A Place to Dine

Finally...the dining room!

As a reminder here is the before picture.

It had been used as the living room.  It is now a grand dining room perfect for our Easter family dinner! (we finished just in time!)

We still plan to get a proper buffet by the windows but just haven't found the right one yet! 

There are so many things to share about this room and all the little things we did to pull it together.  For now I'll just give you a quick tour around the room.

 This wall is one of the longest in the room.  The only one without a window or archway so it's a great spot to show you the colors.  The yellow shade is called Allspice which we previewed for you here. The wainscoting is the same as the trim color we used in the living room as you saw here.  We had a big decision (and you know how we are with decisions!) about what to do with the chair rail.  It had to be replaced but should we paint it or stain it.  As you can see we went with stain.  We think we made the right decision.  I'll tell you how we did it soon!  Once the wall was decorated and the massive fireplace found its new home things seemed to really be coming together!

Directly across from the fireplace we have a small wall between two archways.  One goes into the living room revealed here and the other one goes right out to the front porch. I'm not 100% set on this bookshelf here but for now it serves its purpose as a mail collection station and a spot to hold baskets of junk!

On the other side of the front door arch we brought in a new lamp to balance the lamps on the fireplace.  The lamp is anchored by a table which we can use to display special antiques like our "tea party" set. 

You can see a section of the huge windows in this image.  I will share more about them soon!  

Finally we have the wall with the staircase.  This is one of the reasons we stained the chair rail instead of painting it.  We love how the details of the staircase really pop now! 

We were very lucky through this whole project we had nice weather so Sanka was able to enjoy some fresh air while we did all the hard work.  At the end of the day she would come in and inspect our hard work! 

Living Room Finale

Weeks have passed without any updates on the progress of turning our house into a home.  I'd like to say it is because we've been so busy with our projects; while that is true the actual reason is that during the upheaval associated with remodeling our living and dining room I misplaced my camera card reader - oops!

It has been recovered though, along with two completed rooms.  First reveal is the living room!  For a quick reminder of what this room looked like a few months ago visit our beginning post here.  What once was a green toned dining room is now a vibrant red living room!

As we worked on this room I shared many of our big decisions, such as the windows, and carpet.  As we continued working, the decisions also continued! 

One of my favorite features of this room is the fireplace (no it's not real) and mantel.  What to do with this space?  The mantel is unique because it is the full length of the room with 2 distinct levels.  

We chose to put the TV to the left of the fireplace using an angle wall bracket.  Although it is a large part of the room it is not the central focus that it may have been if we had put it above the fireplace.

We've kept the center of the mantel very simple, but I think it needs one more thing under the frames.  (when I find the right piece I'll know it!)

We use the right side to display some sentimental photos and "stuff".  (More on the sconce later)

The shelves are hidden by simple doors with rustic hinges, these were a fun project! (More on that later too!)

Everyone is enjoying the new room!  Valentine is very happy with her bed under the windows (yes, it's a bit frustrating to me that her bed doesn't match, but she doesn't deal well with change!). 

Sanka seems to fit perfectly in this little corner!