A dining room reveal!

Well, its not completely done, but I thought I would stop the torture and just show you already!! :)


I have long said there are three rooms I think you can do totally dramatic and fun. Your laundry room, powder room and your dining room. The first two because they are usually small and can take pretty much whatever color you want. The last, because I think dining rooms should have a little bling and drama, just because they can.


Drama it is:
The bench I will show you more of soon. It's drivin' me batty! Argh!! It's going to be gorgeous when I get it just right. (Dad is to the rescue this week -- I'll explain more later.)
The hutch redo I showed you here, and now I love that I can see what's inside:
The window redo I showed you here. I added molding, bamboo roman shades and made my new drapes:

Joann Etc. is STILL out of my trim to finish off the two head chairs. (Pout.) I was thisclose to driving 45 minutes today to get it from another store, but I held back. Have I mentioned I'm insanely impatient?

BUT I did have a couple lumbar pillows made for them, and those make me feel soooo much better about the unfinished chairs:

Aren't they adorable?!

I used scrap fabrics from the chairs and I adore them.

The table setting I showed here. I pieced together dishes from HomeGoods, Target and Pier 1:

The centerpiece is one of my favorite parts of the room, and it all started with a $4 mirror. You can see the how-to here.

Everything works so great with my cedar chest I redid months ago:

I showed you how incredibly annoying easy it was to reupholster dining chairs here. I used a brown faux silk on the backs, a creamy linen on the seats, and a pattern with all of the colors on the fronts:

Reason #7,839 I love my husband -- when I put the fabric on the chairs to show him what it would look like, I asked, do you think it's too much? His response -- "Maybe for some people, but not for us." LURVE that man.

I love to paint our ceilings, and I showed you how I did this one here.

It makes the molding POP!
The light. THE LIGHT I LOVE!! It was a knock of a Pottery Barn light I showed you here.
My version is from Home Depot and cost about $100 less (plus free shipping!).

I need to lower it just a couple inches, but for now, it's just fine. :)

My favorite time to enjoy this room is at night:

I'm not lyin' when I tell you I've had the chandy turned on every. single. evening, whether or not we're downstairs. I don't turn it off till we go to bed. It's so lovely to look at when we come down the stairs throughout the evening:

And because I'm a sucker for a good before and after, here's how the room looked years ago:

Then, a couple years later:

And last year...

Now:

Last year:

Today:

DRAMA!! I love it!! It is a dining room after all...so it's allowed. ;)

The winner of the ABCD Images giveaway is Erin @ Thimble Ambitions! Congrats Erin, email me and I'll get you in touch with Angie!