Dining Room Tour & Confession

I must start this story with a confession. Back in 2005, Country Decorating Ideas magazine called me and asked to feature my home in their magazine. Well, of course I said yes. I will post on that long process in another blog post, however when my home FINALLY came out in a 2007 issue, my sister called and said bluntly, " Your dining room was sooooo boring! You need color in there!" She has never seen my home since she lives in South Carolina and I am in Illinois. Well, here is the picture of that page from the magazine and you can see what she meant. She was so right!

I had white lace valances on the bay windows. I had a cream colored carpet on the cream colored marble floor. Yes, I had red walls but not much of the room was walls. So, I put her in charge of finding area rugs. My sister surfed the internet and found the perfect rugs for the kitchen and dining room. They matched the theme (roosters) and my wall color perfectly.

I couldn't believe it when they arrived! She is so good! It looked like I had the rugs and matched the wall paint to them instead of the other way around. Unreal!! And look how the rug 'POPS' on the light colored marble floors!

So I went about adding personality to the room...after the photo shoot...too bad. But you get to see the results.  I changed the shades on the light fixtures purely by accident I found the current ones at a garage sale for $1 each. I added the eyelash fringe. The chandelier came out of the formal dining room (it was in the photo shoot). All I did was purchase a $7 plastic ceiling medallion and painted it to look like marble. The magazine had it wrong. They said I paid $52 for the medallion! NOT. And I also covered the chain with a cord sock.

I then made new valances with the same material from the kitchen but in a different style.

We purchased a new dining room table and vintage chairs that are painted black. We wanted the lower backed chairs since we love looking out at the lovely gardens, fountain and bird watching.

Looking around the room now, you can see the bar that is between the kitchen and dining area with the painted bar stools that I did. You can see the blog about them here.

Along with a cute rooster tassel that I made.

Then spinning on around the room opposite the table is a chair that I found for $20 at a garage sale. The only change I made to it was in the corners of the skirting, I added the red check accent fabric and made a coordinating pillow. What a great find at a great price and from a high end furniture store!

I also made the stool using the leftover curtain fabric. Above that is my wine rack. This started because I have another sister in Oklahoma that started a winery and I had some of their wine on it but it is now kept in my additional wine storage above the refrigerator in the kitchen. I found this wine bottle holder on eBay and though it doesn't hold very many bottles, I thought it had great form.

Next to that is an antique Seller's cabinet. A wedding gift from my In-Laws. I painted it black and painted the rooster on the bottom door.

Lastly, spinning around opposite the kitchen is the large doorway into the living room and a back door by the bay windows out to the patio. We have a pillar collection and you will see one of our 7 here.

So here is my promised dining room tour. You can see my kitchen here. Our home was built with a formal dining room that we converted to a study that you can see here. That left the 'breakfast nook area' to use as our only dining room. It is very adequate now that we are empty nesters and when the kids and family do come, there always seems to be plenty of room. Our table will extend for seating of 8 and the bar will hold three that the little kids love to sit at. It is open to the kitchen and has a wonderful bay window viewing the back yard gardens. Remember, you can click on each picture that you would love to see the detail on further. Enjoy Terry


UPDATE: Out went the Seller's cabinet and in went the newly painted antique hutch. So much better and it sure does open up the room. You can read all about the hutch HERE.

And we got new bar stools...

And I made new valances...

I am joining these parties:
Met Monday
Amaze Me Monday
Boring To Better 
Transformation Thursday 
Evolution Party 
Frugal Friday 
Show and Tell Friday
Sunday Showcase party
Before and After Party 
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday