Making It Home: An Adirondack Dining Room

Fabrics

Think warm, soft, and geometric! The key colors are bright red, soft blue, copper, beige, and woodsy green. Use the vivid colors and designs of Pendleton's blankets and legendary blankets as your guide in choosing fabrics.

Remember to keep window treatments simple. Plain, straight plaid curtains, blanket-patterned curtains, or the plainest possible off-white cotton tie-back curtains are all appropriate. So are shutters or wooden blinds without any curtains at all.

Lighting and Ornaments

The classic "Adirondack" dining room chandelier is constructed of antlers. Dead animals are (perhaps unfortunately for animal lovers) a key element in the Adirondack look. Deer hoofs show up as gun racks, hat racks, and the "feet" of footstools... owls, squirrels, pheasants, deer heads, and bear pelts are displayed on every wall, floor, or other cooperative surface.

If you don't mind making eye contact with Bambi as you eat your dinner, look for antique pieces of taxidermy rather than shooting your own. More humane but still decoratively appropriate alternatives include naturalists' drawings of wildlife and primitive wooden carvings of beers, deer, and other forest creatures. An Adirondack room is also a good place for your collection of 200 china skunks, though kittens or bunnies won't fit the scheme as well. And don't forget birch bark mirrors!

Mix antique pottery with rustic baskets, slightly tarnished silver, fishing lures, duck decoys, even shell art. Nothing needs to look bright and new; it's more rustic if things are a little battered.

To Learn More...

Adirondack is a lifestyle that can scarcely be summed up in a few paragraphs. The best place to learn more is the Adirondack Museum in Blue Lake, New York.

For the history and many styles of Adirondack furniture, I strongly recommend Adirondack Furniture and the Rustic Tradition by Craig Gilborn. A more hands-on "decorate your room" approach can be found in Rustic Traditions by Ralph Kyloe. (Just days after I wrote this article, and before it was "posted," my local paper ran a feature with an interview with Kyloe! Unfortunately, they charge for access to archived articles, but if you're strongly intersted, go to Albany Times Union and search "Adirondack.")

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