Dining Room

This is my dining room. Well, I suppose the correct term would be dining area. One of my sons tells me you can't call something a room if it doesn't have four walls. Our home was built in the era of L-shaped living and dining rooms. Our living room has vaulted ceilings but the dining area doesn't. To balance out the two areas I decided to make one wall a focal point. The wall isn't that large so I knew this would be one place that I could have fun and take some chances. If I got tired of it in a year or two it wouldn't be that hard to change. Yes, I am design commitment phobic---probably as a result of having to remove paper and repair walls after the wallpaper trend ended (I know, wallpaper is making a come back, go figure.)

I decided to do a Venetian plaster treatment to the wall, thanks to the mis-tint shelf at my local Home Depot. Don't you love it when you find a gallon of paint for five bucks! Fortunately, the mis-tint was a pleasing color of green. I applied it---and if you haven't tried this technique, I'm warning you, it's pretty labor intensive. After I followed all the directions I stood back and decided I wanted more of an aged look to my wall, so I rubbed on some brown glaze to achieve the look I was after. But I wasn't finished aging the wall yet.

I had been on the lookout for some old tin crown molding but was unable to find it and I didn't want to pay the price for the new stuff. I found two sheets of old tin ceiling tile with a decorative edge at a consignment store. Even though it wasn't enough I purchased it. Luckily, a few months later I found another sheet at the same store. I took my trusty jig saw and began cutting off the decorative edge to turn it into crown molding. With my hubby's help we nailed up the tin. Now, what to do with the leftover tin? Design and build a shelf of course! Not just any shelf, a MAMMOTH shelf! Some might call it a mantle.

I love my mantle! It's one more place to decorate seasonally. The mirrors and candles have been up since January when large, clear snowflakes were added. Now the eggs and chicks decorate for spring. Next month I'll probably change out the entire thing. So look around your home and see if there's a wall in your home that needs to be a focal point and then dare to try a new technique. After all, it's just a wall and it might end up being your favorite wall in the house.