Welcome to the Blue Leopard Interiors Blog! I’m so glad you’re here! My name is Justine Dennen, and I’m the owner of Blue Leopard Interiors, a boutique residential interior design firm in Great Falls, VA. Although I’ve been in business as a designer for five years, this blog is brand new! For my journey into interior design and a little more about my current and former homes, check out my very first blog post here.
I’m thrilled to be participating for the first time in the Fall 2022 One Room Challenge!! In case you haven’t heard of the One Room Challenge, it’s an eight week online event which happens every spring and fall, where interior decorators, and home bloggers, undertake redesigning or designing from scratch a room of their choosing, while sharing the progress along the way. It’s not a competition, as there is no winner, just a supportive group of like-minded design enthusiasts challenging themselves to complete a room in eight weeks. Huge thanks to Linda Weinstein, the creator and director of the One Room Challenge.
For my first foray into this event, I’ve decided to undertake both my Dining Room and Butler’s Pantry. For before photos, and the story of why I’ve finally decided to participate in the One Room Challenge, (after following it for years!), check out this blog post, where I talk more about it. But for today, let’s jump into the details of how I plan to transform each of these rooms in eight weeks!
Butler’s Pantry Inspiration & Plans
In week one, I shared my biggest inspiration for both spaces – the Beefbar Restaurant and Bar in Paris, France, seen below – but this week, I’m focusing on my plans for the Butler’s Pantry, the little room that connects my dining room to my kitchen, so I have some additional inspiration images and mood boards I want to share with you today.
And here is my mood board for the room:
Let’s get into the details!
The Wallpaper
So as I’ve mentioned, the colors and textures of the Beefbar Restaurant interiors are very integral to my design, as well as the Art Deco influences. I knew from the start that I wanted to wallpaper my little Butler’s Pantry. Since you can see into this room from the dining room and kitchen, I knew that seeing a peek of wallpaper would add so much intrigue to the space, drawing you in to see what was there. But I also knew the colors in the wallpaper would need to work with both rooms as well. Our current kitchen cabinets are maple, just like the cabinets in the current Butler’s Pantry – but not for long! I’m in the process of redesigning our whole kitchen, and the hope/plan is to completely renovate it this winter, but I already know that I want green cabinets, a medium-toned wood island, and black and white tiles. I’ve loved the idea of a Paris Bistro-inspired kitchen for awhile, so have been planning to bring that aesthetic in through the use of brass hardware, and bistro-style lighting. With the colors in the dining room being rust red, moss green, and yellow/gold, I set out to find a wallpaper that would tie everything together while hinting toward an Art Deco vibe. One of my favorite sources for wallpaper printed in the USA is Milton & King, so when I found this stunning “Cranes” wallpaper, my search was over!
I mean, it really couldn’t have been more perfect – the colors, the style, and I happen to love Cranes, which we occasionally see in Great Falls! Cranes symbolize devotion, faithfulness, travel, open-mindedness, aspiration, longevity, immortality, and transformation, and I think their graceful forms in this wallpaper will add so much color, character, and movement to the space.
Bistro Shelves
Another big vision I had for the Butler’s Pantry was to remove the existing upper cabinets and replace them with brass bistro-style shelves. In case you’re wondering what bistro-shelves look like in the wild, here are a few of my inspiration pics:
I have been dreaming about incorporating brass bistro shelving into my home for a long time, so using it in our new Butler’s Pantry was the perfect opportunity to finally realize that vision. I was thrilled to find Soil and Oak, a small business based in Brooklyn, NY who make custom, brass bistro shelving, (as well as pretty much any metal rail shelving system you can dream up to work in your space)! I’ve been working with Jay to design the perfect unit for my space, and hopefully it will be here in a couple of weeks so we can start installing it! Check out a couple of their projects which are similar to what mine will be:
Lighting
Good lighting can make or break a room, and I see can lights as a missed opportunity to add something fabulous to a space. I’m removing all of the can lights in the Butler’s Pantry, and adding in two of these brass sconces from Safavieh on the wall above the bar:
I’ll also be installing this beauty as a ceiling pendant which I found on Bellacor :
I also plan to get replace the existing granite with quartzite or marble, add decorative sheet metal panels into the lower cabinet doors, paint the cabinets, ceiling, and trim, and replace the cabinet hardware. Besides ordering everything, all that’s been completed so far is that we managed to remove the upper cabinets last weekend, leaving us with this:
But my carpenter did a great job taking them out carefully so that they can be donated and reused 🙂
That’s all for this week – thanks for following along!
Cheers to Fab Interiors,
Justine
Here is my ORC progress
Week 1 || Week 2 || Week 3 || Week 4 || Week 5 || Week 6 || Week 7 || Week 8
