sent our drawings to have it made to spec.
TELLING THE STORY
The process of designing a space is just as important as the end result. Every space we design tells a story – the process of designing, the artisans that produce the custom items we design, the history behind the art. Great design rarely happens overnight – it is comprised of different layers that all come together to collectively form one artistic canvas. I hope you enjoyed the journey of me taking you through our breakfast room and hope you gathered lots of breakfast room design ideas.
To experience the Breakfast Room and the 2020 Pasadena Showcase House in its entirety, tickets may be purchased for the virtual tour by visiting the Pasadena Showcase House website, and you’ll be able to navigate through all the spaces in high-res. In past years, no one was allowed to take pictures in the house but now you’re just a screen shot away!
All items shown in the Breakfast Room we designed are available both to the trade and public and can be customized to suit your project. Please contact us at sales@cozystylishchic for more details.
Interior Designers: Please look into joining our trade program by clicking HERE for access to our full catalog of design resources. Membership is free.
gift ideas inspired by our breakfast room
