AGH Country House: Dining Room

In a long, narrow room in the center of the house is its formal dining space.

The AGH Country House’s federal-style architecture is especially prominent in this particular room. This home was built in 1840 during the late Federal Period (around 1780-1840). Homes constructed during this period were marked by several distinct architectural details of simplicity, symmetry, functional elegance and harmony. Notably, this era emerged after the American Revolution and marked a significant shift in architectural preferences that were influenced by progressive European designs of the time. The style is often associated with neoclassicism, a movement that sought to revive the classical architecture of ancient Greece and Rome. A typical Federal-style house is a two- or three-story structure with a square or rectangular shape. The design often incorporated a balanced arrangement of wings and attached dependencies for a harmonious and proportionate appearance. Other common features include tall, thin windows and elegant plaster work. Federal-style homes can be found all over the United States, but are most commonly found in the Northeast.

We had several points to start from with the existing multiple doorways, large windows and a fireplace. This dining room is essentially a pathway to all of the other areas of the home. There’s one doorway to the kitchen, one to the living room, one to the front hallway that accesses the office and upper level living spaces with lots of large windows in-between. In fact, there is a window and/or doorway on every wall. Therefore, it was all about furniture configuration in here.

When you stand at the front door, there’s a magnificent telescoping effect from the entry through the corridor and into the dining room that brings your eye to this pair of floor-to-ceiling windows. The windows overlook a fountain in the back patio underneath a pergola with a 20+ year old climbing hydrangea. It’s one of my favorite features of the house. These photos were taken in early December, so the perennial was already dormant, but I’ll update with some photos in the spring/summer.

The room’s function and subsequent configuration stumped me a little bit at first. Due to the aforementioned numerous doorways and windows, I was initially toying with the idea of setting up the space as more of a foyer/atrium with an ever-present antique table, and then bringing out some cool folding chairs (with cushions of course) when we were hosting or entertaining and needed the seating (the dining table in the kitchen is plenty for us in our regular day-to-day).

I would typically love a long, rectangular farmhouse dining table in a dining room, but here I felt that a round table might make sense so that we provided a good flow of traffic between all of the doorways and corridors coming off of this singular room. I found this vintage 60” round dining table within the first month of moving in. Old homes have plenty of quirks, and this home is no exception. Everything (doorways included) tend to be a little bit smaller, so we had to temporarily remove the door to the living room off its hinges to even get this table inside. I loved the table, but the room didn’t feel finished as-is, so I added these linen slipcovered chairs which made a big difference (and are so comfortable). This entire home mixes antique/vintage patinaed hard surfaces with soft linen upholstery, and the furnishings in this space are a continuation of that. At some point, I may try switching out the current round table for a rectangular one. The fun thing about working on my own homes is that they act like design labs of sorts for me without the pressure or expectation to have everything perfect and permanent.

This charcoal & ivory pinstripe bench is an updated take on a classic design which accents the large west-facing window in a thoughtful way. It has a wide, welcoming seat cushion and I love the bolster pillows with it, too. The beautiful pair of wall sconces that frame the same window are from CL Sterling & Son, but I’ve linked some very similar ones from Visual Comfort below.

One particularly unique design theme throughout this house is the painted original floors. There’s checkerboard floors in the kitchen, an octagonal pattern in the office, a solid coat of white in the front entry, and this amazing square pattern here in the dining room. As such a tremendous statement, I didn’t want to compete with this type of detail, so I selected a woven Rush House area rug in a size that was appropriate for the scale of furniture, but still allowed the floor to shine.

If I come along the right piece of art, I will add it to the space, but for now the existing architecture is enough “jewelry” for me. The best homes are slow in decisions, always.