I included our dining room when I posted our home tour last week and have blogged about its progress along the way, but here's the official "before/after" post and all of the details in one place.
The dining room is one of the first spaces you see when you walk through the front door, and I'm a little embarrassed to admit that it sat looking like this for way too long:
The problems: blah beige walls, a matching table and chairs that I was quickly getting tired of, a mirror that didn't fit the wall, a lack of window treatments--I could go on and on. . . This room definitely evolved over time, with me making lots of changes along the way.
I started by painting the walls a rich (but not too dark) brown called "Flatland" by Dutch Boy Paints. The next step was to solve the problem of the matching dining set. I moved the chairs to our breakfast area, kept the table and since dining chairs can be expensive, I shopped for new ones at a local thrift store. I came home with six of these for $12 each:
After a couple of different attempts, I settled on this fabric:
(The "Bon Appetit" pillows are inexpensive IKEA covers that I had embroidered.)
I repeated the seat fabric on the window treatments. From the start, I knew I wanted to bring chartreuse into the space. I used simple IKEA curtain panels and customized them by having them lined for fullness and adding a wide fabric band.
To tie in the green, I used this fabric to recover a $50 ottoman from Walmart.com, which became my new dining bench:
The rug, by the way, was a $100 Craigslist find. I must have really wanted it, because I remember going all the way across Charlotte, 9 months pregnant (with my entire family in tow) to pick it up. Determination does pay off :)
And, I definitely got the mileage out of this book that I bought online for less than $35. I was able to fill the walls with botanical art without breaking the bank. I, of course, used my favorite plastic frames from Michael's to complete the look:
The mirror was also a thrift store fnd, and the buffet is our old TV console (originally purchased at a Rooms To Go Outlet). I just changed the knobs and used the open spaces to house serving trays, table linens, etc. I've had the lamps for a while. They were bronze with big bell shades. I painted them white and bought the oversized shades at a Pottery Barn Outlet store for less than $20 each.
I found the black urns on the dining table on clearance at HomeGoods. I think that covers everything. . . More details to come on the adjoining living room next week.
An Etsy shop offering beautiful 1-yard fabrics (sometimes more)--perfect for your small-scale decorating projects!
