The Big Reveal…the dining room

Are you ready???  I know it has taken me FOREVER to get these photos posted.  I got sucked in and just kept going.  I’m on a roll around here.  Since my last post I have switched things around in the office and the entry way and now I am in the middle of the family room, which has involved paint.  I will have to share photos of it all soon.  I don’t know why I am nesting like this.  I told my sister the other day that I was nesting for her.  She is having a baby in the next week and I haven’t gotten to see her pregnant once during this whole pregnancy!  That’s what happens when we live far away. 

Anyway, I am ripping my house apart.  I am purging, organizing, decorating and deep cleaning every room, one room at a time.  I have to say that it feels so good.  I haven’t played like this in my house in a really long time.  I have started plenty of projects, but haven’t finished them and now is the time! 

Ok.  Now for the real reason of this post.  Here is the dining room before:

Red, red and more red.

Here is the after:

 

I am in love.

I try to find any reason at all to come to the front of the house just so I can get a glimpse of it.

I am not a blue person at all so I took a risk with the color.  Taking risks is scary but it pays off.  I was ready to switch up my pallet a bit.  Actually these photos make the color look really blue but in real life it doesn’t look quite this brilliant.

When you are in the room the color looks more like the next few photos.  Which is what I was going for.

Grey with a blue undertone.  The color is Homberg Gray by Sherwin Williams.

 

I really didn’t have to buy much for this room.  I had the white plates already.  I love the clean and simple look of this wall.

I love the simple centerpiece of white flowers. I already had the vase but purchased the flowers at Hobby Lobby.

The curtains were in this room before.  I still love them and did not want to replace them.  Curtains are my nemeses.  I hate shopping for them and I hate making them. I wanted them to be a part of my neutral color scheme.

The chandelier was a MUST!  It totally makes the room for me.  Actually every single thing makes the room for me, but it would not be the same with out this piece.  I looked all over and I had a price range for myself which of course makes it tricky with chandeliers, but I found this one at Lowes.  It is perfect.

I had all of these frames as well.  I took the large one down from above my fireplace, since it is getting a makeover of its own.  Then I hunted the house for some other frames.  I had antique family photos in most of them.  I took them out and did something different them, which I will have to share soon because I love the idea of it.  Anyway, I had the silver platter in this room before.  I like the silver and gold together.  I have a lot of warm tones through out my house and I am trying to mix some cool tones in with them.  Lets not forget about the trim that Casey put up for me.  We should have had this in the room a long time ago!

I think it worked perfectly in here!  My favorite part is how simple and timeless it is.

If you want to see my inspiration photos, scroll down to the next post.  Pinterest is awesome…seriously!

 

Around Here {my kitchen table centerpiece}

Once I added a chandelier above my kitchen table, my current center piece didn’t work anymore.  It wasn’t in proportion.  So of course I had to fix that. :)

My re-do started out with this before and after.

The glass jar once held tall twiggy greenery, but when I hung the chandelier the twigs were too tall.  It sort of just evolved into the after.  I love when that happens!  I knew I wanted to put old book pages inside.  I just randomly grabbed a book and started tearing out pages.  I actually did this whole project while talking on the phone.  You can’t see it, I forgot to take a close up, but the edges of the paper are stained green.  That’s just how the pages came, but you could easily ink the edges.  It’s the perfect extra touch that just happened to be a bonus for me.  I noticed it after the fact.  Once I added the book pages I decided it needed more, so I added the twine.  I didn’t glue it or anything.  I just tied the end and beginning of the twine in a knot around the top and then kept wrapping it around until I got to the bottom and then tied it in a knot again to end it.  I thought I was done after this and then walked back into the room and decided I wasn’t. It needed an extra whimsical touch.  Something out of the ordinary, since the chandelier is out of the ordinary.  So I decided to experiment with stamping #’s.  I was a little nervous since I really do love this glass jar and I did not want to ruin it, but I am so glad I took the risk and went for it.  It is one of my favorite things!  Side note:  I did this same technique on a frame in my bedroom and the ink would wipe off the glass with Windex, but this glass is different and will NOT wipe off.  Luckily I didn’t mess up and I absolutely adore it, but if you try this, maybe test it first in an unnoticeable spot if you aren’t sure.  I used a regular black ink pad, nothing special and some # stamps I had from my paper scrapping days. 

At one of my Hobby Lobby runs I found these 3 bottles and had to bring them home with me. 

I sanded the two pictures to make them look more vintage.  They looked too new before.  Then I tore some more book pages and stuffed them into the center one and tied some twine around the top. 

I decided I wanted to go with a glass look for my table.  Something light and airy, but it wasn’t finished with the 4 things I had.  Something was missing.  So I pulled out my glass cake stand that had been tucked away in my cupboard. 

I didn’t have any homemade treats :(  no time for that, but I ALWAYS have a stash of Oreo’s!

Here was my finished product…for a couple of days.

 

I really liked it, but I still felt like something was missing.  Sometimes I have to live with things for a couple of days.  Then I remembered my thrift store .99 bargain. 

Here is another before and after.

 

I wrapped the bottom with burlap and tied twine around it. 

I found this nest printable here.

I printed it out onto cardstalk.  I decided to make it into a tag and embellish it with glitter.  I was dying to try this new glitter.  I have had it for a couple of months and it was time use it!  

This glitter is another one of  my new favorite things! 

German Glass Glitter.  SO much better than the average glitter you get at the store.  It is so easy to use and much better quality.  I love the fact that it will tarnish and look even more vintage. I got it at a boutique while shopping in McKinney, Tx.  I glittered up the edges of the tag and added a bit to the birds.  Once it was dry, I tied it around the topiary with some black vintage ribbon I also purchased at the same boutique for .50 a yard.  And that finished that!

 

So much better, I think!

It needed something to break up the glass.  By this time I DID have a homemade treat in my cake stand. :) 

The recipe is easy and yummy.  Definitely a treat to make when you are in the mood for a treat, but have NO time.  Super fast.  I am so glad a fellow blogger shared this.

And here is the final product.

I am contemplating a table runner.  I love how simple and clean it looks like this and I really don’t like dealing with more than I have to on my kitchen table, but I don’t know.  For now…I am done! What do you think?

P.S.  Did you notice that half of the cookies are gone in this picture compared to the one above it?  My kids loved them!

Around Here { A Chandelier }

I have had this really amazing chandelier sitting in my laundry room for the past two months.  My husband hasn’t felt like tackling it (which is very unlike him) and I haven’t felt like being the nagging wife so together, we just let it be…until this week.  My sister in law and her kiddos were coming to visit and visitors always get us moving in fast motion so we finally got it hung. Yay!

When I went to visit my Aunt in Dallas she gave me a shabby, vintage chandelier.  It could have been wired to work, but I didn’t need it working.  I planned on putting candles in the top, but that didn’t give it the pop I was looking for.  Then the inspiration hit me. I love when that happens!

Do you remember this post? Well here is a photo of my inspiration.

Here is MY take on it.

What do you think?

I absolutely LOVE it!

It makes me so happy.

Once I realized the look I was going for, I rummaged through my closet.  I knew I had old vintage plates on hand.  All I was missing were the tea cups.  I headed to the Goodwill and found three that would work. 

This one was black.  I painted it the same shabby green I used on my armoire.  I really liked the shape of this one.

This one gives me that clean, crisp Pottery Barn feel that I love.

But this one is my favorite.  I love the look and feel of it. 

This is the one that ties the pretty bow on the whole thing for me.

It finishes my kitchen.  I didn’t realize how badly this room needed a chandelier until I got one.  What a difference it makes!

Of course when you add something like this, it calls for some other changes to happen.  I switched some things around on my table.  I just finished up a bargain I found at the Goodwill when I was there.  I’ll post the rest next week.

Right now we are having fun with our company. :)