The Inspo for This Dining Room Makeover? A Brown Dining Set from the 2000s
When house hunting, you might be looking for something modern and minimalist, or you might be looking for an old home with quirks and character. Designer Kelsey Matyas of Kelsey Deirdre Designs and her husband were looking for the latter when they left the Upper West Side for the suburbs in May 2024 and traded their one-bedroom apartment for a 1920s center-hall Colonial in Maplewood, New Jersey.
“We came from a prewar building in the city, so we didn’t want something cookie-cutter or builder-grade,” Kelsey says. “That’s part of the reason why we fell in love with this house. It was a nice transition from the classic design of the city.”
A top priority? The dining room. “It’s the first room you see when you walk in,” she says. “I wanted it to feel soft and whimsical with a traditional feel to it.” The space had potential, but the builder-grade gray walls and basic pendant light meant the vintage-inspired transformation would be striking.
An Ethan Allen dining set the brown color palette.
The table and chairs, along with her parents’ sideboard, became the anchor of the room.
She softened the space with a dreamy, hand-painted-style wall covering — Canopy in Overcast by Quercus & Co., a paper she found at Studio Four NYC — and painted the ceiling and trim a matching brown (Benjamin Moore’s Maple Shadows). “Our dog’s name is Maple, so that was a little personal touch,” Kelsey adds.
The unexpected jumping-off point was Kelsey’s parents’ Ethan Allen dining set, which they had purchased about 15 years prior. “We grew up at the dining table. It’s traveled all over the East Coast — from Jersey to Florida and back — and when we bought this house they asked us if we wanted it,” Kelsey says.
A mirror and chandelier add a bit of modernity.
Above the credenza, she installed a custom mirror from L.A.-based studio Parts + Assembly. “I didn’t want anything to cover up the wall but also wanted something unique that would modernize the space,” she says.
But Kelsey’s favorite element is the stone chandelier from Lucent Lighting. “I love alabaster,” she says. “It’s one of my favorite pieces in the space and [also] helps it all feel a bit more modern.”
The dining room gets everyday use.
Although it’s technically a formal dining room, the space is Kelsey’s family’s everyday spot to eat. “We don’t have a kitchen table, so this is where we eat all our meals,” she says. “I love that it feels elevated but still lived-in.” While she has completed other rooms in the home, such as the office, living room, and nursery, the kitchen and bathrooms are still on her to-do list.
Kelsey is currently designing a client’s early 1900s home in Rye, New York, and they used her own dining room as a jumping-off point. “They saw this room and loved it,” she says. “It’s cool to think that something personal has become a little source of inspiration for someone else’s home.”
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