Tear Down

The wall, is tumbling down...


Well, not the whole thing. But a significant portion of it. This wall separates our kitchen and dining room and I don't know why. In the early 60's, when our house was built, "open plans" didn't really exist and formal dining rooms actually were used.

In order to make both rooms seem bigger and connected, we're opening up the doorway separating them so it's about 7' wide.  I taped off the area that is dunzo (before I ran out of tape) to get an idea of what it will feel like.

From the other angle... Interesting side note on our wall oven spied there in the background.  It used to be pink!  There's some paint flaking off at the bottom and pink enamel is hiding underneath!  I love that someone put PINK appliances in!  When we demo out the kitchen, I'm going to peel off the white and revel in the pinkiness for a few days.

Other side of the dining room as it stands now.  I'm toying with perhaps wallpapering that wall as well, but I'll wait on that decision for now.  My chains are getting old.

First week of December and this baby's a goner!

Little Dining Room Update

I'm not one to just let things be. After I had our hall bath wallpapered in blue grass cloth, I wanted to find a use for the leftover scraps.  My bird prints in the dining room needed a little sprucing up so I added a bit of the cloth as a fake mat for each one.  Frames are Target.

I had to use two scraps for this one and I varied the pattern.  It gives it even more texture and depth!  One day I will trim off the edges of the print cleanly for a nice crisp look.  I've never had the patience/motivation to do it yet.

(Sorry for the reflection.  My hub's fancy Nikon can't compensate for my crappy photo skills)

I also threw up some no-sew panels out of some $5/yard ikat I came across. YoungHouseLove just made some for their dining room out of another colorway!) Drapery hooks + rings are my favorite thing now. They make homemade panels look professional!

And the view into the dining room from the living room. The dining room table is off center becuase there's a big old china cabinet out of frame that's taking up space on the left hand side of the room.  Once I knock out that wall, I'm moving it to the right hand side (the patterned wall).

We have a giant hydrangea plant in our backyard that is seriously in bloom right now.  Makes for a cheap centerpiece!

No-Sew Panels

So far, so good. I am making skinny little panels to save yardage. This window won't actually ever need to be covered with the drapes - they are only decorative so I guess this is a cheapo hack that will work.

I'm going to attempt to line them, too.  I think I can pull it off without sewing, too.  If not, I'll leave them as is until I can get my hands on a sewing machine.

Ikat Fabric

I scored this Robert Allen ikat fabric for $5/yard at Hancock so I decided to try my hand at no-sew panels. I am handy with a sewing machine, though I don't currently own one.  So I am whipping out the fusible tape, heatset glue and my ironing board. 

I love these ikats, too:

top left - designers attic

top right - unknown

bottom left - fabricadara

bottom right - robert allan

I'm a pattern freak.  I'm sure my house is going to start looking like a nutty old lady lives here soon.

Drum Chandy

Finally, FINALLY, I decided to move this light fixture from the dining room. I was trying to adapt it to take a big ole drum shade but finding the right size shade was becoming a challenge. (Ugh, ignore the popcorn ceilings.  I'd love to take them out but they have ASBESTOS so they stay until we win the lottery)

Better, no? It's this drum shade from Overstock  It's definitely not top quality - the "chrome" plating is pretty bad but no one's going to be examining it under a microscope.

I need to figure out how to take better photos.  Well, I know how, I'm just lazy.

Overstock Drum Chandeliers

I'm still struggling with my dining room light fixture. I'm vacillating between replacing the whole thing and trying to find a drum shade to slip over the whole thing.  I've purchased and returned 2 drum shades at this point and I'm ready to give up.  Boo!

Here are a few simple options from Overstock I might consider:

Source

Source

Source

All are right around $100.

Versatile Rugs

Hello everyone, my name is Chelsea and I am a rug freak! The joy of having hardwoods throughout our house is the excuse to buy lots and lots of rugs. I think I might be pushing the upper limit of rugs, though. I have two in the living room, two in the guest BR, one in the master BR, two in the office, one in the kitchen and two in the dining room. That's TEN rugs just upstairs.  There's another downstairs in our rec room.  I need an intervention, for sure. (Just left Jeff VanVonderen tell me that my family loves me like crazy..)

My latest purchase is the West Elm Jute Boucle Rug in Chocolate: For an 8 x 10, it's only $229, though they get you with the extra shipping charges for over sized items.  Boo to that!

So far, I'm pleased with it. It's actually pretty thick and chunky.  I was expecting a finer weave but it's nice a texture-y.  I laid my cowhide rug on the top -- photo to come!

Drum Shades

I'm thinking of adapting the current dining room light to accept a drum shade. I'm wondering it is as easy as I think it may be. Probably not!  I would take off the black disks and attach a drum shade to cover most of the lights. How to do this is the mystery.

Here's what I would love to end up with.  This is the Jonathan Adler Ventana chandy.

These awesome shades from Shades of Light would all be delightful. Though, I really think a 20" diameter shade would be ideal and those are harder to come by. These are all 16" diameter:

Aren't they pretty? All are under $100 which is pricey but cheaper than new light fixture.  I will think about this and decide what to do.  It may be easier to replace the whole darn thing.

Cowhide in Dining Room

I scored a killer deal on a new cowhide for my dining room. After stalking a million auctions, I logged on this weekend to see this light brindle colored hide with an auction ending in 10 mins! I think I ended up paying less than $120!

Patience, patience is the key to eBay. I am TERRIBLE at being patient, it's one of my worst character flaws.

I'm thinking a darker natural fiber rug under the hide will make it pop and add some dimension to this room. I'm also considering dressing up the plain canvas curtains as well. With what, I don't know.

Skins

Considering a cowhide rug for the dining room. I know they are either loved or hated. Some decorators think they are "over" because they are in IKEA. Bah to that I say. Folks have been using them since the dawn of time for all kinds of purposes so I can't see how they are over?

These metallic printed ones are neat but a little pricey:

Zebra's a classic-- via DecorPad

Glossy black floors + pale cowhide = glam via DecorPad

Another from DecorPad

Layered over jute or sisal is sweet. via Southern Living

Love the eclectic look here - HouseandHome.co.uk

The Parrots of CASA HV

Last week I talked about a great source for frameable prints - oversize calendars! The Taschen parrot 2010 is awesome and less than $6 on Amazon. Not kidding! It's printed on heavy, textured stock and is even perfed so you can tear off the calendar-y parts easily.

Here are my results:

The print's a bit of an awkward size - 13.5" x 16" so I went with a 16" x 20" floating frame from Target. No custom frame or mat required!

Hanging below is a framed piece of gift wrap (the flat sheets hanging on racks) from Paper Source. I've been hanging onto for years. It's a vintage map of Paris in an IKEA frame. I have another snippet of the same map hanging in the bedroom.


I'm 3 hours away from an IKEA, my usual source for affordable frames. But Target has some excellent options, too. Why pay more?

Lit

Mah sconces are up in the dining room. Still need something for the chain-painted wall. Maybe a giant clock? And a few tables to go under the sconces. In other news, Jake's new Panasonic takes pretty good low-light images, n'cest pas?

Lighting

A pair of these great sconces from Z Gallerie made their way into our house (how did that happen?) today. I saw them first on YoungHouseLove and then found out they were on clearance for $12. For around $30 including shipping, I thought they would be a sweet addition to the dining room.

Overstock Rugs

Overstock has a huge selection of rugs in all sizes. Some are fug but I thought these were all nice and could work for the dining room. I moved a sisal rug I had in there into the guest bedroom to disguise some stains created by a certain, ahem, beagle. Now I need something that will hide dirt and wear well.

You can't beat the shipping prices.

My ceramic pup!

Inspired by the kids over at YoungHouseLove, I set out to see if I could find me a doggy statuette. One of my favorite places to buy afforable accessories is Marshalls, specifically the clearance area. Sure, lots of the stuff is fug or broken but often they mark down really good stuff. Probably because they have a bunch of the same item. There were at least 2 of these bad boys at my local store marked down to $15 from $25.

Our owl collection lives in the china cabinet in the dining room, too. Our house is very heavily decorated in animal decor. We have a wall of dog paintings in the living room, bird prints in the office, ceramic squirrels and our owls. They fill the top shelf here and are starting to pour out in to other areas of the house, too.

Soft Scoop

image

These elegant chairs would be perfect in the dining room but at $300 a pop they are not in the budget. I know I'll find something great at the thrift or yard sale but I need to be patient.

Blonde on Blonde

My awesome new dining table. Jake spied this at the Dorcas Thrift near our place and I knew it had to be mine. It has three!! leaves so it expands to a ridiculous size and it's in almost perfect shape. $75, baby!

The chairs are from our vintage cherries set as we don't have any yet that will match compliment the table. I am thinking a run to the Charlotte IKEA is in the cards this summer.

There's the rug I posted about earlier in the week. Now that it's in the room, it's waaayyy to much beige. I guess it will move to the guest room and the hunt for a dining room rug is back on. I need some color in that room...