LET IT SHINE

Interior designer José Carlino breathes new life into a former dining room.

A former dining room is reborn as a sophisticated sunroom, with a little help from interior designer José Carlino.

IN WHAT HAD BEEN A TRADITIONAL

dining room, interior designer José Carlino envisioned a sunroom that would bring a little bit of the outdoors in.

Carlino had been helping his clients redecorate the rest of their neo-Georgian house in River Hills when he showed them a deep purple wallpaper adorned with silk embroidery and hand-painted floral details that popped against the aubergine backdrop. His clients loved it.

“The wallpaper was the starting point, and then I built from there and shopped accordingly,” Carlino says.

The result is a traditional garden room with modern elements – an aesthetic Carlino dubs “new traditional.”

Every detail in the room draws inspiration from nature, starting with the rattan furniture and hand-woven jute area rug. The ceiling’s gold wallpaper creates a luminous effect.

“I wanted it to feel like a sunroom, so I did a raffia wallpaper that had a geometric design, so it looked like a lattice on the ceiling,” Carlino says.

For accent lighting, Carlino repurposed the parrot sconces made of rock crystal from the old dining room. Soft lavender trim and subtle striped lilac curtains bring levity to the space while remaining loyal to the room’s purplepalette.

Above: JoséCarlino (above right) reimagined this former dining room as a sunroom. Right and far right: Pomegranates – the fruit is a symbol of fertility, life and prosperity – became a motif. Carlino designed the pomegranateshaped finials, which were cast at a local foundry, and had hand-painted pomegranates added to the wallpaper. Left: A rendering of the project.