Homeowners Devon and Richard Cushman cherish their Blanton Avenue home. It's where they fell in love, got engaged and spent their wedding night.
Updating their 1924 house, once owned by the Burke family (of Leo Burke Furniture fame), is a shared passion. But after a complete kitchen renovation, the nearby dining room looked stale. Enter interior designer Beth Scherr, who suggested painting the walls a dramatic, cinematic black — a color the Cushmans quickly embraced.
"This room is comfortable and elegant," says Devon. "It has that little bit of glamour I like for entertaining." It's an urbane style Scherr calls "Hollywood Deco." By mixing custom designs with online and chain-store finds, the dining room also seduces with clever high/low combinations.
It celebrates the Cushmans' up-to-date taste and true love for entertaining family and friends.
- WALLS Painting a room black is one of the most daring things you can do," says Stephen Drucker, editor of House Beautiful magazine. The "daring" walls are striped: High gloss gleams against flat paint. Contrasting, crisp white moldings and panels were craftAed by Bob Lang.
- FURNISHINGS Espresso-finished table and chairs are from Thomasville. A mirrored console with antiqued silver finish and a gold-leafed starburst mirror with swanky Deco rays are from Horchow.
- LIGHTING The crystal chandelier is 1930s Czechoslovakian. Rescued from the basement and cleaned by Ken Roeper of Crystal Details, it sparkles anew.
- WINDOW TREATMENTS Store-bought silk panels underscore symmetry, and the ecru color contrasts against white, evoking tuxedos, says Scherr. Laurie Canning Soft Furnishings added black decorative trim.
- FAMILY TIES portrait of Richard's grandmother, Elizabeth Powers Cushman, hangs on the wall facing the living room and is the first thing you see when you walk into the room. Royal Doulton's "Tennyson" china pattern and 1930s Devon china (collected by Devon's mother in honor of her name) mix, flanked by an antique Italian silver set given to the couple by Richard's mother as a wedding gift.
