Much Better! (Dining Room)

This space has been driving me crazy because it has been bare and PALE since we moved in. I knew that I wanted to paint an old china cabinet of Mom's that has been sitting in the basement, but it took a little convincing of Josh that it wouldn't be too big for this room. Also it took some snow days and an MLK holiday to actually have time to spend on it. So since I had a vision of the cabinet going against that bare wall, I never hung anything there. Also, the curtains that were in there were just the cream, linen ones that came with the house, and although I really like them, they made the room look so anemic!

I never took any before pictures (imagine that), but you can see the dining room in this picture from Thanksgiving. (Don't judge my table setting... The accent plates had already been removed and things were shuffled around. :) )

I guess I could also put up the picture of what the room looked like with the previous owners. Just don't tell me if you think it looked better then!

The china cabinet I mentioned above is still in pretty good shape but definitely has some nicks here and there. It was also a medium-stain wood and I wanted something lighter. Also, the glass inserts on the doors and the glass shelves were broken. The thing had been in storage since I-don't-know-when. So the obvious decision was to "distress" it.

dis·tress - verb - \di-ˈstres\ - "lazy girl's way to paint"

Okay that may or may not be the actual definition, but it's definitely pretty accurate. First, I sanded the cabinet pretty roughly. Then I took some white-ish cream paint leftover from our bonus room and slapped a first coat on. Next, I painted a coat of the same green-ish color from the kitchen backsplash. Slapped it on. Not perfect. Didn't worry about getting in every nook and cranny. (Something about that phrase just sounds gross to me... I don't think I'll use it anymore.) Next came the second coat of green. Finally, I sanded a little in certain spots and around edges. Also, I scraped paint off of the mirrored back because I was too lazy while painting to use painters tape. Next I helped Josh lug the bottom part of the cabinet upstairs. FYI - don't ever seek out my help to move furniture. I had two huge blue bruises on my thighs from that cabinet. And I complain a lot when moving heavy things. Needless to say, Josh and a friend moved the top part up, which was MUCH heavier. For the doors, I added chicken wire inserts (remember- glass was broken). I really like the chicken wire-on-cabinets look, but I realize that it's not for everyone. Who knows, I may hate it in a few years, but if I do then I'll just rip it off and do something else. No harm done! Also, we had to get glass shelves cut since those were broken and I couldn't very well make chicken wire shelves.

(Note: I wrote this before actually putting the chicken wire on the doors. I have tried. Twice. I couldn't figure out a good way to do it because the staple gun doesn't get the staples flush with the wood. And I was tired of wrestling with all that wire. If you haven't worked with chicken wire before, it's somewhat of a pain. So just imagine that this part has been done in the pictures.)

For the panel drapes, I really wanted to do a print since the panels in the den (which have yet to be sewn and are Scotch taped to the curtain rod) are solid. We really liked some Pottery Barn drapes, but they were $90 per panel and we just can't spend that much! Also, buying fabric to make my own panels was definitely out of the question, seeing as the aforementioned den panels have been taped up for 7 months. Woops! I decided to browse around, secretly thinking that I wouldn't be able to find anything I liked and I would just be FORCED to buy the beautiful PB curtains. However, I found some solid chocolate brown panels at Target on clearance for $20 each. They are a nice, thick, quilted fabric and are lined! Sold! It's hard to find panel drapes in the 96" length, which (in my opinion) looks much better because you can hang them at the ceiling and make the room look so much taller. I was in luck that they had four 96" left! I did have to move the curtain rods down about 3 inches because the panels were "flooding". (Josh insisted it was fine but it drove me BATTY. I waited until he was out of town and moved those suckers down. He now agrees that they look better!)

I will probably change up the right wall at some point, but it's going to stay like that for now. There are a lot of chairs going on in this room, but it is so nice to have those little chairs handy to pull out when we have a crowd over.

Have a wonderful day!