dining room
Who to hire: More bells and whistles require more pros. A well-stocked bar, such as this crisp blue entertaining space by South Park Design Build in Toronto, would require an architect or interior designer to design the space and a contractor to build it. The building crew might include a carpenter to construct custom cabinetry, a plumber for a sink and an ice maker, an electrician to add outlets for a refrigerator and other appliances, a tile setter to install a backsplash and a painter to provide the finishing touches after the hammering is done.
3. Use lighting at different heights. Use pendant lights hung lower where you want to create a more intimate feel — over the dining table and over a sitting area, for instance. Hang them higher in more "public" spaces like the entry hall and kitchen work zones. 4. Define "rooms" with area rugs. It's one of the oldest tips in the book, but it's still worth repeating because it works. The most common mistake is using area rugs that are too small for the space. Ideally, choose rugs large enough that all of the furniture in the arrangement fits on top of it; you can always layer a smaller rug on top to add color and softness. In the dining room, get a rug big enough that you can pull your chair out from the table without bumping over the edge of the rug.
Project length: Most professionals interviewed for this article — including the creator of this bar, San Francisco interior designer Tineke Triggs of Artistic Designs for Living — say you should allow a little more than a month to add a built-in bar. However, David Miller of David Michael Miller and Associates in Scottsdale, Arizona, cautions that the more customized the project is, the longer it will take. “There’s a wide range,” he says, “but if you are building it from scratch, it may take six to eight months due to custom millwork.”
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