When we moved into our house - everything was stark white. Not just stark white, but almost "white-washed". Whatever paint was used, was awful and everywhere.
Personal Photo
The first project was to pick out a color palette & paint those walls! My dear friend, and now cousin-in-law, Christy, helped me to paint nearly every piece of trim on the first floor of that house. We washed it, used liquid sandpaper, and painted it all. 12" baseboards, door frames, window casings & crown molding. It took us days to get it all done. Then it was time for the painting brigade to come in. Mom, Dad, sister, Matt's parents, and lots of friends came over and helped us paint the living room, dining room, kitchen and two bedrooms upstairs. We figured it would be much easier to do before there was furniture!
We picked a fairly neutral palette. A light sage green for the walls of the living room and a dark mossy green for the walls of the dining room and foyer. The trim is all done in a light cream while the accent color was to be a dark red. The house had been recently, and cheaply, carpeted, so we were left with a beige colored carpet for now.
We then moved in all of our stuff. This is how our dining room looked just after the move.
Personal Photo
The dining room set is my Grandmother's. When she moved into her smaller apartment, she didn't need the dining set, so it went into storage until I could use it. I love the cherry wood and the cool 1940's lines. The walls were still pretty stark - no art had made it up yet & no decor had really been set out yet.
But time has past, we have put things away, gotten more and the house is becoming our home. This is what our dining room looks like today:
Personal Photos
Still not completed, but on it's way.
The sewing machine still needs to find a permanent home, I have to repot the plants & I'm still looking for the perfect tray to put under our collection of cool bottles on the server. I'm sure you will see some of these projects, as they happen, here on the blog.
Some of the changes: We added the glass top wine rack (which is SUPER useful & we love), we have changed everything in the display cabinets & art has made it up onto the walls. The Monet is from my dad - Matt and I saw a Monet exhibit for our first anniversary & then another one again in NYC this past fall. The Picasso print was Matt's. Most of the items in the cabinets are gifts from our wedding. I love the corner display cabinets, they are very convenient, and even have hidden storage below.
The runner that you see on the table was another DIY from the wedding. I am pretty new to sewing, my mother got me the machine & this was my first attempt at "hemming" anything. I had made that to sit under our signing frame on the escort card table. However, the black and silver pattern doesn't really go with our dining room, so I will be making another runner. I'm totally in love with burlap right now, and because you can get it in different colors, ultimately I will want to make a light green burlap runner for the table, probably about 18" wide. Something like the image below... not what you think of when you think burlap, right? I love it, and think it would make a perfect addition to the table.
Image from Real Simple
So that is our Dining Room. A work in progress. We took hand-me-down furniture, gifts and a little DIY to make it into something we really enjoy.
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