A Dorothy Draper update - What would you do? Progress

last year

last modified: last year

I love Dorothy Draper. I have a guest bedroom that is a clean slate that I would love to do in a Dorothy Draper look that is updated for a less ornate sensibility for today.

What elements would you bring in? What kind of furniture i.e. dresser, chest, bed side tables? Rugs? Lamps? Need an overhead light of some kind for sure.

A little back ground:

The bedroom is around 12 x 12, with two windows, one a double, one a single.
Flooring is light oak.
I'm a recovering thrift store/estate sale addict with a particular affection for chairs so I've committed to using the stuff I've collected over the years or getting rid of it. Some of them are below for consideration
As part of of my clean out, I found two gallons of expensive SW paint in Nearly Peach, so I painted the walls that color. I love it, looks sooo cozy. Trim is bright white gloss for Dorothy.
Queen mattress, no bed frame, gave that away so open to ideas for a bed.
I love black and white, maybe do a large stripe somewhere
No floral chintz please but would go with Brazilliance

Here's the windows:

Could I use these chairs? Black or white frames with some Dorothy approved print fabric?

Or incorporate my Milo Baughman's I fell in love with but can't figure out what to do with them (I have 8, two have arms). Please ignore the mess in my chair storage area, that's not the bedroom I'm doing.

Go big or go home, here's my plan. I have everything but the headboard and the Stanton Barbados carpet which I'll do as an area rug. My chair is slightly different, a 1940's arm chair with a lot of elegance I picked up at an estate sale in the North Shore of Chicago, many years ago.

Featured Answer

Yvonne Murphy

last year

This is our version of an updated Dorothy Draper bedroom. The draperies and lumbar pillows
are in Brazilliance, the throw was custom-made from a Brazilliance wrap, the vintage bench is from Dorothy Draper’s Viennese collection by Henredon and the chair is by Kindel, which currently has a Dorothy Draper line.

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Comments (28)

tozmo1
Original Author
last year
I also have two of these Lane side tables. Paint them and use them in the room someplace?
latifolia
last year
Not sure if it fits your Dorothy Draper theme, but I'm drawn to those rattan chairs. Vintage rattan is all the rage, and they would look great in a leafy print. Also a lot more comfortable than those tall, upright ones.
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tozmo1
Original Author
last year
LOL. too funny. I've had those rattan chairs for over 20 years. I bought 4 of them and the matching table with glass top for $200 from a neighbor who was downsizing, so who knows how old they are. They are super comfy indeed but they are sooooo large it's hard to find a place for them in the house i have now. I was going to give them to a friend but then I saw they go for around $750 each on 1stDibs and Charish so now I'm not so sure I want to just give them away. Although a neighbor who was downsizing gave me six 1956 Russel Woodard Sculptura chairs and the original table for free, so I guess I should keep passing on the good fortune.

Crazy how vintage rattan and caning is all the rage now. I have two enormous natural rattan shelving pieces I bought in 1980 that I have dragged all over the country. Never painted them thank goodness. They are quite in style now as are the 1940's Art Deco cane back dining chairs another neighbor gave me who was downsizing. Seems when people find out you'll treasure their treasures, they are happy to give them away.
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BeverlyFLADeziner
last year
Not sure how you tone down the Dorothy Draper style of 'too much is not quite enough'. Here are some red rooms.
tozmo1 thanked BeverlyFLADeziner
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Patricia Colwell Consulting
last year
I would never want to sleep in a spce with so much drapery everywhere all I would be thinking is how much dust is in the room. IMO those chairs are not appropraite for a guest room and I always start a bedroom makeover with the bedding choice IMO that drives the whole color scheme and I hate peach so can't help there .Bedrooms are a space that can be quite different from the rest of the house but I need to see your space .
tozmo1 thanked Patricia Colwell Consulting
apple_pie_order
last year
Do you have any more curvy chairs? The rattan chairs would be good. The Dorothy Draper rooms usually had furniture with graceful curves, not hard angles. https://www.chairish.com/product/4644620/vintage-dorothy-draper-style-upholstered-armchair

Awning stripe fabric would fit a simplified room. Or try cuddledown.com for large scale prints in bedding. https://www.cuddledown.com/itemdy00.aspx?ID=64,3170&T1=Z60783+403+04 or https://www.cuddledown.com/itemdy00.aspx?ID=64,3170&T1=Z60779+869+04 for example.
palimpsest
last year
last modified: last year
This is a Greenbrier suite:
tozmo1
Original Author
last year
@BeverlyFLADeziner love those pictures! Her work is waaaaay over the top but so beautiful in person. That third picture might be an idea for an overhead light and I happen to have a similar mirror in a closet that I could paint to look like the one in the pic.

@Patricia Colwell Consulting This room will be totally different from the rest of my house which is modern i.e. Thayer Coggin upholstered pieces, vintage Danish dining table, etc. The guest room is tucked far away down a hall on the lowest level of the house. You have to walk a circuitous path to see it so it can have its own little world.

@apple_pie_order Good point about the shape of the chairs. The tall ones were from an estate sale. They sat in a grand entrance hall flanking a large chest. More for looks than function. I think they are so fun. I can envision them at the Mad Hatter's tea party. The rattan chairs are just too large for the room. They are 26 inches wide and very, very deep. I'll dig in my stash to see what other chairs I have.

@palimpsest I love the Greenbrier. That's where I first saw DD's work. I had the good fortune to go there once a year for a work conference for many years. Changed jobs so haven't been for a while though and now that it's on my dime, yikes!
tozmo1
Original Author
last year
Go big or go home, here's my plan. I have everything but the headboard and the Stanton Barbados carpet which I'll do as an area rug. My chair is slightly different, a 1940's arm chair with a lot of elegance I picked up at an estate sale in the North Shore of Chicago, many years ago.
loobab
last year
You are in luck, well-made traditional case goods go for a song, younger people just aren't interested in it.

These pieces however may show the slings and arrows of their age. so inspect well, and decide what you can live with.

Many have been well taken care of.

I wouldn't be quick to paint over quality pieces, the "shabby chic" look is not the Dorothy Draper look you are trying to achieve.

While you will be able to find quality furniture for a great price, finding quality curtains that are not faded, torn and suit the measurement of your place will be far harder.

Aim for not-faded, and if they are larger, you can have them cut down, and the frills and furbelows of yesteryear reduced somewhat.

You do need a great craftsman, though.

Ditto for upholsterer.

Please comb your charity shops and give them all index cards with your information to call you when things come in.

I don't know what part of the country you live in, and what type of style you like, and how large the room is.

There are a lot of style resources you can turn to for traditional decorating ideas.

There is still a lot of traditional decor in the American South that might inspire you, as well as traditional decor in English homes.

Good luck, and please keep us posted!
elcieg
last year
last modified: last year
Paint stripes on the peach wall:

Paint the two end table black.
tozmo1 thanked elcieg
Aphaea
last year
tozmo1, can you tell me where you are getting the headboard.
tozmo1
Original Author
last year
@loobab I'm so lucky, decades of thrift stores, estate sales and generous neighbors who were downsizing have resulted in a garage full of very high quality furniture, not the less well made stuff sold today. I actually have everything in the picture (the dresser and mirror are not the actuals but very close, mine are tucked away in storage) except the headboard, overhead light and sisal/wool area rug (Stanton Barbados) which I'll purchase new. Mom's marble lamp from the early 60's, a walnut dresser from a neighbor when I lived in Chicago, needlepoint rug, and the horse head table I've been trying to place for years, etc.

No shabby chic for sure but Dorothy was all about white painted furniture, high gloss enamel of course. :-)

I'm a former drapery maker and just snagged some gorgeous white glazed linen for the shades which I'll dress up with grosgrain ribbon to form the Greek key design.

I'm in North Carolina and my upholsterer works for a high end soft goods furniture maker in High Point by day. He does upholstering on the side on weekends and is magnificent. I'm spending $145/yd for the Brazilliance, so I want the best.

I'm really not a traditional fan, my house is very mid century modern but i just love Dorothy Draper's style and gotta do it now or get rid of all this stuff I've collected over the years. I agree too bad younger folks reject just about all older furniture. In my area there are tons of auctions houses that are selling great stuff for a song. I can see not doing an entire house traditional Hinkley Harris, but a piece here or there is great.

@elcieg I actually pondered doing black and white stripes but the room isn't real big 12.5 x 12.5 with an 8ft ceiling, so I felt a big stripe might not work. That's why I went with the stripe on the headboard but I will consider it again. It's an evolving project.

The black table is intriguing. I was going to do two white pieces but maybe one should be black. I'll play with that.

I just have to get the ceiling replaced (plumbing issue above, popcorn, just going to replace it) and then I'm off to decorating.

Thanks for the ideas!
tozmo1
Original Author
last year
@Aphaea I'm probably going to order it from Rulala https://www.ruelala.com/boutique/product/191257/159857312/?dsi=DIR-1909838687--08273e8d-1e2d-4356-9c4a-2c00150c7dea

I have to go out of town in three weeks so I'm going to order it when i get back from that trip so won't be able to speak to the quality of it till then. I'm a little concerned about it since it's not returnable. If I chicken out, there is a drapery fabric store in my area that will custom make one but the price will be CRAZY!!!! compared to this one.
tozmo1
Original Author
last year
Thanks @Yvonne Murphy, for sharing. I love it. Brazilliance won me over also. So far all I've gotten done in the room is reupholstering an estate sale chair I've had for a long time in Brazilliance (shown here at the upholsterer's who I want to adopt, he's so brilliant), and a Capiz shell light fixture hung (inspiration from @BeverlyFLADeziner above). I've ordered a wool/sisal area rug that I absolutely fell in love with but it's not here yet. Interesting that my old chair from a now defunct Chicago furniture company, Homer Bros., is very similar to the one in Kindel's Draper line. More to come as things get finished.
justcallmepool
last year
Omg I want that chair!! 🤩🤩
tozmo1 thanked justcallmepool
Mrs. S
last year
Oh, what great ideas. I want to follow this. Thank you for posting!
tozmo1 thanked Mrs. S
la_la Girl
last year
Oh that chair is fabulous! 🤩
tozmo1 thanked la_la Girl
Yvonne Murphy
last year
You knocked it “out of the park” with that chair. I was keen to have a DD chair by Kindel until I saw the pricing (which I could not justify for a bedroom). Your chair is very similar to the Brazilliance-covered chairs in the Colony Hotel’s lobby (decorated by Carleton Varney). Our room also includes a commode inspired by DD’s exuberant Brazilliance Commode and which hides corded, electronic equipment.
tozmo1
Original Author
last year
Fantastic! A very close match. @Yvonne Murphy. Some day I hope to stumble upon an Espana chest at a thrift store. A girl can dream.
ShadyWillowFarm
last year
Love your ideas and vision! But for the love of Houzz, speed it up please!!! 🙂
tozmo1
Original Author
last year
@ShadyWillowFarm LOL, I agree, this is taking forever. When I started in April, I thought I was way ahead of my Thanksgiving guests. Once the area rug I've ordered is in I can start moving furniture in place and really make some headway.
Yvonne Murphy
last year
A great source for Espana Chests is eBay. Ours was a “barn find” from Salt Lake City and is a first generation Espana, made by Heritage. Prices have been declining lately, too (I am monitoring for a second one). We also snagged an original 1940’s DD Monte Carlo Chest (from Beverly Hills) from eBay. Happy treasure hunting!!
tozmo1
Original Author
last year
last modified: last year
It's coming along slowly.

Want to add some pillows but I have only scraps of Brazilliance left so I'll piece them together for a few pillows. Found this vintage kettle cloth drapery piece in my stash that might work on a pillow or...

I have several yards of this kettle cloth texture fabric with a jungle motif. Which one to use?

Lamp on the right is my mother's much prized marble lamp with a new shade on a horse head table I got a Habitat. Lamp on the left is a glass thrift store find with a gold leaf shade. It's on the first piece of furniture my parents bought so please don't tell me it doesn't go with the look. I"m using it.

My reupholstered Brazilliance estate chair with a serigraph I found at an apartment's dumpster in the area. Gotta hang it but it's a two person job so have to wait. Wanted to pull some black and white to that side of the room so I put my thrift store silk shantung shade on a thrift store lamp. The shade has a label in it from a now defunct high end Miami lamp store, so I'm going Carlton Varney on this too with the Palm Beach influence. I have a small chest I need to pull out of the garage to put beside the chair.

Loving my wool and sisal area rug, my only real purchase for this room.

And finally used a needlepoint rug I got in a thrift store as a wall hanging behind the dresser and mirror a neighbor gave me when she downsized her Chicago home. Mirror's not perfect but it's what I have till I find my black and gold one.

Company coming for Thanksgiving, hope I'm ready.

And of course window treatments but that probably won't make the cut for Thanksgiving as my sewing machine is acting up. I'll be digging into the rest of the thrift store art and accessories in the garage to finish it up.

I've decided it's use it or recycle it (again)!

Let me know which fabric you think looks best on the bed.

Thanks,
apple_pie_order
last year
The palm leaf chair is wonderful. The room is interesting, not ho-hum bland.
tozmo1 thanked apple_pie_order
justcallmepool
last year
I love both of those fabric options! I don’t think you can wrong either way. Can you put one on the bed and one on the chair? Or use both and mix up the sizes.
tozmo1 thanked justcallmepool
ginatay124
last year
From a lover of color - thanks so much for brightening our day by sharing :). So cool! Just a thought - would your two matching Lane tables fit on either side of the bed? Than it would free up the darker wood table from the right side of the bed to place next to your amazing chair. (To me, the lighter table on the left side of the bed is a bit off.). Also, maybe place a book or shallow box under the shorter bedside lamp to make the lamps the same height. . .