Tera was so happy with the results of her Living Room reinvention, that she contacted us right away to get started on her dining room. Here’s her letter,
Dear Lisa, Hooray, not only do I love the ideas you presented for my living room, but you won over my husband, Jim, with the vintage movie reels. Now that we’re ready to start buying for that project, we need you to get started on our dining room because the living room opens right to it. Since we’ve traveled so much together, Jim and I really love pieces that have a story. Our dining room table is actually a door from Mexico that was mounted on a wooden plow. The buffet is something we bought together, so that’s definitely a keeper. We would like to work with similar colors that you suggested for our living room since they are connected. Also, we could use a rug, window treatments, and I’m always finding that we use our dining room as a dumping ground, so a way to organize papers, bottles, and “stuff” to make the room function better would be really helpful. Thanks, and we can’t wait to see what you come up with. Tera
Tera, it was a pleasure to come up with some fun and affordable ways to elevate the drama in your dining room, and we’re not talking spilled milk!
1. We’re complementing and extending the color palette we began in Tera’s Living Room with shades of deep red with gold and black accents. Our color inspiration came from the “elephant wall hanging” Tera and her husband picked up in the their travels. An accent wall in the dining room always heightens the drama, so we suggest that Tera extend the Benjamin Moore’s Bricktone Red (2005-30) from the living room into the room on the wall with the window. For accent walls, remember to use a flat or eggshell finish to eliminate shine and hide imperfections in the wall. Painting BM’s Desert Tan (2153-50) on the remaining three walls will cast a cozy, golden glow in the room. To clean up and brighten that gorgeous vintage trim, BM’s White Dove (OC-17) is a great choice for a warm, crisp effect.
2. Tera currently has a large chandelier in the dining room. The style and scale are perfect for the room; it just needs a little sprucing up. Tera, meet our BFF, spray paint. We think Tera should ask the electrician who is installing her living room light fixture to remove the one in her dining room so she can take it to the backyard and apply a few coats of spray paint in a matte black finish. By the time her electrician has finished installing the living room fixture, the dining room chandelier will be dry and ready for re-installing. Since the old lampshades look a bit faded, these spiffy new
shades will finish off the brand new look, all for a fraction of the cost of a new chandelier.
3. The black iron finish on this
curtain rod will tie in nicely with the black iron on the newly painted chandelier. And the price can’t be beat. ’Nuff said.
4. These ivory and sand colored
curtains will pop against the burgundy wall and bring a casual elegance to the room. The traditional Indian textile motif works perfectly with our global eclectic theme. The curtains are 108″ high, so they can be hung as high as possible, allowing for just enough of a puddle effect on the floor to give them a custom look.
5. The inspiration for the color palette in this room came from the wall hanging Tera picked up in travels with the husband after they were married (see picture above). It hangs to the left of the entryway into the living room, and Tera loves to see it there when she enters the house from the back. To give some balance and frame this space, we found this incredibly magical looking
mirror that is hand carved in dark wood tones. We think it would look perfect hanging on the right side of the entryway to the living room which is just the right spot to reflect sunlight in the daytime, candlelight at night, and the happy faces of family and friends as they gather around the table.
6. These two affordably priced chocolate
leather Parsons chairs are a perfect match to the two Tera already has. These can be placed on the other side of the table and the two green stools can be situated under the mirror and elephant wall hanging for pops of fun green color.
7. Tera confessed that she uses her dining room table as a catch all for papers, books and the general “stuff” that gets accumulated throughout the week. Hey, don’t we all? These
woven stacking boxes will quickly and stylishly catch it all and disguise it in the event Tera wants to entertain. They will look great stacked on her her gorgeous buffet.
8. We’re suckers for using candles and mirrors to spice it up in the dining room. The food and the company all look better in sparkling candlelight, don’t you think? We think a pair of these lovely mirrored
sconces, one hung on each side of the window, will complement the pattern in the drapes and cast a beautiful reflective glow in the room.
9. We love a
tray to pull items together, and Tera could use a tray on her buffet to collect bottles and create a bar station for entertaining. This
batiked wooden tray was handmade in Indonesia by local artisans. Not only do the deep red and gold colors of the tray work in this dining room, but the story behind the retailer is inspiring. Read more about Ten Thousand Villages, one of the largest fair trade organizations, by clicking
here.
10. To further cozy up this dining room and pull the elements together, we love this elegant and freshly modern take on the Oriental
rug. The black, gold, sage, ivory, and deep red tones express our color palette beautifully, and connect the room visually with the living room color elements. The rug’s large dimensions and wool texture also soften and complement the more angular dimensions of Tera’s table and buffet.
Tera, we hope you love your new dining room as much as we do. Get your guest list started for your next dinner party.
Needless to say, this giant florescent behemoth wasn’t flattering anybody. In the dark winter mornings it woke us up faster than a strong cup of coffee. It had to go. Easy. So we removed it, only to find this…
Ah, yeah, perhaps not so easy. What proceeded was a multi-step, multi-day ceiling repair job. First, drywall was attached to some 2 x 4 anchors installed in the recessed area
Followed by several layers of drywall patch to recreate the texture of the original ceiling, and a temporary fixture in the meantime.
After a week, we were ready to paint the ceiling and get the new fixture installed. We realized that with the low ceiling (sad, but true) any swanky chandelier or pretty pendants were not an option. We pored over hundreds of flushmounts, but they just didn’t spread the light around the room the way we needed. So we went with a brushed steel halogen fixture. It’s sleek stature and streamlined directional light was the right kind of luminescent muscle for us. David wins! Let there be better light!
