Stripes in the Dining Room

Our living room, dining room and kitchen are all open to each other so  I wanted the colors in each room to flow but still be their own space. I found curtains that matched the living room pillows to bring that color into the dining room then I became stuck. I’d been staring at a white dining room for about 2 months and it was driving me crazy. It looked very plain. Everything was black and white except for the one pop of color in my curtains. I couldn’t figure out how to get more color in there to make the curtains flow with everything else.  I didn’t think I could paint because the room is open to the kitchen and living room so there isn’t really a space to stop the color. Then one day I was staring at the same wall and thought what if I put one band of color around the room. I could stop at the kitchen cabinet and it wouldn’t look bad. I taped it off and then thought…Hmm, I could do one more below it and space it out enough to stop at the island. So I taped off another stripe.

 

Then I painted them in with leftover living room paint (Valspar paint that I had color matched to Restoration Hardware's Silver Sage). I love the color and it didn’t cost me anything extra. It also made the space cohesive and gave the room some pattern. I’m in love with this room now. It finally looks put together and works well with the living room while still having it’s own identity. I know the light fixture doesn’t go but this is military housing so I’m just lucky I was able to paint.

Here’s how the room looked the day we moved it.

 

Here are some more after pictures.

 

This is my Stripe Tutorial…

I took my tape measure and measured down from the ceiling where I wanted the stripe to start, I think it was about 14 3/4”, and made a dot with my pencil. Then I went all around the room measuring down from the ceiling and making a dot at 14 3/4”. Then I took my painters tape and connected the dots. Then I measured down from the painters tape for how wide I wanted the stripe to be, I think it was around 24”, and did the same thing around the room…You get the idea. I took my base color and painted along the tape line before I filled in with the stripe color so when I pulled the tape up the line would be smooth. I’m sure there are better ways to do it but this is what worked for me.

Curtains

Errr CURTAINS! I’ve been having such an issue trying to decide on dining room curtains. Since I got new chairs I thought my old curtains didn’t go anymore, the competing patterns were really bothering me. First I bought some plain red panels to try to get more of my red in the room (I’m trying to make each room downstairs flow by putting red in each room) but that looked awful. Then I tried some white tie up shades I had. That didn’t work either so I tried tea staining the fabric. They came out good but still didn’t work. So I decided to make some. I went to Joann’s and looked through pattern books to pick out ones I liked and found some fabric that would coordinate well with the pattern on my new chairs. The pattern also matches a lampshade I have in the room so it all ties together. This is how the turned out…

I like them but I need more curtain for the dining room, a valance just doesn’t cut it. So finally I found these panels at Big Lots for $12 a pair and I’m happy.

I’m going to be changing the shade of the walls soon so the curtains will look even better.

 

A Work In Progress

I’m wondering if I’m every going to get to a point where this house is finished and I can just sit and relax, hopefully for awhile before it’s time to move onto a different house. This past weekend we made a few small steps.

We changed out a few light fixtures. Let me tell you a couple of things about our lighting situation. Our house is old and has old wiring and until we get loads of money to change out the wiring we’re stuck with what we have. I thought that meant being stuck with the old ugly light fixtures too but I was wrong. Our living room, dining room and bathroom have wall switches so I knew those could be replaced but the rest of the rooms have pull chains and if you’ve ever wandered through the lighting section the only pull chain lights they have are the ugly ones that are already in my house. So here is the solution…I came across lampsplus.com and saw beautiful light kits for ceiling fans. They even had chandeliers for them with pull chains. The only problem was I didn’t want a ceiling fan in every room. I purchased this one and was determined to make it work without the fan because it was perfect for my 3 year olds room.

Before

After

It worked! Hubby just took off the old light but kept the box thing that was attached to the ceiling and screwed in the chandelier instead! I’m thinking about buying this one for my little ones room now.

Before

After

We also added crown moulding to the dining room.

 

Now I’m in the process of Layla-izing some of my kitchen cabinets.

Into The Closet

Our 3rd bedroom was a computer room/guest room before my youngest was born. We moved the computer into the dining room and it’s been taking up much needed space and looking ugly ever since. I had been thinking about turning the closet in the dining room into an office but for one reason or another it never happened. Today I saw this photo on The Shabby Nest and knew I had to move the computer into the closet and soon!

Some other inspiration photos…

This one isn’t in a closet but it looks neat!

Eye Candy

Excuse me while I wipe the drool from my chin…I just finished looking at the new Restoration Hardware catalog…

These are some of my favorites…

 

Ah, now to win the lottery!

The Great Chair Debate

Anyone want to weigh in?? I got new dining room chairs with our wonderful tax refund. The idea was to have the slipcovered upholstered look for the end chairs and Napoleon chairs for the side chairs. I found slipcovers that I loved and found these end chairs at Pier 1 to put the slipcovers on.

Well, I brought them home and hubby hates the slipcovers and refused to let them in the house. He loves the chairs though. Of course I wasn’t happy that my vision wasn’t coming to life so I set off to find some other chairs. Store after store I was coming up empty handed until I walked into TJ Maxx to return a couple things and saw two of these chairs in the window on clearance.

I loaded them in the car and set them up at the table. Hubby doesn’t like them. He says they’re too big and too comfortable?!? He wants to keep the leather parsons chairs from Pier 1 with no slipcovers. What’s a girl to do? I’m really disappointed that the idea in my head is being crushed. I’m trying my hardest to convince him they need to stay! He just keeps complaining that he’s let me make all the other decorating decisions and he’s the one that sits in the chair. Someone please tell me that the chairs I love are ugly and don’t look good at the table so it won’t be so hard if I have to return them.

P.S. The table is going to be refinished black this spring/summer.

Hooked On Photos

I may have a borderline obsession with photos. They occupy I'd say 60% of my living room walls and they find themselves in all the other rooms of the house.

Here's just a sampling...

Living Room

Dining Room (yes, there's an empty spot!)

More Dining Room

Stairway (my hubby's one wall)

Bathroom


Oh geez, I just realized I have no photos in my kitchen! We'll have to see about changing that...

Go check out what everyone else is hooked on at Hooked On Houses.

My Weekend Project

I've been looking at a lot of photos lately where people have a dresser in their kitchen, dining room or living room and I LOVE that idea. I first saw it from the taming kid clutter linky party and this one person had all their kids art supplies hidden in one of the drawers (can't remember who or find the pic again). That's exactly what I needed to do and I've been determined ever since to find a place to put one. I bought a new dresser off craigslist for my bedroom makeover that hasn't really been started yet so I took the old, much too small one and put it in my dining room. I added new hardware and accessorized...Notice my new Apothecary jars! Hubby doesn't like it, he says there isn't enough room to walk around the table, which was what I was afraid of, but I'm going to keep it. It takes care of a lot of the storage problems we have. The dining room was the only place to put the computer when daughter #2 arrived and we needed the last bedroom for her, so one drawer hides all the computer supplies (printer paper, extra cords, disks, blank cds, etc.) and one drawer has all the kid's art supplies then I still have 3 drawers left to fill up! I finally realized the key to dealing with all kinds of clutter is hiding it in attractive ways (baskets, dressers, etc.). I think I am going to spray paint the lamp and basket white but that will be for other day.

I also worked a little more on my bathroom, it's almost done!! It should have been done this weekend but I have a sick manchild and a sick baby.