My Windows Are Now Fully Dressed And Ready For Their Close Up

After three failed attempts with my normal standby, Overstock.com, I finally found the natural style roman shades I wanted online at Home Depot.

I climbed up on my step stool, drilled the holes for the screws (after much measuring, of course) and hung the shade on the first window.  I stepped back to admire my handiwork and pull the shades up to the desired length and ....nothing.  They just hung there all limp and pathetic.  I pulled the shade away from the window to see if the cord had gotten messed up and found the problem:

Every last one of these plastic rings was broken...ARRRGGGGGGG.  It was apparently broken before it was even shipped because there wasn't a single spec of plastic on the floor or in the box to indicate they broke post shipping. Anyway, after the agony I went through getting the darn thing up, I was in no mood to unscrew the screws and take it down, package it up and, AGAIN, have to send it back. 

I decided it would be far easier to find a replacement for the broken rings.  My handy Home Depot guy at the local store was on duty and advised me to go to Michael's, troll down the jewelry making aisle and find small metal rings that I could fit over the plastic.  One quick trip to Michael's later I found what he had described:

I had the new metal rings attached to the plastic ones in a few minutes and it works like a dream :-),

Sigh....so happy.

 Now, if I could just get those curtains properly arranged and fluffed.  One crisis at a time...

Polishing Off The Dining Room

Ever since I gave my dining room a makeover earlier this year, the round mirror on the north wall has looked...well, it just looks lonely.  It needs sconces or something with candlelight to flank it. I finally found what I was looking for.

I had purchased two black lanterns at Home Goods a few weeks ago for about $12 each and plunked them on the mantle while I tried to figure out what I want to do with the mantle and what I want to do with the lanterns. 

 

The gold star burst mirror hanging above the mantle and the new thrift store ivory urns don't really jive with the black lanterns so I didn't want them to stay there - they were just resting there waiting for my moment of brilliance to arrive. Sometimes I just like to place accessories somewhere and ponder them for a bit.  Specifically, I put them in the living room as that's where I watch TV at night or read or listen to music, chat on the phone, etc.  When you're forced to confront something often enough, you'll eventually have a moment of brilliance about what to do with it (or you'll just take it back to the store for a refund :-).

Anyhoo, my idea was to hang the lanterns on either side of the round black mirror in the dining room.  So, I went to Lowe's and purchased two of these black iron plant hangers for a little less than $2 each:

Next I traced the lanterns to make paper templates.  I always do this to minimize screw ups whenever I have to hang something.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it fails miserably.

Then the lanterns were ready to dangle from their new hooks.  Ideally, I would have preferred narrower lanterns, but these are fine.  As the Nester says, it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful.

I'm expecting these matchstick shades from Home Depot to arrive any day now.  I'm hoping they'll still allow some light in while obscuring the view of the side of my neighbor's house.  It's a lovely house, I just don't necessarily want to look at from my dining room.

Next on the agenda is figuring out a new look for the living room mantle.  The mirror must stay, but everything else is subject to change.  Stay tuned.

The Perfect Place for a Settee...The Dining Room, Of Course

Ever since I first saw a photo of a beautiful curvy settee pulled up to a dining room table (years ago), I've lusted for that look in my own dining room. 

Something like this....

or this....

 or maybe this...

 or even this....

I would put it right there under the round black mirror.  What do you think?

Initially I thought Nate Burkus HSN Studio Sofa would fit the bill since it's the perfect size, comes in green velvet, has a great price and I love the look (not to mention the casters - love furniture on casters), but according to its description, it can only hold a maximum weight of 250 pounds.

 

 So you're having a cocktail party and you spot two of your much beloved, but horizontally challenged buds heading for your beautiful little studio sofa.  GASP!  What do you do?  Try to distract them until a skinnier friend plunks her tiny posterior down thereby saving your mini sofa from destruction?  Put a sign on your sofa spelling out this dubious weight restriction? Hide the sofa in the basement until the party is over?  None of these seem like acceptable options to me so I wrote off this one pretty quickly.

For now it shall remain just a nice little unfilled decorating dream.  I've got a lot of those ;-)

My Dining Room Makeover Revealed

I am finally able to reveal my dining room makeover!!

Before I show you my pictures, I know that I should have taken the time to set the table, light candles, buy flowers and put them in a lovely vase and all that good stuff.  But, the guys from Arslanian Brothers just left after picking up the old rug to be cleaned and helping me lay out the new seagrass rug and I was just so excited to show you (all 6 of you...hi mom) my new dining room that I couldn't wait.

First, take a moment to review the BEFORE in this post for a proper perspective and then check out my fresh off the memory card reveal below...

 

This is the view from the living room.  I would have liked to get new shades for the chandelier (these are a pale gold silk), but it seemed an unnecessary expense given these ones from Ballard Designs are only about a year old and aren't really way out of place.  If I find 5 matching shades at a great price in one of my bargain hunts, I may pick them up, but these are fine for now.

I do love my fresh new Ballard Designs slipcovers with initial though.  They were a great buy on sale and I love anything washable. I don't want people stressing about spills when they eat.

I decided to rework the shelves in the built in by removing all but a few books and placing some cream colored pieces from my existing stash on display.

Did you happen to notice that I've entered the 21st century by having a programmable thermostat installed to replace the big ole honkin thing left over from 1940?  I'm so excited I can hardly stand it :).

 

  

  

  

I'm just thrilled with my new room and the toned down pallet is so soothing - exactly what I need right now.  It's hard to gain perspective from pictures, but the room looks sooo much bigger now too.  

Thanks so much for checking out my makeover.

I'm Showing My Stripes

As promised, here is a mini unveiling of my newly striped dining room.

As you can see, I haven't even put the switch plates back on the wall yet.  Still, I wanted to show off my stripes and I'm loving them more every day that I live with them.

The room is so much brighter and more open than the previous look I had going here.  I did love that too, but this is exactly what I need right now.

The new (super inexpensive) off white cotton duck slipcovers from Ballard Designs look great.  Not sure the initial was a good idea, but I've never had anything with an initial so I thought it would be a fun change.

The white silk panels (amazing deal on Overstock.com) on the windows are extremely thick and weighty and I'm still playing around with what I want to do.  Should I leave them as they are or split each panel in two and create decorative panels like I had before?

I bought these curtain hold backs years ago, at a store called Bombay Company that I don't think exists anymore, and put one each on the two windows in the dining room when I first moved into the house.  I had purchased two green velvet panels from Pottery Barn and used these hold backs for those.

Eventually I had custom decorative panels made.  If you can't afford enough of a favorite high end fabric to do two standard width panels per window, decorative panels are a great option.  If privacy is an issue, just insert some kind of sheer or blind between the panels.

Tonight I'll hang some of my artwork, put the switch plates on and maybe stop at the hardware store for some privacy film for the lower half of the windows.

I'm still searching for the mirror of my dreams or as close as I can get on my budget.

Monochromatic Works for Me!

Work and volunteering duties have been getting in the way of the striped wall project but fear not, I will persevere and get it done this week.

I have been feverishly reviewing craigslist for a mirror to no avail.

I've decided I'll have to hold onto my existing acanthus table from Ballard Designs because nothing on craigslist fits the look at a price I'm comfortable with.

Window treatments from Overstock.com are on the way but who knows what they'll look like in person.

Family and friends are questioning my decision to bury the burnt orange walls ("but I like them that color") but I remind them the walls have been that color for a really long time.  I guess that's the good thing about dining rooms - you can experiment with unusual, bold looks because you aren't in them often enough to get tired of colors that strong.

Still, as I work to learn my new roll of entrepreneur and figure out how to run a business on my own, I find I need my home to be really soft and soothing...comforting.  I don't want bold right now.  Soft, easy on the eyes colors feel right to me at the moment and I know when it's finished everyone will agree it's a good thing (to steal a little lingo from my beloved Martha :-)).

As you patiently await the dining room completion, I leave you with a few beautiful monochromatic dining rooms I find very soft and soothing.

 

 

 

 

Here are a couple different versions of white dining rooms in different styles by Country Living.  Furniture stays the same, but tweaking the accessories delivers a completely different look.

 

 

I have to get back to work now.

Carpe diem!

Too Much Drama For A Tuesday!

I have no exciting after pictures for you yet.  It will be a while before that happens, but I did have a drama filled day.

First, when I was leaving to run to the grocery store at lunchtime, I pulled the front door too hard and it auto locked.  The key would not move at all in the lock.  I called the fire department (they're less than a mile from my house) and asked if they could try the key for me.  The female dispatcher who answered agreed that I might just "need some man muscles" (her quote - very cute).

So very shortly after I hung up, the big red truck made its way up my street and parked out front.  Two firemen got out (one very hot).  One tried to open the door with my key and couldn't budge it either.  The other was able to break into the garage through a side window and the other smaller guy crawled through, went through the house and opened the door from the front (the cables on my garage door recently broke and it won't open either).

So, my house is falling apart around me and was a total mess thanks to my painting project (sooo embarrassed that they saw it like that), but that was not the end of my drama for the day.

As I am backing the car out of the driveway (immediately after being rescued by the fire department), my car gets stuck in the monstrously large mound of snow the city has created by pushing the snow onto my driveway when their trucks go by (it is frozen and I can't move it with a shovel).

I get out of the car and start trying to shovel my way out to no avail.  Finally a Good Samaritan came along and helped me dig and push the car out of the snow pile. 

All of this happened prior to 1:00 p.m. in the afternoon.  I mean how much drama must I endure that early in the day?  Like it couldn’t have spread itself out a little?

Anyway here are some interesting black and white themed dining spaces to ponder as I continue to brainstorm ideas...

 

 

 

 

 

Here's hoping tomorrow is mind numbingly boring.  I've had my fill of drama for the week and it's only Tuesday :)

The Dining Room Makeover is Underway

Well, I hope I made the right decision because the paint wasn't cheap.  I went ahead and bought a gallon of the best Sherwin Williams paint they had in Buff. 

My intention was to just do what I typically do and buy a quart and try a large patch on the wall, view it at different hours of the day over a week or so to be sure I liked it and then plunge or retreat.

But I bought the whole gallon and decided to paint a patch on Saturday.  But, the patch kept expanding because I just couldn't get a feel for it.  The dramatic difference between the brick color I have now versus this new creamy shade made it too difficult to tell what it would look like across all four walls. 

So the patch quickly expanded.  Last night after returning from a fun Sunday afternoon with a big group of girls (15 I think?) drinking mimosas, eating extremely fattening breakfast foods, crafting, chatting, watching Jane Austin and celebrating my friend Lora's birthday, I painted a second coat over the first patch. 

Here's a shot of the state of disrepair my dining room is currently in.  Try to ignore the linen sheers.  They are just there to maintain privacy while I paint.  My brain has already moved onto window treatments, what type of mirror for the wall you're looking at, my beautiful rug will no longer work in this room.  What have I done??????

Now that I've created this monster, I've got to at least get the base down quickly because I can't stand to have the lower level of my house looking like this if someone stops over.

Wish me luck.

From GreenHouse to Small House...Dining Room

Yesterday I showed you the cheerful little dining room in the CharityWorks GreenHouse, so today I thought I would show you my own cheery little dining space.

It's a small intimate space at just 10'8" by 11'.2", but it's plenty big enough for me and when I have a gathering, it forces everyone to chat to everyone else (no room to be a wallflower here).

 

This is the view into the dining room from my living room...

 

And the view from my kitchen.

I recently gave the dining room a makeover to give it a more casual look.  The feel before was way too formal for the way I live.  I had very formal green damask slipcovers from Ballard Designs on the parsons chairs that I replaced with these cotton twill ones (color is called butter), also from Ballard.  That table is from Ballard Designs too.

I took down the sconces on the wall and put the plates up and switched out the other artwork with some pieces I had purchased on vacations and at local art shows over the past few years.

 

 

The only piece I didn't change was this sweet portrait of a woman I bought years ago in an antique store (pretty sure it's just vintage, not antique) that has since closed.  I'm a terrible photographer and the light is shining on it, but it's actually beautiful in person.

Here is something else I didn't change...the rug.  It's a Karastan (called Kirman I think) and I love the millions of colors converging in this design.  I fell in love with this rug when I was still living in an apartment and was determined to buy it and put it in my dining room once I owned a home.  It was one of my first purchases and I still love it.

I'm still not happy with the bookshelves, but storing books here is a necessity.  In a small house, rooms often have to serve more than one purpose.  Having all this storage for my books is something I love and have always taken advantage of.  I used to store my decorating books here so that I could access them quickly when I was sitting in the living room watching TV (cause God forbid I actually focus on doing just one thing at a time).  But the decorating book collection eventually became too large and had to be moved to the home office.

So how do you like that 1940s temp control on the wall?  He..he...it's bad, I know.  I'll update it one of these days.

 

I store my cloth napkins, napkin rings and wine ID rings in the cabinet below the built in bookcase.

 

No idea what the point of this little built in cubby is, but there you have it.  Someone told me once they used to put these in homes as a spot to hold the telephone (phones in 1940 were quite a bit larger), but I'm not buying it for this space.  I mean why would they put it in the dining room?  That's usually the one time when no one is willing to answer the phone right?  While dining?  If you have a clue, let me in on the secret.