Bright, Happy Dining Room

My house is dark. There are two HUGE elms in our front yard that make the natural light in our house less than abundant. And we can't paint the walls in our rental. Check out the sad before pictures of our dining room:


Since we will live here for only a year, I decided to go with a really bright and fun color scheme for the room.



I reupholstered the $50 Craig's list settee myself earlier this year.

Before:


After:



{And, yes, I am slightly embarrassed that Chiang Mai pops up so much around here...}

The table is a mid-century Drexel piece that seats 12 with all the leaves installed. I love it. It was purchased for $50 from a Craig's list seller who had "distressed" it to "look like a Pottery Barn table."



There were 10" long scratches in the surface and perfect phillips head "star" screwdriver gouges! A little bit of wood filler and some sanding helped a lot.



The table's been painted black for most of the time I've owned it, but I recently painted it this really moody ink blue color that I love, called "Umbrella" from Martha Stewart.

The chairs were purchased last fall at the Brimfield antique show. They were in really bad shape when I got my hands on them...


I blogged about them here. They are painted one of my favorite creamy white colors, Martha Stewart's 'Macaroni.'


I had planned on putting down a seagrass rug, but I actually really like the way the PB Collette rug looks in here. I like the muted tones layered with all the really bright colors.


I sewed the drapes myself using peacock blue linen fabric that I bought for $1 a yard at a local fabric store because it had been sun bleached. I simply dyed all the fabric with some RIT in the washing machine and fixed the discoloration. This saved me some serious cash.


I used cream twill tape trim from eBay for the box pleated accent on the leading edges. You can purchase a similar trim at M&J.

The tortoise shell-looking bamboo shades were on clearance at Home Depot (though they can be purchased full price here). There were only two shades left at the store and they were different widths, but you can't tell layered under the drapes.



Remember the clock?


I cut off the scalloped apron and added $5 worth of moulding to the sides.



The whole thing got a coat of Martha Stewart's 'Vintage Map' and then I trimmed out the moulding with glossy black paint. I'm still waiting for the brass ring pulls to come in for the bottom cabinet doors.



I bought nine IKEA Ribba frames for $7.99 each. I can't find the link online, but they were a natural wood color before I spray painted them the persimmon color.



I photoshopped some old family photos for the frames and I love getting to see images that remind me of our family heritage every day.



The tole chandelier was another Brimfield purchase ($40).



I bought a very pretty gold-leafed plein air frame for a client a few months ago and didn't end up using it, and I really wanted to incorporate in my own home. Rather than buying a painting to fit the frame, I scavenged my art supplies in the basement for an old 16x20 blank canvas and some oil paint to create a VERY rough version of this image from Lonny.


I don't love it, but I guess it's fine for now.



The server was a birthday gift a few years ago from my mom. It used to be an old dining table that was cut down and two new legs were added to the back to make it console table sized. I gave it a coat of chartreuse green paint for the dining room redo.



The Chinese stools were a total craigs list score and have a permanent home under the server table. The large sunburst mirror is from Home Goods. I bought it a few months ago.



That's it for part one. I've got lots of fun DIY projects from other parts of this room that I can't wait to share with you all!!

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

...So I can take pictures of my finished dining room!

Here's a sneak peek.



I totally have a thing for inlaid furniture, mirrors and boxes. I snatched this one up last week at TJ Maxx for $14.99.

The Office

I painted the 500 lb credenza over the weekend, which spurred the official decorating of my office. By Monday night the last coat of poly had cured and we brought the furniture inside. Tuesday morning I headed down to my basement to go 'shopping' for my sorely neglected office, a long and narrow room off our living room. Seriously, the office was a mess - boxes still everywhere.

The dreaded Before shot. The contents of my desk were all over the floor while my desk was getting a face lift.

Here's how I put the room together with almost no money:

1. Revamped Parsons Desk

I bought a vintage Parsons desk on Craigslist a year or two ago for almost nothing. This is after I sanded it.


I had painted it a fun green color, but now I wanted a sort of dingy pale aqua color, similar to Martha Stewart for Valspar "Vintage Map." Since the desk is pretty small, I decided to save money on paint and mixed my own color using some glossy white latex and a little bit of turquoise and brown acrylic craft paint.


I rolled on the paint with a mini-roller and did about three coats. After letting the last coat dry overnight, I used my favorite product - Wipe On Poly. Yes, it's as easy and awesome as it sounds. Polyurethane sealer that you wipe on.

Action shots!!

Two good coats of Wipe-on in "Gloss" and 24 hours of curing time and the Parsons desk looked as good as new.



2. DIY Fabric Shade

I used about a yard and a half of linen from my stash and a roll of 1.5" red grosgrain to make a fabric shade for the window. It still needs to be lined, but it's not bad for a $0 project. Here are the instructions for making your own.



3. New (old) RED Credenza.


After reading this post from Nick Olsen a while back, I picked up a couple cans of Rustoleum's 'Saftey Red' Spray Enamel at Home Depot for a client's project. We ended up going with a different color scheme, but I kept the spray paint. And I'm so glad I was able to use it on this project! Isn't it a fun color? The perfect orange-red.


Since I know you will ask -- I did prime the credenza first. Well. Part of the credenza - just the top since that's the part that gets the most wear.


I rolled on my trusty Zinsser and let it dry while I worked some magic on the dingy brass hardware with white vinegar and salt.

The credenza ended up needing two or three coats of the spray enamel. Because I invested $2.95 in this reusable spray painting nozzle/trigger/thing, my pointer finger and I are still on speaking terms. AND the paint job looks professionally sprayed.

The freshly painted credenza got two coats of Wipe-On Poly as well and it was done. I love the way the cleaned up brass hardware looks against the orangey red!



4. Pretty Inspiration Boards

I picked up a pair of very cheap cork boards and painted the frames with that same yellow paint that I used in my girls room (Martha Stewart "Olive Oil"). No need to tape or to be careful with the paint job here since the cork will be covered up.


I measured and cut up some old fabric that I bought for a project and never used (--Are you picking up on a theme here??) and simply ran a line of fabric glue around the border of the cork board. I glued one edge at a time and smoothed like crazy so that the fabric would lay perfectly flat. (PS the fabric is an outdoor print made by Waverly, called "Lovely Lattice" in Lagoon)

Then I fabric glued on some red gimp/trim to cover any imperfections or gaps in the border.


I hung up the refinished cork boards about five minutes before taking pictures, so I haven't had a chance to really style them yet with inspiration stuff, but that can be a fun ongoing project.





The rest of the room was put together with stuff I already had. An IKEA rug, an eBay lamp, some prints from a vintage shop, etc.





And that's it for my (basically) $0 office redo! I've got some sort of cold/flu situation happening, so I think I'm going to call it weekend. See you back here Monday?

xoxo, Jenny