MEET MY DINING ROOM

Dining rooms are next on the list in Kelly's house tour. Last week it was Guest Rooms, and since all of the bedrooms in our house are occupied by my three lovely daughters and me and the MOTH, I didn't have anything to show. 

Just over a month ago we did some painting around the house. We painted the den and dining room. I am not completely finished with either room. I am trying to update some pictures and accessories. I haven't hung all the things back of the walls because I am not sure what I am keeping and what I am replacing. 

This is my dining room.

before

after

 I lost sleep over picking out the colors. I love color and it was so hard going from a  green to this taupe. Isn't it funny....  neutrals scare me to death! I bought so many sample jars and quarts of paint the week before the dining room was painted it was ridiculous. I had little squares of beige all over the walls.

 I was really limited to my color choice because of the rug that is in the room. Burgundy was an obvious choice, but my TV room upstairs (bonus room) is painted  burgundy so I didn't want to put that in the dining room. To add a little drama, we painted the ceiling a dark chocolate brown. I was terrified of that too! It turned out very nice. It is dramatic, but not any darker feeling than before. The darker ceiling actually kind of disappears when you are standing in the room. It doesn't feel like it is closing in on you, like I thought it would. 

This is looking in from the direction of the kitchen. The window treatments were hanging in the living room and I just moved them into here  as an experiment. I originally was going to have something made but I think I like theses hanging in here. They are from Pottery Barn and are a sheer linen. I am going to add some kind of trim or fringe/braid to them. 

The chandelier is either going to be replaced or painted. I like it, but hate the outdated brass. I have been researching online about how to paint it to give it an old world look. It doesn't sound too difficult, but I still think I will replace it.

 

In this picture, my back is to the windows and I am facing towards the kitchen.

from the foyer (above)

looking towards the foyer (below)

I had a formal dining room set when we first moved into our house, but we never used it and it looked out of place. I picked out this furniture  because I liked the informality of it but it still made a statement. I love how it goes with the flow. I can put "good dishes" on it, dress it up for Christmas or set the table with a bunch of  mixed and matched things  and feel comfortable with it. We have a big front porch with a porch swing, rockers and a gazebo on it, so I thought it was a good thing to carry that atmosphere into the house. BUT I didn't want it to be "country" looking.  I hope I have accomplished that.

The furniture is made from  reclaimed antique wood from England. Our floors were actually the walls of a cotton mill in NC many years ago. I love all of the nail holes that are still in them.

(yes, that is my foot...good thing I just got a pedi!)

If you look in the pictures above I don't have anything on the walls beside my china cabinet yet. I don't know if I want to hang the plateracks back up or pictures. I have been looking for something that would add some color to the room, but haven't found anything that I love.

I have a lot of dishes! I am not a" matching" kind of person. I like to put casual and formal things together. I have a lot of old crystal from my relatives that have passed away. Whenever someone passes away, (I know this sounds crazy!) I ask for a dish and a piece of silverware or my mom gets it for me. It is kind of neat to look around the Christmas table and see granny's bowl, Aunt Mabel's spoon, Martie's fork and Aunt Bell's gravy boat being passed around. 

Now that I look at the pictures, I think I need to spend some time cleaning out and organizing!!!

Hope you had fun!