When we were searching for our second home after selling our first, I really wanted a nice dining room that we could entertain in and have holiday dinners in. I am so happy with this room. We have finally finished our dining room for the most part. The process started in April, but we still needed to find curtains, hang things, etc. We'll probably add more things in the future, but for now I am happy.
Here's what it looked like when we moved in (old owners stuff).
Here is the dining room, or a peek of it, now!
It made a huge mess, and we realized there were two layers of wallpaper (the same wallpaper, might I add) and it was so heavily glued on the wall that we were doomed from the start. We decided to sand over and patch what we started and paint over the wallpaper. I was a little nervous about this, considering the wallpaper had a bit of a sheen to it and a tiny bit of texture. We put a little Killz over it to see what that would do.
Turns out it covered decently. So we patched up the seams of the wallpaper so that they wouldn't show through the paint, and decided to paint a few coats of Killz. It covered the paper really well. Here's a few photos of my dad, Brian, me and Preston working on the room...
Like the rest of the house, the trim is Ben Moore White Dove. The top walls are Ben Moore Wheeling Neutral (same as living room) and the bottom walls are Behr Bear Tracks. Painting the french doors were quite a feat. Required lots of paint. We removed the plantation shutters from the windows, and plan to have those professionally spray painted along with all of the other shutters throughout our house. There are LOTS. In the end, we were happy with the result of paint. Such a major difference with no crazy wallpaper and mustard trim!
Then came the decorating. The mahogany table has been in my family for a while, and it fit perfectly in the space. The pads for the chairs were hunter green, so my mom and I recovered those in a linen textured fabric from Joanne's. It was like $2/yard, which was awesome! The rug was super cheap on Overstock, because we had a moving coupon, free shipping, and they were having a sale for 20% all area rugs. It's a jute rug with brown trim.
I had been scoping estate sales and craigslist for a mahogany china cabinet for a while. My parents went to an estate sale in Collierville at a very old, Victorian house and this charmer was there waiting for me to buy it :) I was extremely pregnant and Brian and I made the journey out to Collierville after my parents called me to tell me about it. It was on a Sunday, and everyone knows that's when the estate companies let things go for a real steal, so we thought we could haggle ourselves a good price. We were super successful and got it for a fabulous price! Then we had to get the thing home. I, being 9 months pregnant, was obviously no help, so my dad and Brian loaded the big cabinet into my Saturn Vue. It was sticking out the back of the car. We took Poplar (busiest street in Memphis) all the way back to our house, driving 10 under the speed limit with my parents following close behind our car just in case the cabinet decided to take a dive onto Poplar. Needless to say, Preston was almost born that day. I was anxiety-ridden a good week after that. After all that, I am so happy with the result! It didn't even need refinishing.
After we put the table and cabinet in there, the room just kind of stayed as is for a few months. I knew I wanted curtains and artwork. After thinking about it for a while, I saw some tea towels on Etsy, which sparked this post. I decided I had to have one (okay, actually two, but the other is for the foyer) and I got it framed at Michael's during one of their 60% off sales. I am so happy with the result! It has a little texture to it, but it adds instant artwork. Love it.
The drawings above Brian and I bought during our first trip to Paris. We got them from an artist just behind Sacre Cour church.
For the curtains, we got them at Ikea. My friend Myra has them in her house, and I recognized them from Ikea. I had my eye on them, so when we went to Atlanta and I saw them in person, I knew they would be perfect and add the right graphic element I wanted.
I also wanted some shelves to frame out the french doors. After searching high and low, I decided to try our hands at making our own. So I went to Home Depot and bought the materials. We mixed paint we already had, and ended up with perfect little shelves that match the gray/blue in the curtains. They averaged out about $14 a shelf, but cheaper than buying them in a store/online. Brian finished those off for me this weekend. The candelabras on top are from One Kings Lane. My mom made the pillow that is sitting in the chair. I got the fabric on sale at a local fabric place.
On the dining room table are candlesticks from Ikea, and the little birdhouse is from my mother-in-law. She sent it to the hospital with flowers in it after P was born. I LOVE birds (obviously) and it's evident in this room.
The light fixture is original to the house, but we gave it a good cleaning, but new shades on it, and added the brown fabric to cover the wires. My grandfather rewired the fixture, because it kept sparking and eventually, quit working. We were going to buy a new one, but my grandfather was able to cheaply fix it. It actually looks pretty nice in person! It is solid brass, after all.
In the future, we still need to put the plantation shutters back on, and one day we'll extend the patio in the back to come off of the dining room for an amazing entertaining space. For now, we are enjoying the room and have already entertained in it.
One more room down, only a few more to go!
Dining room before:
2 comments:
It looks amazing!!!! I love the curtains! Once again, awesome job! PS- we have a paint gun sprayer Ryan got for his birthday last year. We used it on our kitchen cabinet doors and drawer fronts as well as our interior doors. It works fabulously! Next time you're in town - bring the shutters!
Gorgeous! Way to go!
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