My Dining Room (as it stands now)

First, a huge thank you for your sweet comments on yesterday's post.  I was flattered.  Many of you commented on the colors and I was lucky to have an interior designer help me choose the colors of my dining room walls and furniture.

Now, onto our dining room, I wasn't able to completely finish my dining room.   Don't get me wrong - I think our dining room has come a long way, but the finishing details are definitely lacking.

If you remember, this was the inspiration.  

The goal was to lighten up the room.  So, how did we accomplish that? 

- We painted over the current wallpaper.  

- Purchased a natural jute rug.

- Installed custom made roman shades.

- Painted dining room table and chairs.

- Painted sideboard. 

What did NOT get accomplished?

- Painting of chandelier, hanging my federal eagle mirror and accessorizing.  So, here is our 

Dining Room BEFORE:

Dining Room AFTER:

It definitely is brighter and softer.  The wall color provides a calming backdrop, the natural rug is perfect for everyday use, the roman shades (more below) provide that much needed dose of color and pattern and the painted table and chairs help break up all the gold tones in the room.  

Another picture of the painted sideboard with the unhung mirror.  You can see the chandelier I was suppose to paint and never got around to it.

The DwellStudio Gate Citrine fabric used for my roman shades.  Isn't it lovely?  Melissa from Windows by Melissa really did a fantastic job (yet again).  They're perfect for our dining room.

If you need window treatments, don't hesitate to contact her!  She is a pleasure to work with.  Well, that is our dining room - What do you think?

Stay tuned for tomorrow, because I will be hosting an amazing giveaway from Melissa!!  It's a doozy!  

Before & After: DR Sideboard

With all the craziness, I've been slow to post some of my finished projects.  And, once the baby arrives (due this Sunday) I know I won't have time.  So, here is the sideboard I found at a tag sale for $25.

BEFORE (Post Sanding)

It wasn't the best quality, but it was the perfect size for our small dining room.  If you remember from this post, I decided to paint it BM Pale Avocado and add this hardware.

I haven't hung my antique gold federal style (eagle) mirror above the sideboard because we're moving in less than a month and I really don't want to put new holes in the wall.  So, here is the sideboard now.

AFTER

The other day, I placed my mirror on the sideboard to see how it would look.  I'm dying to hang it - I think it would go perfectly above the sideboard.  

AFTER

I found that mirror at an antique store for $45.  I love it.  The sideboard has a collections of items which I love and found at various places.  I know my orchid looks in bad shape;  I can not for the life of me keep orchids alive.  

And, do you spy some DwellStudio Gate Citrine fabric in the reflection of the mirror?  More on that tomorrow - I will reveal my dining room (as it currently stands) and will show you what an awesome job Melissa from Windows by Melissa did on my roman shades!    Stay tuned!

Dining Room Mood Board & Updates

Remember this post about my dining room?  I've been slowly making updates to it.  It's taking longer than usual mainly because at 32 weeks, I find myself exhausted most of the time.  The interior designer created a mood board for the space, I simplified it, but here is the jist of it.  

My Dining Room Mood Board

The walls have been painted which I think has been the biggest transformation.  We painted over wallpaper!!  I wouldn't recommend that for everyone, but there are a lot of reasons we decided to do that.  I plan on doing a separate post on that.  

Melissa, from Windows by Melissa, is making my roman shades.  I primed and my husband painted our sideboard and we got new hardware. 

We got a new rug and we painted our existing dining room table and chairs.  Since our DR table and chairs had a finish on it, I originally planned on using an oil based primer and a latex paint.  

But, I then learned about a product from Sherwin Williams called 'adhesion primer'.  It basically allows you to prime without sanding.  It bonds tightly to surfaces considered 'unpaintable' like, ceramics, PVC piping, furniture with existing stains, etc.  This would allow me to 'skip' the sanding and actually use a latex based primer instead of an oil based primer.  Latex is a lot easier to work with.  So, I bought it and tried it. 

The true test will be time, but I have to say it was a dream to use.  Now, here comes the major setback.  My husband (who didn't even want to re-do the dining room because we're moving soon) spent a half day (while I was at work) painting the table and chairs for me.  When we brought the furniture into the room, we noticed that color on the furniture was off and not the same as the walls.  (We're painting the furniture the same color as the walls).  We re-checked the paint can to confirm that it was the right color and number, but noticed that the formula used was different from the formula used on the walls.  I am so upset.  

We will go back to the paint store to complain, but you just can't get back all the time and labor that went into painting the table and chairs.  My poor husband.  So, right now, I have to figure out what to do, but I am so deflated.   So, stay tuned....this saga will be continued......

In other news, I want to thank Elizabeth from The Mustard Ceiling for featuring my hallway yesterday on her blog - see here. 

I was very flattered as she is a great designer and DIYer.  Her blog is full of amazing projects!!  Thanks, Elizabeth!

Mini Makeover: My Patio

If you remember in this post, I told you that we have teensy tiny patio I wanted to spruce up.  Our patio was virtually a place where we kept our trash cans and stacked garden chairs during the winter.  It is nothing pretty to look at by any means.

Before

If we were to stay in this house longer, the first thing of order would be to either re-paint or spray wash the foundation and re-cement the stairs.  I also would replace the metal door and windows, but it's not worth it because we want to move.

If you remember, I also said I had no budget for this makeover so I wanted to shop my home and repurpose what I had.  As you can see above, we had two wicker chairs, a garden stool and an outdoor/indoor rug (not pictured).  All of these were to become the main ingredients for the mini-makeover.  

Above is the mood board I created for my project.  Here, you can see the rug I had to work with - definitely not my favorite, but it worked just fine.  I spray painted the wicker chairs glossy black and the garden stool an apple green.  I bought cream round planters from Joann's (out of all places) for 50% off.  And, I bought sunbrella chair cushions and mini lumbar pillows.  

After

Here is the after.  In my humble opinion, I really think the planters make it.  They add color and life to this patio.  So, what do you think?  Not bad for re-purposing what you currently own and using your green thumb!! 

Now if only the mosquitos would disappear, I could sit out here in the evenings!!!