Dining Room Reveal

I’m thrilled to be able to share my new dining room with y’all today. First let me start by showing you my inspiration. I found this photo over at Beth’s Blog, Home Stories A to Z, and I just loved it.

Here’s a reminder of what I started with – the Dungeon Dining Room.

This is what the space looks like now.

Drumroll, please………….

Well, what do you think? I love it. There are a couple more things that need to be addressed in this room, but I couldn’t be happier with the way it looks.

What’s so amazing about this redo is that it cost me only about $95. Yeah, you read that right $95. How?? Through careful planning, using what I already owned, and repurposing things to work in this space.

For instance, the flower arrangements… I helped my friend Allison make these for her daughter’s wedding a few years ago, and she was kind enough to give me couple in return. Originally these arrangements were filled with blue hydrangeas, but I made them work for my space by replacing the blue flowers with more muted tones.

Next, the drapes…

I’ve been planning this redo for quite some time now, so I’ve had my eye out for things I could use in this space. I found the material for the curtains at Hancock Fabrics a few months ago and picked it up while it was on sale at half price. By opting to make these dummy panels, rather than real working drapes I was able to save on yardage too. The result? I was able to make these curtains for about $30.

Hmmm….Where to hang them?

I’m a wild and crazy girl!

I picked up these finials at Hobby Lobby.

And the mirror….

My sister-in-law gave me this mirror way back when the Tool Man and I first got married. It belonged to her, and for some reason or other she no longer wanted it. (It might have had something to do with the fact that it was brassy gold.) So I painted it silver and hung it in over the couch in our living room at our first house. (Although, I was never really pleased with how my paint job turned out.) When we moved to our new house, I hung the mirror between the dining room windows. When I decided to go ahead with this redo, I was inspired by Miss Mustard Seed to give the mirror yet another facelift.

So here’s what it looked like when I started this makeover. My sad attempt at antique silver…yuck!

First thing I did was tape off the glass and spray paint the frame brown. As you can see I had a little monkey helping me.

Then I gave the frame a coat of turquoise. Turquoise?! Keep your panties on people, I’m not finished with it yet.

See how I let some the brown basecoat show through.

Next, I dry-brushed on a coat of cream. Finally, I rubbed on a little umber with a damp cloth to tone everything down.

I even went back and scraped the paint down to the brown base coat in some spots. Love the character that this added!

Time to hang. Thank goodness I know the Tool Man!

This time I decided to put the mirror on the wall opposite the windows. Now the mirror can reflect light coming in from the windows and brighten the room even more.

Lucy was totally in on all the action.

And now the details…

A nest I found in my yard. Yeah, that’s a chicken egg in it. The Tool Man says that’s a mighty big egg for such a little nest.

He’s right.

Since I moved the mirror, I had to find a something else to hang between the windows. How about monkey portraits? Aren’t they sweet? Can you guess who’s who? (Here’s a hint: Look at their hair.)

The centerpiece…

The cup and saucer were pieces that my mother inherited. That pale, robin’s egg blue is perfect for my taste. See my apples? For as long as I can remember, my mom had a wire, chicken-shaped basket sitting on top of her refrigerator. It was full of straw, and there were 7 red plastic apples in it.

She let me have the basket recently, and I use it for collecting eggs. I repainted the apples and wrote the fruits of the Spirit on them. I think they are the perfect addition to my table.

My china pattern is Crestwood Platinum by Noritake. I’m lucky enough to have 14 complete place settings. Woo hoo! Only thing is, I’ve had it for 10 years, and probably have only used it 4 times. (Which is probably one more than my mother has ever used hers.) This is embarrassing, but half of my pieces still have the price tags on them. How crazy is that? It looks awful nice in that there china cabinet, but I really need to use this stuff more.

I mentioned there were a couple of things left to address in this room. Well, one is the chandelier. It still has to be moved, but don’t hold your breath. There’s also the little matter of the holes in the ceiling where speakers will go one day. And last is a rug. I’m OK without the rug for now. It certainly is easy to sweep and mop under the table. But one day, I’d like to have a rug in there.

Finally, I thought I’d leave you with a glimpse out the dining room windows.

How many folks can sit in their dining room and watch their dinner running around in their front yard? Just kidding! I could never eat my girls.

I’ll be linking this post to:

Somewhat Simple, Inspiration Friday, Weekend Wrap-up Party