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Dining Room Updates!

Our furniture for the dining room was delivered yesterday. Im so excited to see this room start to come together. I had a hard time trying to narrow down the vision for this room, and I think it will be great when we finish.  Instead of choosing furniture that was overly formal, were going for a French country elegance feel for the room. I think this fits our lifestyle and will mesh well with the rest of the house.

So, here are some pictures of our new furniture in the room. The curtains, wall color, wainscoting and wall decor will all be changed in the near future. ;) Whats there now is what I put up after we moved in so it wouldnt feel so empty! Plus, these pictures were taken when it was dark, so the lighting is a little bit off.




These pictures were of the table without the leaf in it. With the leaf in, we can easily seat 8, which will be great! We got 6 side chairs for the table so that we can get two upholstered chairs for the ends. Im currently searching to find the best chair for the job. Here are some of my favorites:

Ballard Designs, Gentry Chair:  Natural Linen w/Black Finish

Ballard Designs, Gramercy Chair: Microfiber Natural w/ Black Finish

Home Decorators, Tufted-Back Dining Chair in Protege Haze

Home Decorators, Becca Nailhead Chair in Tufted Natural Linen

Restoration Hardware: Martine Arm Chair

        

        

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DIY Abstract Art for the Living Room

Our living room has been in serious need of some art on the walls. I wanted something BIG to take up some space on that ginormous blank wall, and since Ive been wanting to try to DIY some abstract art for oh, like ever, I decided to take this project on myself. (Remember the inspiration I posted about?) I snagged a 24"x36" canvas from Michaels (with a coupon of course!), some cheap-o acrylic paints and a pack of plastic palette knives* (similar) and went to town. Im really happy with how it turned out!

It took a little while to get the hang of it and Ill admit, I had a first effort that was a major fail. I didnt even take photos of it, it was so sad-looking. But you know what? I just painted right over it and got a final result that I love. I have to thank Julia from Cuckoo 4 Design for her super simple abstract art tutorial...it really helped get me going on this second effort.


I dont have a tutorial for you for this because you know what, I had no idea what I was doing until it was all over! So instead, Ill just show you photos of my new painting hanging in my living room :).


It brought some much needed color and a focal point for this space. Whats funny is in some of these pictures, the canvas still looks kind of small on that giant wall, but when youre actually in the room, the size feels perfect.



I love the colors I ended up with on the canvas...blues, pinks, greens, white and GOLD! For some reason, its really hard to photograph metallic paint, but those darker brown areas are gold, promise! ;)



It ties in nicely with the current pillows I have on our couch (which will inevitably change, given my constant itch to redecorate). In case youre wondering, the light blue/white pillows are ones I made from West Elm embroidered dot napkins and the watercolor ones are West Elm Kate Spade Saturday Habanero shams I modified so theyd be throw pillow size.

On a side note, can you spot that little plant on the side table by the chair? Its a jade plant I snagged from CVS of all places for $4 and I just love it!


Isnt it cute?

Heres to hoping I can keep it alive!

A closing thought about the art...I dont consider myself to be an artist, and Im so happy that I decided to try out this abstract art thing anyway. If youre considering trying to do some yourself, DO IT! If its terrible (like my first one was), just keep messing with it until you like it. If I can do this, so can you!


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Dining Room Progress

Ive been making a bit more progress in our dining room. I painted white below the chair rail this weekend. It looks much better, Im glad to get rid of the previous greenish color.

Ive been debating over what to do for wainscoting and as of now Ive decided that Ill make the picture frame wall panels myself. I found some moulding that I like at the Home Depot and found out that it will actually be much cheaper for me to cut and piece it together than buying the pre-made panels. I would have (/was planning to have, lol) bought the pre-made panels just because they are so easy, but I literally couldnt find them anywhere... theyre sold out completely at Lowes.

I used newspaper to first visualize the number of panels that Ill probably need. Then, I also made two practice panels to see how they look.  Its actually really, really easy to make these panels and you dont need a fancy saw, a regular handheld saw and a miter box will do.  So, with the two panels temporarily taped on the wall, I took some pictures.




I havent decided what to do about the chair rail moulding yet... keep or replace? Im not too fond of the moulding that the last owners chose, but I think I can live with it for a while. Taking down that moulding and putting up new chair rail is a little more involved of a project. I really dont want to accidentally damage the wall right before the holidays.

Also, I havent decided if Im going to keep wall painted white below the chair rail for the look of wainscoting or paint the wall gray. Heres what I mean:

More on that later.

Ive also decided that I will probably try to make the curtains for this room on my own. Ive been reading a lot of sewing and DIY blogs and instructions to make them and I think I can do it.  More on these later too, although I have decided that I will use this gray and white Duralee loop fabric:

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Dining Room Curtains

Over the weekend, I made the curtains for the dining room. I had previously ordered the fabric and drapery lining from LS Fabrics in Atlanta. Wow, this was a big project, but it was definitely a rewarding one!



I decided to make back-tab panels because I didnt want the ruched look of rod pocket drapes but I didnt think I had enough skill to make pinch pleats. I made these with a no-sew method and used only Stitch Wichery to hem and bond the fabric together. I may go over some of the seams with the sewing machine in the future, but for now, these drapes look great and are serving their purpose. This is a great way to easily create curtains for your home and the no sew technique works great if they will be dummy panels that you dont intend to pull across the window.


 At the bottom and top of the panels, I hemmed about 3" to make the panels the correct length. Be sure to check that your panel is square and your fabric is how you want it at this stage.


At this point, I had hemmed the top, bottom, and sides of the fabric panel. Heres what they looked like laying out on the floor.

I wanted to add a fabric lining to these curtains so they would look more polished and not look flimsy on the wall.  I cut the lining to fit just inside the panel, "sewed" it to the top of the panel and then folded the seams of the fabric over onto the lining, ironing the Stich Wichery to hold it in place.


At that point, I was almost done. I then added tabs on the top of the fabric, at the right height, so that I could slide my curtain rod through. I dont have a picture of that, but basically it looks like strips of fabric on the back that the rod slides through.

And, heres the finished product:



Kevin and I are really happy with the result. It was a lot of work making these curtains, but we think they really look nice in the room. Its also amazing how much bigger the room feels with these floor to ceiling curtains.  They add drama and a point of interest in the room.

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