Often your architecture will give you clues to the right furniture placement if you will only listen. I’m going to tell you about a simple decision we made in Allison’s kitchen dining area that made a big difference visually and functionally.

dining table from World Market

Here’s a shot of the dining area pre-makeover.  The architecture to listen to include a bay window bumpout, the tray ceiling shape, and the hanging light fixture.  Previously, Allison had a round table here.  It was really too small for her family, and the shape wasn’t right for the space.  The architecture called for a rectangular or oval dining table.  My favorite dining tables are pedestal or trestle tables – they afford more space for pulling in extra chairs when needed, and you won’t bump into those pesky legs at four corners.

Allison’s dining area before

We initially placed the table in the bay window nook the way you see below.  While this arrangement follows the shape of the bay window bumpout, it was kinda difficult to squeeze in behind the table to the back chairs and impossible to put a chair on both ends.

first dining arrangement

Then I looked up and noticed that the trey ceiling cut out doesn’t run in the same direction of the bay window – rather than being parallel like I’d expect, they run perpendicular to each other.

first dining area arrangement

So I decided to listen to the tray ceiling and position the table in a way that mirrors the tray above, like this:

new breakfast room arrangement

I butted the trestle table right up to the window – there’s much more room on either side of the table, and the additional chair can sit at the open end.

dining nook after

Here’s the bonus – there are two additional leaves for this table.  When company comes, Allison can extend the table into the open space in the kitchen and accommodate 8-10 guests.

Allison’s kitchen after

Ok, one other little thing to share.  There was a phone jack on the only wall available in the kitchen to hang art.  It was plopped randomly on the wall, and you can see that Allison had to work around it when hanging things on this wall.  The most frustrating thing?  Allison doesn’t have a home phone, so she doesn’t even need this outlet!

pesky phone jack

Since she doesn’t need it there, we decided to take the cover off so that we could hang art over it.

We had to remove a bunch of little screws and disconnect the wires inside to get the plate off.

We covered the exposed ends of the wires so they won’t touch when shoved into the wall cavity. Electrical tape is recommended, but we used painter’s tape we had on hand. We were able to do this ourselves because telephone and cable wiring is low voltage. Caution:  if you want to remove an electrical outlet, you should hire an electrician to do so. 

tape off the wires so they don’t touch

Once that was done, we could hang art where we wanted to – right in the middle of this wall.  So much better!

breakfast nook after

I hope you all have a great weekend.  I’m looking forward to some downtime before I gear up to start writing my training manual next week for my upcoming Psychological Staging course that I will offer this fall right here in Nashville!

Drop Allison an email ([email protected]) if you are interested in getting on a waiting list for earning your certification in Psychological Staging with me as your instructor. It will be a 3-day, in-person course that will get you ready to launch your own career in the field of home staging!