Dining Room ~ Finally

The dining room is finally finished...for now.

Here are links to the last two posts that I did on the dining room makeover including one on a pastel that I found.  You can see the pastel hanging in this photo:

We made a few more additions to the living room including a cowhide rug to help better define the space.  The rug is about 5' x 7', and I ordered it from Overstock.com.  It is a nice neutral, and our dachshunds don't have any interest in either chewing on it or having accidents on it.

JC also helped me hang the curtains that we already had.  They are not my favorite in this room, but they will do for now.  We needed 10 panels for all of the windows so to replace with more expensive draperies would be a small fortune.  This is one of those times when I wish I knew basic sewing skills!

JC also helped me hang a large mirror in the dining space.  I blogged about this mirror redo HERE a couple of years ago.

I also found our old sea fans that had been packed up since the move.  For now they are over buffet...

I like how they also bring a contrasting color into the space.

My mother-in-law graciously offered us two Italian chairs that she had purchased from a vendor at the Officer's Club when they were stationed at RAF Upper Heyford back in the mid eighties.  I placed one opposite the chair that I had moved into the dining room from our bedroom and found a really interesting pillow for it at Target.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I really wanted to bring in some brighter colors like coral or pink to this space.

I think these chairs work great with our other furniture, and you can only imagine how surprised I was when I was flipping through my May 2013 issue of Coastal Living Magazine and saw this...

Those are the exact same chairs with different fabric upholstery!!!  How cool is that?

The last addition that we made was the custom artwork above the antique glass cabinet.

I commissioned my two youngest children to paint something for me in the acrylics that I chose.  Jackson's masterpiece is on top, and Emma's is on the bottom.  They even signed them for me!  :)

I could not be any happier with these two pieces of art!  I love walking by and looking into this room and seeing their punch of color!

One more room is complete.  That is such a nice feeling!  It is hard to believe that we closed on this house almost a year ago.  There are still so many projects left to finish, but it is nice to see progress.

Dining Room Part 3

reposted from my 365 blog... on Wednesday afternoon.

Today after my lunch date, I popped in at the Habitat Restore...

I'm looking for a small, rectangular cocktail table.

I want to paint her a coral~pinkish to add some color and spunk to my new dining/living space.

I did not find what I was looking for...

what I did find was this lovely...

an original, framed pastel.

It was a little pricey at $45, but I LOVE her!

I quickly came home and cut away the backing so that I could straighten the pastel within the mat.

I think this is a treasure.

I love original pieces of art!

Dining Room Part Two

Just one month ago I posted an update on the dining room renovations.  At that point I was still considering painting navy on the drywall above the 5' tall wainscoting.

Well....

I chickened out!

Our dining room is on the front of the house and really only gets good daylight in the morning hours.  Having the dark color on the walls made that space look even darker and uninviting at night.

So I decided to consult my dear friend's Benjamin Moore paint fandeck once again.  This time I focused on the the Historical Collection and after 2 more paint samples chose

WEDGEWOOD GRAY  Paint Color # HC-146

If you click on the link above you can see that the sample is pretty light in nature.  It does appear much darker in our dining room though.

I snapped a bunch of photos this afternoon and didn't really edit them all that much since changing the "lightness" of the photos altered the true paint color of the room.

Here is the paint before...

And here it is now...this is a view looking into the dining room from the kitchen.  We actually switched the space up and moved the table to where it was intended by the architect.

This is the listing photo taken from the hallway door looking into the dining room


And this was taken from the same vantage point (minus the wide angle lens):



And the listing photo looking into the dining/living room from the main level hallway:

Here is the same view this afternoon...



Just yesterday I moved the upholstered chair into the new "living room" space from our master bedroom.  It is a better fit in the living room I think.  I found the chair at World Market on sale and used a coupon so it was very economical.







I'm still loving the chandelier we purchased to go over the dining table.


Here's another vantage point...I was standing behind the upholstered chair to snap this one looking into the dining space.


Same vantage point  but taken with iPhone (wider angle):


And here is a photo which shows the bay window...


There are still things that I want to do in this space.  First will be to purchase window hardware and hang the draperies that I already have.

Next is to get a rug and some sort of loveseat or matching chairs to go opposite the upholstered chair that is in the space now.

Still lots to do...surprisingly I am just taking it one step at a time instead of trying to rush and get everything finished to say it is finished.

I will say that I am very happy with my "SAFE" color choice.  There is a reason this is one of Benjamin Moore's most popular colors. It really is beautiful up on the walls!

The Dining Room ~ Part ONE

Another project that we are tackling in the new house is a total redo of the dining room.

Here are two photos from the MLS listing that was online when we bought the house.  I completely forgot to take a "before" photo from after we moved in.

I've never been a fan of these stripes...it's not that I don't like stripes, I just really don't like the paint colors that they chose when it was painted.

The previous owners took the existing crystal chandelier, but we had already purchased one for the dining room when we thought we were going to build a house so it all worked out.

I blogged about the chandelier HERE back in August.

And here is a photo of it actually hanging in the dining room.


There are actually two spots for ceiling lights in this space so we ordered a complimentary fixture from the Salento Collection for the "living room" space from Bellacor.



You can see the odd shape of the living/dining room combination...


We do not really have "living room" furniture so honestly, most of our dining room furniture will spill into this space.  One light fixture was just not enough for both areas though.

We left everything the way it was in the dining room until after Christmas including the enormous drapery rods that were left behind.

My Christmas present from JC was to add a 5' variation of wainscoting.

Here are some pictures at the start of the project...







I used Kilz primer for the first coat.



Now I am about a third of the way around the room with the second coat of trim paint that I had Sherwin Williams colormatch for me.

All along, I had envisioned something dramatic in this large space.  Before the renovations, I often referred to it as "cavernous".

I have been drawn to navy!  Blue is my absolute favorite color...all shades really.

Here are some inspiration photos that I found on www.houzz.com












I love the contrast between the dark navy and the white trim.

I am having trouble narrowing down a color though.

While I was getting the trim paint, I had Sherwin Williams mix up a sample of their color called Commodore.  It looked really dark in the store, but in our dining space, it is very royal blue...a little lighter than I wanted.


I am now considering two navy blues from Benjamin Moore.  I do not have samples yet, but I will get both and paint on the walls before making a final decision.

The first is called Old Navy.  It is a little lighter than I think I probably want as well.

image from B. Moore

And Polo Blue also from Benjamin Moore:

image from B. Moore

I am leaning toward the Polo Blue just from looking at the paint color card.

I can't wait to see what each of these looks like up on the wall.

I am a little hesitant though...navy is pretty dramatic - I've really trended toward light paint colors for a while now.  I feel like the dining room can handle the dark color in the remaining space above all of that wainscoting.  The good news is it will probably only take one gallon of paint and a Saturday afternoon...easy-peasy to change if I hate it!