Our Dining Room - Making Progress

Happy October, everyone! I don't know about you all but this is my favorite time of year! Tonight I thought I would show you the progress we've made in our dining room. Just like all of the other rooms I've shown you in our new home this one still isn't finished but I feel like we've made enough headway to at least show you what we've done in here so far.

Here is what it looked like when we moved in. Fortunately this is one of the rooms where we didn't really have to undo anything. There wasn't any wallpaper to remove or any strange features to deal with. It was pretty much a blank canvas. To start with I painted the windows and all the trim. As has been the case with all the rooms so far that is my least favorite part. First I primed it all with Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 primer. Then I did three coats of Simply White in Benjamin Moore's Aura Paint. I used the semi-gloss finish. After that I painted the upper half of the wall in Gray Owl at 75%. For that I went with the matte finish. After painting so much trim in this house I have to say I get really excited when it gets to the part where I get to paint the walls. I plan on eventually adding a pretty wallpaper to the upper half but haven't found the right paper yet so until then figured it would be best to at least have the walls painted. Then after that we had beadboard wallpaper put up on the lower half to help add some character. It is the paintable kind but I actually haven't painted it yet. I will eventually use the Simply White on that too. I have to say I was really really skeptical about going with a beadboard wallpaper over real beadboard (which we used in our last home) and kind of just did it on a whim and I have to say I was thrilled with how it turned out. We used in in the entry way too and I would highly recommend it and would use it again!

I was really torn the last month or so on what color I was going to paint the doors here in the dining room and the rest of the house (minus the family room/kitchen). I kept going back and forth between Simply White and Mopboard Black. I primed all the doors and then couldn't make a decision so they looked awful just sitting there primed but unpainted for weeks. I have to admit I finally made my decision based on laziness.  I painted the interior part of our front door black (I knew that was going to be black regardless of what color I chose for the other doors). Well, it only took about one and a half coats (one real coat and one touch up coat) to put the black on and it took me four when I did the Simply White on Lillie and Lola's closet doors upstairs and because I have to admit, I am getting pretty sick of painting, the thought of so many fewer coats overall tipped the scales in favor of going with black. Even though I made the decision for such a lazy reason I have to say I am so glad I did go with the black. I loved how it looked when I did it earlier this year at Jason's but was nervous how it was going to flow here in this house but it ended up working out much nicer than I anticipated.

My favorite feature in this room is definitely the chandelier! I am so excited about it. It's funny because I was pretty torn on making that decision too. I completely copied my Aunt Patty on the chandelier. She has this exact one and I fell in love with it the moment I saw it! I have been swooning over it for the last year now. I knew that I loved it but wasn't sure if I wanted to go this route or the route of a lantern. I am a huge fan of the Bolton Lantern that Pottery Barn sells and kept trying to decide which way to go. They are completely different looks. I have somewhere else though that I might be able to get the Bolton Lantern for but that project is still a little ways off. I ordered my chandelier through Savvy while they were having a Labor Day Sale. (If you've been reading this blog for very long you know is pretty much my favorite shop in Williamsburg). The ladies that work there are all so wonderful to work with and so helpful!

Thank you, Aunt Patty for letting me copy your chandelier! Now I kind of want to copy the wallpaper you have in your powder room...

Although I always do the wiring myself I generally have Jon nearby to help if whatever light fixture I am hanging is heavy and I need help lifting it. He was out of town though the day this arrived and I was so excited to get it hung I decided to try to rig a way to get it up there. Lillie always enjoys watching and she was really helpful passing me each strand of beads so at the end for the first time I let her put one of the bulbs in seeing how Lola was napping. She has always wanted to do that so she was quite excited about climbing up the ladder and putting that last bulb in. (And don't worry - I had the breaker off for the dining room when she was helping!)

We used the farmhouse table that we made for our last house. (You can read more about that here). I would love to eventually get a different table for in here but for now this is fine. I've had these IKEA slipcovered chairs for a while now. I really need to iron them - just ignore that. =) I got the other chairs from Joss and Main using store credit that I had earned so was able to get all four for just $100! The poor clock just keeps getting moved from room to room. First we had it in the study. Then once we got this room painted we we moved it in here, then I switched it to the entryway for a couple of days, and then back in here for a week or two. And then yesterday I moved it back into the entryway again. Haha! I actually am pretty sure now that that is where it's going to stay but I haven't decided for sure yet. I think the clock from the kitchen is probably going to get moved in here and go on the wall where the Swedish clock is in these photos because I had to switch things around in the kitchen. (I've showed a few pictures of that on Instagram) and will post about that next week as long as I can get some photos taken with my real camera later this week.

This is a horrible shot but you can see here that the wallpaper actually is raised and not just a faux beadboard look.

I also am really excited about this new dinnerware that Mikasa sent me! You can find it here. It is beautiful and really well priced. I will show you lots more photos once I finally find a hutch and can display it better. My mom actually has this same set and has had it for over a year now and is still just as thrilled with it as the day she bought it. It goes with everything and is so nice and simple but still elegant too.

Source List:

Wall Color: Gray Owl at 75% in Matte Finish
Trim Color: Simply White in Semi-gloss Finish
Beadboard Wallpaper: Allen and Roth from Lowe's
Chandelier: Savvy in Williamsburg, VA
Dinnerware: Mikasa, French Countryside Collection
Chargers: Pottery Barn (seven years ago)
Placemats: Target (probably nine years or so ago)
Slipcovered Chairs: IKEA
Side Chairs: Joss and Main
Farmhouse Table: We made it - more details here
Clock: Savvy in Williamsburg, VA (a couple of years ago)
Mirror: Restoration Hardware (six years ago but I think they still sell it)
Drapery Panels: IKEA Ritva Panels
Drapery Rods: Lowe's

And for those of you who missed it yesterday we are excited to announce that we are taking wholesale orders for our chalkboard art!

I hope you all are having a wonderful Tuesday evening!