The wallpaper we used in our Dining Room was the first design decision I made after we bought our house. I first saw and fell in love with the Zuber paper when we were in Portofino at the Hotel Splendido with Pete’s family almost 5 years ago now.

I actually went back to see if I could find the post where I crowd-sourced the maker of the paper from y’all. I did, and it’s funny how much that whole hotel influenced the design of this house- but more on that later. 

I loved that paper so hard, I still do, and wanted to wait until we were in our “forever” house until I used it. Now, who knows if we will actually be here forever, but I feel like we will be in a way I haven’t since our first house that I still miss and visit every time we are in Chicago. Choosing the dining room wallpaper inspired the color palette we carried throughout the home- pale blue, olive green, sienna toned neutrals, with pops of pink and yellow. 

The wallpaper is very fancy, and even though this house has a more grown up, formal feel than my past efforts, we didn’t want it to feel too stuffy or precious for our young family. I chose the herringbone seagrass rug and antique Louis XVI chairs that I upholstered in leather- for their durability and to balance the shishishi of the paper. The olive green trim was also chosen as an unexpected pop to tone down the femininity of the paper.

Image by Trevor Tondro for House Beautiful styling by Frances Bailey

To keep things from getting to busy- and ensure that the paper was the star of the show- we chose a barely there pale blue for the tablecloth, chandelier shades, and curtains. I wanted the curtains to mimic the style of the curtains in the living room since the rooms face each other- but be a bit more tailored and subdued. I could not be happier with the way this room turned out, it might even be my favorite in the whole house. It is.