I, along with hundreds of thousands of others, saw the new installment of Harry Potter this past weekend. Did anyone else notice that all the bad guys had the best interiors? Maybe it was just me. But the Ministry of Magic? Come on. It was the most sleek, stunning, and moody space I have ever seen. I had a hard time paying attention to the plot because I was so mesmerized by the set! Let's see if I can recreate the look for the everyday Muggle.
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| All above images from http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/harrypotterandthedeathlyhallows/mainsite/index.html |
Because all of the black is so dramatic, there are only a few rooms in your home where you could pull this look off. Think powder rooms, laundry rooms, formal dining rooms, and other rooms where you don't spend a lot of time. I wouldn't recommend tiling a formal dining room in high-gloss tile, but I would recommend wrapping a dining room in a black tone-on-tone Greek key wallpaper (
DesignYourWalls). There are two schools of thought when it comes to going uber dark in a room: it either closes a room in, or makes a room seem larger. I tend to lean towards the latter. When walls are that dark, they seems to disappear into the background, expanding a space. Don't be scared of saturated color! To continue the geometric motif, I would layout a gold and black Greek key rug (
Surya) in the center of the room and then soften these hard visual lines with black dupioni silk drapes (
HalfPriceDrapes).
For the furnishings in this room I wanted to go traditional and lacquered with lots of gilding. 1st Dibs, as always, came to the rescue! The table is
Louis XVI from France (with the hefty price tag of $24,000! This is definitely a fantasy room) and the side chairs are
hand painted klismos Colefax & Fowler chairs, all circa 1940's. I'd swap out the leopard upholstery (shocker, I know) for some luxurious pleated gold silk (
Duralee) to keep with the gold and black theme. Now this is where it gets exciting. I found the most PERFECT chairs to use as captains chairs. I don't think I could have custom designed more appropriate chairs! They are
19th century English gilt-wood armchairs with ebonized owl-form arm supports and upholstered in black silk. Here, let's take a closer look:
Aren't you just dieing over these? Amore. And what would a formal dining room be without a bar? I would add Suzanne Kasler's tuxedo cabinet (
HickoryChair) to add some drama and height and flank it with gold sconces with black shades (
PotteryBarn). I would add a large gold chandelier (
Arteriors) over the table and set the table in gilded china (
BedBathandBeyond) and flatwear.
Do you think I was successful in creating a usable room for us Muggles or should we leave this look for the Death Eaters?
