Past the entryway and bar is our living room. A wide washed red brick fireplace centers the room, sitting on a wall that runs right into the dining room. When styling the living room my primary goal was to separate these two rooms. My first thought was to make this a feature wall and define the space.

Travertine

I’ve always admired Travertine. It’s a beautiful cream-color natural stone with many variations. Often you’ll find in it streaks of silver and translucent white. And I had this relentless thought of using it as a wall accent. I found Travertine tiles in 18” x 18” and thought they were a perfect fit.

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But I didn’t love how they looked up against the wall; they were missing some sort of frame. And so, I decided to back them with prefinished maple wood in a light finish. And that did the trick!

Books & Art

Dressing up the wall to the right of the fireplace meant that I had to balance the left side, for visual weight. I entertained different ideas – from bookcase to wallpaper to slat wall, among others. In the end, I went with my first choice, as I very often do. I went with a bookcase for the lower half of the wall, and mounted a picture frame above it.

There’s a bit of drama in this room – I took a risk and glued a piece of stone to the wall! And it does its job really well – it frames the room and keeps you engaged in this space.  And so, mission accomplished!

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