A new dining room centerpiece.

**The night picture has been added. ;)

I have mentioned before that there were many things I didn't love about our dining room before:
One of the biggies was the centerpiece. I don't do centerpieces. I'm OK with the little kitchen table, but big, long-A dining room tables I am totally at a loss for. I always imagine some gorgeous expanse of something...just never knew what that something was.

Then I saw an idea on HGTV a few months ago, and I started gathering up my supplies over time. More on that later....

A few weeks ago while walking through Target, looking at the back to school stuff (and wishing it was fall decor, puhleeze), I saw a $4.50 mirror, and it hit me. I knew exactly what I was going to do. I grabbed the mirror:

It was CHEAP, flimsy, easily breakable. So I carefully pulled off the craptastic frame:

I was left with the flimsy mirror and the paper backing. I left that on, just so I wouldn't have to risk breaking the glass. Or maybe it's that I was lazy. I don't know.

Anyhoo...I found some extra plywood in the garage and went to Lowe's to have it cut down to the size I needed -- one foot by four feet.

I used this handy dandy glue all over the plywood:

And just set the paper-backed mirror down on it. I wiggled it around for a bit, to make the glue smoosh around and adhere, and then turned the whole thing upside down so the weight of the plywood would create a good seal. I did all this on the floor, so everything was level.

Then, I took some of the fab, chunky molding from my Ballard Designs shelves (I swear this stuff is going up all over my house!) and cut it with my precious compound miter saw to fit right over the mirror:

It was a bit too stark for me at first, so to get the distressed look you see above, I used my handheld sander, and scuffed up the edges just a bit:

I wanted the distressing to look like the color of the table, so I took my itty bitty can of walnut stain:

(This little can has lasted foreva.) I used a foam brush and wiped it on the bare wood, then used a wet paper towel to quickly wipe it off. This was the result:

The items I have been gathering for months are simple glass candleholders, in all different sizes:
Most of these I got for $1 and $2 at Goodwill. I think only three I actually purchased at Hobby Lobby, for half off. The most I paid was $10 for the largest one in the middle. It was freaky weird that I ended up with almost exact pairs of sizes over a span of a few months. I didn't plan it that way, but it worked out perfect!

My inspiration was from an HGTV show where they wrapped similar holders with gauzy fabric, and it created such a pretty glow. So I got fabric for just a few bucks in white, and using double-sided tape, I wrapped all of them:

They aren't perfect on one side, but if anyone ever noticed that in person, I'd give them a gold star, for real. Or a cookie. Whatever they'd rather have for being insanely observant. ;)

You'll notice in this picture, even though I had painted it all out, the plywood was really noticeable on the bottom:

I tried to live with it, I did. For about a week, I did! But it looked so unfinished to me, it was giving me the heebies. I struck gold yesterday in the garage when I found extra molding I had used in the room. It was perfect to wrap the whole thing:
Ahhhh, yes. I can stop itching, the hives are gone.

It is beautiful on it's own, but I crave WARM, so luckily this is just the time of year to get that. I added more beady thangs:

Some cutie little smell-good pinecones:

And it's really, really lovely:
Here it is as I peek around the corner:
Can't show you the windows just yet -- that's next. ;) I really adore this. It's simple, it's clean, but it can be dressed up so easily. And this isn't just for the table -- when I was working on it, I held it up to the wall and realized how gorgeous it would be hanging too...I may make another to do just that!

Although it's pretty during the day, it is just stunning at night. I was going to wait to post this so I could take one final picture tonight, but I know how mean that would be, since I've been tweeting about it constantly lately.

And here. you. go:

;)