Here's a view of what the dining room looks like right now:
A little history on the dining room:
We moved into our house in June of 2010. We bought it as a
foreclosure. Overall, the house was in good shape. It had a newly remodeled
kitchen and master bathroom, and many areas in the basement had been finished.
It mostly was in need of a deep clean, paint, new kitchen appliances (oven,
fridge, and built-in wine fridge), and some new light fixtures (the forclosees
took 4 chandeliers with them when they split - including the one in the dining room).
After appliances, the first purchases we made for the house
were chandeliers. I really wanted this chandy for the dining room.
I first saw it in Kyle’s dining room. Love her dining room!
via Knight Moves
But at $800, it was way more than I wanted to spend. I
found some great alternatives on Bellacor.com. Plus, my husband was a
contractor at the time, so we got a decent discount as well. This is what we ended
up with.
The dining room was originally a cranberry red. Sadly, I do not have any before pics. I’ll just say
that red is not my color, and I couldn’t WAIT to paint over those walls. It was
one of the first rooms we painted. The color we chose for the walls is Mercer
from the Ralph Lauren paint line that Home Depot used to have. We were under contract on our house when Bryn wrote this post about the paint color, and I fell in love.
Shortly after picking the paint color, I found this fabric,
and I knew that it would be great in the dining room as curtains.
Because our ceilings are over 10 feet tall, premade curtains
are almost out of the question, and custom curtains that are lined are
outrageous! So my mom and I made these lined curtains. We also recovered the
dining room chairs with the same fabric.
So I had lots of gray going on in this room. It was almost a
mental block, and for about a year and a half, I couldn’t decide what other
colors to bring into the room. It pretty much sat almost undecorated, except
for the wedding pictures I hung and random accessories that moved in and out of
the room as I tried to figure out what I wanted to do with the space. Here’s a
bad iPhone pic of one color trial – purple.
Finally, I decided that I needed to get a plan going.
Because I had no idea about how I wanted the room to feel, I thought I’d start
with fabric. So I went to Maryjo’s (maybe you’ve heard of it? It’s only one of
the awesomest fabric stores ever, and it’s in my town!) looking for
inspiration. And lo, I found this!
It is a Waverly fabric from the Colonial Williamsburg
collection. The background is a wonderful coral color that I thought would
really pop against the gray walls. It also has pops of light blue, lemon, and
gray that would also allow me to bring in other colors with accessories. I was
so excited I created this mood board:
The plan was to use the new fabric to cover cornices that would go on
top of the curtains. Then I would find a coral rug to further brighten things
up. To add pops of another color, I would recover 2 small wingback chairs in a
peacock-blue velvet to use as end chairs at the dining room table. The buffet
would get a dose of symmetry with matching blue buffet lamps.
Because the room would need a large rug, I thought that I would find a rug first, because that was going to be the major expense in the room. I’m glad I decided to do that, because I wasn’t able to find a rug that coordinated with the Waverly fabric. I found this rug instead
I found it at Home Goods (love that place!) It is an 8’x11’,
hand-tufted, wool rug that was made in India, and it was only $249! You can’t
beat that price. So in the rug came, and out the fabric idea went, because that
coral was not going to jibe with the oranges and maroons in the rug. I was
bummed out about not being able to use the fabric, but when we got the rug home
and put it in the space, I was ok with it, because I love the rug in the dining
room! It adds so much warmth to the space; something that the room was seriously
lacking.
I shopped the house for accessories to use in the room
with the new color scheme, and I found many great things, like these lamps.
I got the bases at a thrift store. They were only $5 for the pair. They need to be wired, which is no big deal. When I got them I had no idea what I would do with them, but I just couldn’t pass them up. They have such a classic shape, plus they are a matching pair. I stuck them in my basement until I could figure out what I wanted to do for them. I always thought that I would paint them a different color, but the orange looks great in the room, so they are staying orange. I may touch the paint up – it’s a little faded in areas -- and I will probably use a little Rub ‘n Buff to accent some of the neat details on the lamps.
I got the bases at a thrift store. They were only $5 for the pair. They need to be wired, which is no big deal. When I got them I had no idea what I would do with them, but I just couldn’t pass them up. They have such a classic shape, plus they are a matching pair. I stuck them in my basement until I could figure out what I wanted to do for them. I always thought that I would paint them a different color, but the orange looks great in the room, so they are staying orange. I may touch the paint up – it’s a little faded in areas -- and I will probably use a little Rub ‘n Buff to accent some of the neat details on the lamps.
I also brought in the items that make up this little vignette from various areas in the house.
My mom got the chest for me from a consignment shop. I love
its campaign style. It’s so versatile – it’s one of those pieces that moves
from room to room around the house.
The chairs were from an auction. I think I paid $10 apiece
for them. They were originally stained and were covered in a red chinoiserie
fabric. I painted them light blue and covered the seats in one of my favorite
fabrics – Thomas Paul’s Dahlia fabric in the Aegean colorway. The fabric on the
chairs does not match the new rug, so I will either have to recover (and
possibly repaint or glaze) the chairs, or find new ones (on the cheap) and
rework them to better fit the room’s new feel.
Since the original inspiration fabric is out, I had to find a new fabric. Back to Maryjo’s I went. Once again, it did not disappoint. I love fabric shopping in person. It is so inspiring. Sometimes when I have hit a design wall, I will just go browse the aisles of a fabric store, and most of the time I will leave with a great new idea that I am dying to try. This trip was no exception. I found a new inspiration fabric.
It is Samoan Plantation by Iman Home Fabrics in the Sunstone
colorway. I think I love it more than the Waverly fabric. I can’t decide what to do with the fabric – should I make cornices? Recover the seats on
the chairs? Make a table runner? There are so many possibilities.
So let’s make a little to-do list for this room:
- Implement new inspiration fabric into room
- Find a pair of wingback chairs and recover them in a peacock blue velvet
- Wire lamps, touch up paint, and accent with Rub ‘n Buff
- Repaint/recover light blue shield-back chairs or find new ones
- Find a better centerpiece for the table
- Introduce new art that ties in the new color scheme
- Find some new accessories for the china cabinet, buffet, and blue chest
Well that’s not too bad! I wonder how long it will take me…
We shall see! Maybe now that I am being held accountable by posting a to-do
list on the interwebs, I will move a little quicker to get some items checked
of the list.
So let’s hear from you – have you ever painted yourself into
a corner and lost motivation in a room? What did you do to jumpstart your
creativity? Have any of you found a new rug or a new fabric that is going to
totally transform a room in your house?
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