art of concealment

Despite having French doors on two sides of the room, large double windows, and a white-painted ceiling, the dining room in this 1897 Tudor Revival appeared dark and two-dimensional. A garage hard by the house meant the blinds on the window facing the table were kept closed, keeping the room perpetually dim. David Heide Design Studio completely reconceived the wall,

deepening the existing arched recess to accommodate a new, period-style buffet with art-glass cabinets and a beveledmirror backsplash. Heide replaced the windows over the buffet with a threepanel art-glass window featuring clear and pastel translucent and bull’s-eye glass. Period double sconces on either side of the triptych play up light and the sparkle of the existing crystal chandelier. All of the extra glazing reflects and amplifies the light coming into the room.

While the rhythms of the buffet add another three-dimensional element, Heide further enhanced the room’s architectural lines with a favorite paint palette: soft cinnamon brown on walls and pale rose on the ceiling. “It makes the white on the woodwork pop,” says Heide. “You see the architecture in a different way when there is contrast between the wall and the casing.”

A re-creation of a grand built-in buffet and a triptych art-glass window brought life to a listless Tudor Revival dining room and also resolved a problem: the original windows had looked out over a garage roof just seven feet away.