If you’re here for the first time, welcome! I’m Jana Bek, an Ann Arbor, Michigan based interior designer with a lifestyle line of home DÉCOR, TEXTILES, & LIGHTING. I have a love for bright colors, bold prints, and designing spaces & home décor that help transport you to your dream destination.

I’m so excited to be included in my tenth season of ONE ROOM CHALLENGE (ORC)! If you are new to ORC, this “competition” is merely against yourself to transform a room in your home at top speed. Everyone ends up a winner, and if you’re participating this season, I wish you the best of luck in working towards your reveal!

As a refresher, this season I’m designing our dining room for my ORC, you can catch up on all the reasons why in WEEK’S 1 POST.

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Our family is delighted with the transformation, and it really makes my heart happy, because they all played a big part in it coming together! My oldest son, Zeb, lead the effort with hanging our stunning Serenity chandelier, and my hubs and I hung the grasscloth together. The boys were away for the final stretch of us pulling everything together so, when they arrived home and exclaimed how much it was transformed, it made me so happy!

Is there anything better than design compliments from 19 and 21 year old young men? I’ve decided there is not. 

We cannot wait to have company over! It finally feels like a warm, inviting space that you want to stay and linger in. I also wanted room to feel romantic, and by playing up the green accents, I feel like I struck a balance of romance without it feeling too feminine. 

The chandelier was integral in adding drama to the room, and the alabaster petals add the fresh elegance I was looking for.

One of my biggest challenges was figuring out how to bring warmth into this space while highlighting the natural light that comes in from our windows. I chose to pair a beautifully textured grasscloth wallpaper with a screened mirror in the darkest corner of the room to capture the light the large round mirror brings in. I’m thrilled with how much light this brings to the dining room, and throughout our home!

The table setting is what brings everything to life! The strawberry pattern on our china pops against the sage and blush linens and emerald vases. And to complete the ambiance, I brought in gorgeous floral arrangements by the talented team at University Flower shop, and I am excited to feature them here, in the coming weeks! Their designs are so inspiring, and the ladies behind the arrangements are so knowledgeable and creative, it’s always a delight to partner with them!    

Thank you for following along on my ORC! We’re really looking forward to when we can comfortably invite over friends and family to enjoy the space together. Spending so much time at home has me rethinking other rooms, and some subtle updates have my wheels turning. So, stay tuned for other updates, and for interim inspiration, follow me on INSTAGRAM, and PINTEREST!

If you’re here for the first time, welcome! I’m Jana Bek, an Ann Arbor, Michigan based interior designer with a lifestyle line of home décor, textiles, & lighting. I have a love for bright colors, bold prints, and designing spaces & home décor that help transport you to your dream destination.

I’m so excited to be included in my tenth season of One Room Challenge (ORC)! If you are new to ORC, this “competition” is merely against yourself to transform a room in your home at top speed. Everyone ends up a winner, and if you’re participating this season, I wish you the best of luck in working towards your reveal!

As a refresher, this season I’m designing our dining room for my ORC, you can catch up on all the reasons why in week’s 1 post.

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With the devastating climate of our country, I’ve been inconsistent in my postings, it feels so trivial, but I’m doing my best to get back into the swing of things.

This week, I’m excited to reveal the stunning Hudson Valley light fixture that will be incremental in transforming the space, and the other new items I’m layering in to round out the design, and bring it to life. 

Serenity Light Fixture

Could there be a more elegant and romantic light fixture? The stunning stone pieces will add an air of delicacy to this otherwise heavy space. I love mixing metals, and that this fixture harmoniously blends gold leaf and polished stainless steel, is a beautiful relief to the outdated stance that a space should reflect one metal finish.

SHOP THIS LIGHT

Some insights I took away from Eddie Ross’s gorgeous tablescapes are: reinforcement of color, varying item heights, and adding a bit of fun for personality. As the palette is emerald to aqua, and pinks to reds, I wanted to vary the decor to create a rich layer of colors. Since the artwork is predominately fuchsia, I wanted to only add subtle hints of pink to prevent the room from looking overly feminine. I love that the water glasses walk a fine line between gray and pink, and the dinner napkins add another layer of soft blush. The simple white taper candles will add some nice height to the mix, and the star hurricanes will hold some ethereal arrangements to play up the romance.

I’m playing up the aqua to green spectrum with some of Frontgate’s gorgeous ceramics. Three of these vases will add some aqua to the table, and the planters will add touch of emerald (and gorgeous pattern). 

As pieces are coming in, I’m very excited with how it’s looking, but two integral items to the design will be arriving just before the photoshoot, so I have some harried days ahead! Join me next week for what the final items are, and (hopefully) some sneak peeks of my progress!

For interim inspiration, follow me on INSTAGRAM, and PINTEREST!

If you’re here for the first time, welcome! I’m Jana Bek, an Ann Arbor, Michigan based interior designer with a lifestyle line of home décor, textiles, & lighting. I have a love for bright colors, bold prints, and designing spaces & home décor that help transport you to your dream destination.

I’m so excited to be included in my tenth season of One Room Challenge! If you are new to ORC, this “competition” is merely against yourself to transform a room in your home at top speed. Everyone ends up a winner, and if you’re participating this season, I wish you the best of luck in working towards your reveal!

As a refresher, this season I’m designing our dining room for my ORC, you can catch up on all the reasons why in last week’s post. This week I’ll be sharing my inspiration for the space, and next week I’ll focus on how I’m “shopping” my house for pieces to bring the room to life. 

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These months of social distancing have me thinking about how easy it was to take friendships and togetherness for granted. And as we set our sights on a brighter future, what better way to reconnect than the Classic Dinner Party? By this I have in mind the sort of gatherings that are both relaxed and elegant; and where lingering, multiple conversations, and laughter are really the “main course.” To bring this about, every detail needs to be considered and layered; and it must all look effortless at the same time. 

I want to romance our guests with lingering nights of food and friendship.

As it is now, our dining room is heavy and not well integrated into our open floor plan. It’s the sort of space where we tend to eat and move on to other areas like the kitchen and living room. But with motivation from ORC, inspiration from great designers like Eddie Ross, and my renewed appreciation for togetherness, I want to romance our guests with lingering nights of food and friendship.

Photography by Trevor Dixon

When “pinning” inspiration, it wasn’t lost on me that many of my favorite finds were of Eddie Ross’s design. His vast portfolio (and fabulous Instagram feed), are filled with magical dining rooms and decor. This garden room he designed for House Beautiful is exactly the vibe I’m hoping to capture, and his dreamy tablescapes have my wheels turning too. 

So, in a nutshell, my goal is to create a design that includes nods to nature, romance, and light, neutral pieces to break-up the heavy wood dining set. An abundance of florals and fauna will instantly add warmth and energy to the room.

Sometimes the right pieces are already in your home.

When redecorating a room in my house, I typically start by “shopping” from my own house first. I find that pulling decor from other rooms in my house (or second home), is a great way to integrate the space in with the rest of the my home, while giving me a chance to enjoy some of my beloved pieces in a new light. That’s why I’m very excited to layer some pieces from old Brooklyn apartment into the space.

An Oversized Mirror

This room gets terrible light, so our oversized mirror (60” in diameter – it’s 1” shorter than me!) will replace the art where the buffet table was, and reflect the light from the windows beautifully.

A Mirrored Screen

Then, speaking of amping up the light, and romance, our stunning mirrored screen will sit in the darkest corner, and reflect the light of the oversized mirror.

A colorful print

One of the few pieces I’m keeping in the space is the Paule Marrot birds print. I recommend in splurging on art that you’ll enjoy forever, and the rich emerald and blush tones, and lush tropical branches, make it a perfect fit for an enchanting room.

Our Family China

I’ll also be using our Wedgewood Wild Strawberry china, a wedding gift passed down from my mom. I love how it will “talk” to the tropical artwork and greenery I layer into the room.

I hope you’ll join me next week where I’ll show you how I’m further shopping my house, and the stunning light fixture that will be this room’s anchor!

For interim inspiration, follow me on INSTAGRAM, and PINTEREST!

If you’re here for the first time, welcome! I’m Jana Bek, an Ann Arbor, Michigan based interior designer with a lifestyle line of home décor, textiles, & lighting. I have a love for bright colors, bold prints, and designing spaces & home décor that help transport you to your dream destination.

I’m so excited to be included in my tenth season of One Room Challenge (ORC)! If you are new to ORC, this “competition” is merely against yourself to transform a room in your home at top speed. Everyone ends up a winner, and if you’re participating this season, I wish you the best of luck in working towards your reveal!

Here’s a look at some of my past ORCs:

This round I’ll be tackling our dining room. If you happen to follow me on Instagram, you’ll realize it’s a room I never share, and this is why:

It’s cold and heavy with the wood dining set blending into the floors. Then there’s the baby elephant in the room; the too-small, sad, high hung light fixture. We opened up the main floor and this room went from hidden through a doorway to being really visible, and now it sticks out as a sore thumb. 

My main goals are to make this room stand out in contrast to the adjacent spaces, but still keep a sense of cohesion; and definitely warm it up so it feels inviting. That said, what inspired me to finally transform the space is that I love to cook, and usually guests engage in, and around, the kitchen.

In January, I received my first copy (in a gifted subscription to “Flower” magazine, and many of the stunning stories end up, at heart, illustrating what it means to be a proper hostess and truly delight your company. I instantly fell in love with the all too rare art of entertaining. When I can finally have guests over again, I know I’ll find joy in all aspects of doing just that: welcoming them into a space that’s open yet still intimate, and inviting. I can’t wait to celebrate the outcome of this ORC!

I hope you’ll join me next week where I’ll walk you through my design inspiration for the room, and in the coming weeks where I’ll show you how I’m shopping my house, and the stunning light fixture that will be this room’s anchor!

For interim inspiration, follow me on Instagram, and Pinterest!