So weird, I swear I posted a moodboard ten minutes ago? Apologies if it re-appears and this is a duplicate.

Here's the images again. Sorry, Houzz makes it difficult to copy and paste them.

Sorry but I would NEVER use those two items together.

Never, me either.

Quirky is not the problem. I would use one or the other items, but never the two together. Quirky is like salt..................a bit makes it interesting..........too much makes it unpalatable.

I couldn't really use them in the same room, and then I decided to look at the fixture and it came in another color, so I used it, but in a different room. A bedroom and adjoining bath: The fixtures aren't white, they are Kohler Sandbar.

Though I don't participate, I enjoy everyone's contributions. I'm especially excited that some of you think "I would never...". This is a great opportunity to display creativity and demonstrate how you would work around a client's must-haves. It's no fun if it's always easy!

Palimpsest, I like the tonal colors and particularly like the bathroom tile. Reminds me a bit of the bathroom in our second house, which had original wall tile from 1954.

This is probably a terrible cheat but technically you didn't say how it had to be used, so I cut it up and upholstered the Eames Sofa Compact with it. For some reason the fixture would not copy with a transparent background.

Not my usual colors at all, so it's also not my usual style, but have at it!

That chandlier must call for a tulip table. I like the more modern take Palimpsest. And I think it's interesting that we seem to be gravitating to a more modern look with these items? I confess ignorance here. The chandelier would be considered modern? But not so much the rug?

The rug looks just like a popular Waverly pattern (or Schumacher?) called Savoy, very popular in the early nineties, our sun porch in Ladue MO was drenched in it in green.

I used a wall color of Tomato Red by Benjamin Moore, British colonial campaign style furniture, abstract print and art glass by Dale Chiluly on the cocktail table. Palms by Mother Nature.

Apologies-- yes, the intent was to use a challenging, unusual combination. If it's too much for you, use just one item, or adapt it as Pal and Kswl have above.

We're just having fun here, right? If anyone wants to take over or alternate, I'm all for it.

Jlc, I think this is far more of a "real world" difficulty than any of the other challenges, as an actual client is bound to have an ugly but treasured possession one must work around. I had no problems cheating on the color, lol....I guess if it were an actual situation I would have spirited away the chandelier and spray painted it white, to the client's chagrin.

Although I really enjoy this fantasy decorating I have to say I am glad I am not a designer by trade because I don't think I could put up with clients or their stuff :-). Hats off to the real professionals among us!

I would call the rug pattern "traditional", the Thibaut paper and fabric I used in my first board are essentially the same pattern at a different scale, and think it is also an older pattern.

The fixture is definitely contemporary.

I think the problem is that they are two completely different expressions of the same thing, which are often hard to combine, but my primary difficulty in using them together is that the rug is a coral/peach color and the fixture is blood red, with a purplish undertone. If the fixture glass was more of an orangey red it's possible it could be combined with the rug in the right context.

I think the fixture would work fine in certain traditional setting but the traditional rug that comes to my mind is one with the typical dark red ground of a Persian rug.

I also think this sort of fixture presents a real-world issue in and of itself.

This fixture has a very strong design point of view.

When you use a fixture like this I think there are two basic options, one of which is to use the fixture in a room in which all of the other elements have been "suppressed". The other is to use the fixture in a room where all of the other elements are as Baroque as this fixture.

In either case I think all the other elements have to be of equal quality to the fixture.

Currently, this is the sort of fixture that is used as a "splurge" in rooms filled with otherwise ordinary stuff, and I think this tends not to work. Particularly in an open plan (and I feel like I tend to see this in the Building A Home forum a lot) where there are wildly different fixtures and other types of "splurges" scatttered here and there and the end result ends up looking like a lighting and accessories store. (And underfurnished with cheap window treatments to boot, because all the money was spent where it could be amortized, and none was left over for furnishings.)

And here it is! Waverly Savoy in berry.......discontinued about a million light years ago:

http://www.sailrite.com/Waverly-677710-Savoy-Circa-Berry-54-Fabric

kswl2, I like how you went bright.

Palimpsest, thank you for the explanations.

Designers walk a thin line of working with the items the client brings to the project and gently guiding a vision for the room. Designers are often made aware of products and materials the general public has no idea exists and can often bring more to the table that might have not even been imagined at the beginning of a project.

If a client is looking to formulate the design and simply asking for someone to do the shopping and coordination, they're not looking to hire a 'designer', but simply a shopping service. I am not saying that designing a project is not collaborative between the client and designer. Designers as artists are aware the the results they leave behind on a project advertises their ability & talent to other potential clients, and usually want to provide a functional and visually stimulating result with a pleased client.

Beverly, I like the strong colors.

jlc712, you and I both went for faux bamboo. I like the drinks!

Thanks, crl. When I start with such a bold item like the red coral chandelier, it's important to reiterate the color in the room to reinforce the effect IMO. My dining chairs are also bamboo from McGuire, Cracked Ice Chairs.

I struggled a bit with the coral/peach vs. blood red colors a bit, and ended up going with a palette of adjacent colors on the color wheel spanning the two colors. I waffled about the wall color and ended up with two slightly divergent designs with many common elements. The poster ended up being the keystone, color-wise. I think the first one is a bit beachier:

This one isn't very beachy at all.

Frankly, I think the colors of the rug and light fixture are truly horrible and not much would improve them. The rug, in particular, is a spectacular fail because the background color should have been white, not beige. The darker background doesn't look beachy in the least, even though it is obviously designed with the inherently coastal coral motif.

I like jlc's rendition.

Beverly's is my favorite so far, and I think it is due to the fact that she omitted the rug and made a tight design around the light fixture with just reds and neutrals. Plus the individual elements are pretty cool (dining chair, table, sideboard, and artwork, especially).

Palimpsest bed/bath. I love the painting. The flesh tones remind me of a long-ago DAT (animal prints, maybe) where you put together a mostly flesh-toned design.

Crl_ #2: I like the furniture in this one for a beach house. I think I would probably color-shift the paint more toward aqua (but maybe not, if the blue was playing off a beach view).

Palimpsest dining: I think I like the rug pattern better as upholstery, as you've used it here. I don't know if it's just the effect of the view, but the colors not quite matching doesn't bother me so much here.

I'll try to finish comments later. I have to run off to a meeting.

kswl, I dunno, cream and peach-coral seems to be a pretty standard old-school colorway for the coral branch motif right alongside white and pink-red.

That said, while I have a sort of soft-spot for this traditional sort of coral pattern as a variation on toile, it's not something that I consider very "beachy" -- I have trouble with any sort of pattern-heavy and "representational" motif used right at the beach. I think you can use pattern, but my tendency would be more toward a stripe or an abstract like batik patterns.

I visualize the rug pattern in particular as a variation on the fabric and wallpaper I used in the bedroom, a variation on "toile-covered-women's fussy-bedroom". I think the rug could be used as a contemporary pattern, but to me it reads "feminine" which is probably sexist, but I don't think most guys would want it in their den.

I think the light fixture is a restaurant fixture. Or the fixture in a black dining room. I like Beverly's design board a lot: it's visually striking, but to me it reads "urban" not "seaside". Same with Cawaps. They are striking, but too oppressive for the beach.

I don't think either of mine work that well either. I would never use a red like this at the beach. I want to replace the red fixture with the white one or an aqua one and reupholster in something other than red. I think that Marcolo said about a couple of mine in the kitchen forum that my designs worked "in spite of " the element being designed around instead of because the item being designed around being so great.

When the phrase 'beach house' is used, many posters immediately identify with their own perception of 'beach' which could mean Florida beach, Virginia beach, Nantucket beach or Cape Cod beach, but there's also Big Sur, Palm Beach, Cabo, Balinese beach, Miami Beach & South Beach. All have very different beach vibes from the typical white washed pastels we're accustomed to, but all are beaches.

Many posters struggled with the dark red tones of the pendant and the peach tones of the rug; do they take the red path or the peachy orange path in developing their vision. That is why I would never have used the two objects in the same room or even house. Here are other red coral rugs that might have worked better with the red coral pendant. Using one of these rugs would have set the schemes in a totally different direction.

I've been enjoying everyone's ideas for this one. Here's my contribution. It's hard to tell from the photo, but the flower on the off white pillows has both orange and deep red, as does the glass bowl on the coffee table. This was a challenging one, thanks for posting it, jlc712!

Edit to add: this is meant to be a laid back west coast kind of room. I couldn't find a west coast background window photo that would work though, so use your imagination. Think fiery sunsets and star gazing over the Pacific :)

Maybe it is my monitor Pal, but the rug is decidedly NOT cream and peach---which I agree is a time honored, old lady beach scheme, replete with shells :-) The background is beige-y yellowish and coral motif is a rust / dark orange---no coral or salmon color, no light orange, just dark rust. I wish I knew what others are seeing; on my device it's just ugly! I have mixed feelings about the coral motif; it's an interesting shape and real coral comes in an electrifying array of colors, but something about it screams "rental" to me, probably from traumatizing years of Florida hotel room stays.

Beverly, I like the rugs you posted! And your room as well, picking up the dark tones in that red fixture with black, great idea and result.

Pendant next to perhaps a better image of the original hooked rug.

Here's my first attempt at a DAT and first time using Olioboard. I kind of took Palimpset's advice and ran with the more is more idea. It ended up being kind of Hollywood Regency goes to the tropics, though that wasn't intentional. The pattern in the back is a bamboo trellis wallpaper, possibly on the lower half of a wall. The fabric on the chairs isn't right, but the idea would be to use the two blues in the sofa fabric in a small geometric or dot. Not sure if it counts as a design around this though, since the rug and light are no longer the stars of the show, buy parts of a whole. The deep red in the light fixture needs to be picked up somewhere, either in a throw pillow or an accessory. Thoughts?

I like this last one because it is very casual and "accumulated" looking, which is really appropriate for a beach house, I think. Accumulated and a little random is my favorite look in real life, which probably seems kind of strange when you look at my DATs which seem to revolve around obsessive use of a single color or pattern, or no pattern at all.

Kswl2 palm trees: Nice pairing of paint with the rug. I think the white fixture works well here and lets the painting really be the focal point.

jlc712: The furniture and mirror styles work well for "beach," and the white plays nicely with the rug and fixture.

Prettybluehouse: I wouldn't have thought to pair navy with these items but I quite like the combination. The floral pillows tie the elements together nicely.

Patrick: There's a lot going on in this room, but I think that it would be a fun place to hang out. The fabric on the sofa is great.

OK that was tough, but I have no experience and it was fun so thank you for the challenge! I cut up the rug and added different rug pieces to it. Now I must weep for my poor cut off seahorse candlestick that I didn't notice till it was too late!

Hmm. I don't know why it is showing up so small and cutting off part of the picture. Sorry. Click on it to see it better.

Beverly's comment, "Florida beach, Virginia beach, Nantucket beach or Cape Cod beach, but there's also Big Sur, Palm Beach, Cabo, Balinese beach, Miami Beach & South Beach. All have very different beach vibes from the typical white washed pastels we're accustomed to, but all are beaches." reminded me that we had done a beach house DAT over on the kitchens side. The background thread that introduced the topic made exactly that point (and provided a bunch of varied examples of real life beach kitchens).

Kitchen Beach House Design Around This background thread

It tells me that my picture file has too many characters, so can't post.

Sunset photo no longer available, but was from this etsy shop

Nautilus shell art from this etsy shop

prettybluehouse, I like your room. Especially the deep navy. So funny I was looking for a coffee table and grabbed that one without realizing you had already used it. Sorry!

patrickthedestroyer, very beachy. I kept trying to find things with both the orange and the red in them (pillows or art or such) and did not come up with much.

positively patty, so cheerful! I like the cut up rug.

nosoccermom, hmm, I saw someone on the kitchen forum complaining of a similar problem. Maybe try again?

Palimpset, it's funny that you say it looks accumulated as I worried that it was too matchy-matchy because of all the rattan. I think my propensity towards that approach is based on watching Sarah Richardson putting a room together.

Cawaps, there's definitely a lot going on in the room, but I did try and limit the forms to organic shapes and the colors to the color palette from the sofa fabric. It really was about finding a fabric that included both the deep red of the fixture and the orange of the carpet. It would definitely not be a restful living room, but I think would be great for parties.
The fabric is from here:
http://www.fabricguru.com/p-fabric-by-the-yard/terrace-printed-polyester-outdoor-atlantis-1
and it comes in a couple of other color ways. It's an outdoor fabric so it should be fairly kid-friendly.

Positively Patty, The wall color reads to me as a little green, I wonder if a paler version of the pale cream in the carpet would be more restful?

Crl, finding the sofa fabric was definitely key. I like the balance between organic curves and linearity in your room.

Patty, I love what you did with the rug, and it ties everything together very well. I love the red coffee table.

Crl_, I love the artwork in this last design, both the colors and how it pulls in the beach theme.

Guess it's not meant to be, but it's a kitchen with blue cabinets and saltwater aquariums around the banquette :)

We should do a DAT on orchids...they come in the most fabulous colors...very inspiring!

I did one last design, forsaking the rug and keeping just the light fixture. I started with a house that is very clearly a beach house (or at least ocean front; there's no sand in sight). I still didn't end up with anything remotely beachy.

I think eveything in there came from 1st Dibs. The red sculpture is by William King, the black sculpture is by Won Lee, and the painting is by Teresa Elliott.

Cawaps, I liked your room with the purple sideboard.