Dining Room Reveal

  Within a week of moving in I had already painted our dining room.  This is one of the rooms I had a vision for before we ever moved in.  However, while moving, we decided to give our dining room furniture to our son and his wife so that left me lacking in the furniture department for a while until I found what I really wanted.  I just completed our dining room this past weekend. 

  I will remind you of some of the 'before' photos of this space. (the below three photos are from the MLS listing prior to us purchasing the house)

The room isn't really big but it is adequate for us as we don't use the dining room that often anyway.  (but boy do I love a pretty dining room)

 

 

 

 So, here it is empty and just waiting for some TLC...then it became the storage area for everything that is supposed to go in our dining room...

 

 It only has one window and outside of that window is a covered front porch.  So, this room doesn't get a whole lot of natural light at any time of the day.  I had seen a dining room on a blog that I 'stalk', I mean browse, and it was similar to the shape and layout of my dining room.  I realize that her paint color is very dark but only painting the top of the wall, above the chair rail, will help keep some light in there.  I went with Valspar's Bracken paint color.  Very close to the inspiration photo. 

So, here I go...I think it took me longer to tape off the room then it did to paint two coats on the walls. 

 

 

Here is some of the painting progress...

 And now for some pretties...the room is finished (well, is any room every finished? I think not...)  I do have a few things still to add on the wall with the mirror and the wall above the hutch, but other than that, I have everything done to this room for the time being. 

 

 The table cloth (using that word very loosely) is material I purchased from Jo Ann's Fabrics (on clearance...yea!!!) and just hemmed the edges and draped it across the table.  I bought all that they had left and it was the 'perfect' size for this table.  The runner is made out of burlap that I also bought at Jo Ann's on the same shopping trip.  I think it turned out lovely...it is the very look that I was going for. 

 I had also seen a photo online (don't you just love the internet for inspiration?) that used about 7 antique silver trays of varying sizes and made a beautiful wall décor display.  I had three trays and decided to use that same concept above the chair rail.  I like how it turned out. 

 

 This is the view of the dining room when you walk into the front door.  You are looking through our front living room. 

 

Hope you have enjoyed a peek into our dining room.  Let me know what you think.  More rooms to come.  Have a blessed day!  Cherri

Our new home and our first 'project'...

Ok, we did it...we closed on our home.  Actually it was June 27th but I am just getting the opportunity to post about it. 

 

 

Here we are getting ready to enter the house as owners for the very first time.  Yippee!!!

Can't you tell we are happy?

 

It was a Thursday and our plans were to close on the house and over the rest of that day and Friday, we would move all of the boxes, lamps, large wall décor, and anything fragile that I didn't want going into the moving truck on Saturday. So, it all began.  Loading and unloading until we were completely exhausted

 

 

However, you know me, I had to work on a project in the midst of all of the 'crazy'.  Do you remember in the 'before' house tour that I showed you my inspiration for my laundry room?  Well, I knew that if I put my washer and dryer in there, that I would probably never get around to moving them out and stenciling the wall behind them.  So, then came the idea of getting it done 'before' the washer and dryer were moved in.  Which means, getting it done in the middle of moving in. 

 

In comes Cathy.  A great friend of mine.  She is all things crafty.  She is even brave enough to actually cut and create her own stencils.  What???  That's totally not me so I knew I was in good,  great, hands with her helping me on this.  With a lot of back and forth on colors, design, etc...we settled on the below stencil shape (which she made from scratch and colors.  She came over early Friday morning (remember...there's a whole lot of moving going on all around) to get started.  I don't know how she stayed focused with but she got in there and was in her own little world and got to work right away. 

 

 

Hard at work...I am loving it already. 

Hi Cathy...thank you for helping me out with this.  You are the best!

  Here is a close up of the design and color.  (I will have to come back later and add the names/brand of the colors because right now I cannot locate the paint sample)  We went with two colors to add depth and dimension. 

This is just with the lighter color - no darker color has been added yet.

 

 

In progress...

Here is the entire wall done with the darker color added sporadically over the wall.  I love it!!!

Here is a close up shot of the finished results. 

With the washer and dryer added and the shelving back up. 

 When looking at the 'somewhat finished' picture above, I have to mention two things.  One, I did not realize that our washer and dryer were not tall enough to cover up the outlet and the spigots.  I have some ideas for covering/masking those but will get to those later.  Right now, we have other 'more pressing' projects at hand. 

 

Also, I still need to find a cabinet and wooden shelving to replace the wire racks that were already in this space.  Once those have been found, purchased, and installed, then I get the fun of adding the baskets/bins/pretty stuff to stage the space. 

 

Once that is complete, I will share an updated post on this space.  So, what do you think?  Does a pretty laundry room make doing the laundry easier??? 

 

New House - Part 4 (final post in the New House series)

Sorry that I didn't get this posted yesterday.  When we gave our notice to move out of our current home (rental) they put it on the market to sell.  Well, they called today for a showing and I also work from home so we had some juggling to do and my day got away from me. 

 

Just a reminder, all of these photos came from the MLS listing or the photos I took when we went to see the home.  All of the furniture and belongings are not ours.  We will be closing on this home June 27th and moving in immediately.  (you know what I will be doing next weekend) - jut say a pray for me...thank you,

 

So, here is the rest of the house.  This is the final day of our 4 part series on our 'before' photos of our new home.  Today we are going to look at the lower level (our basement).  It is a little over 1650 sq ft and has 2 bedrooms, 1 full bath, kitchen, living room, dining area, additional sitting area with a fireplace and a mud room.  It also has a separate entrance and a patio area outside. 

 

If you are looking at the front of our house, this stone walkway is to the far right side of the house and leads you to the back yard and the entrance to the lower lever.  There are beautiful flower beds along the path.  Cannot wait to see what blooms in this area and then I will know what my starting place will be so that I can choose things I wish to add .

 

 

 

This is the patio area and entrance for the lower level.  Our son, Matthew, and his wife, Allina, (with a new little one on the way-due in Sept) will be living in this lower level.  This outside area will give them their own private outdoor space. 

 

 

This is the hallway in the basement that both bedrooms are off of.  To your immediate right (from where this photo was taken is a bedroom (which will be the nursery for Kylie Grace) and then if you look straight ahead and to your right (around the corner) is the other bedroom. 

This will be Kylie's nursery.  In the MLS listing this cannot be listed as a bedroom because it does not have a window.  It will be the perfect space for the baby.  

 

 

This is the other bedroom, Matthew and Allina's.

 

 

This is the extra sitting area with the fireplace. The dining area is to your left. 

 

 

This sitting area and table are directly across from the fireplace.  Also, the orange wall is directly in front of you when you come in the door from outside.  This is actually the foyer area.  (you can see that it leads to the hallway that both bedrooms are off of)

 

 

The kitchen is directly to your left on the other side of this dining table. 

Here is the kitchen.  Both of those counter tops in the foreground of the photo are movable.  They are not secured down so that we will be able to rearrange the kitchen counters.  We will also be adding a stove so that it will be a full functioning kitchen for them.  They have a lot of counter space and cabinet space.  

 

 

This is the living room area. 

 

 

The full bathroom. 

 

Allina and I have talked about what we want to do in this space.  I realize it is our house so we have to be in agreement with any major decorating decisions.  However, they will be living in this space and we want them to create a space that they love and enjoy living in.  Matthew will be deployed to Afghanistan in September and be gone of about 13 months.  (that is one reason they are living with us so that Allina and the baby won't be living by themselves while he is away)

 

Initial plans for this space include:

*adding the stove to the kitchen (my husband and I will be doing this as the stove will stay with the house whenever they get their own place)

*painting the foyer (neither of us really love that orange color

*may do some painting in the bedrooms (nursery for Kylie)

*They will be buying quite a bit of furniture for the entire space (they just got married this past September so they are still in that place of building up household furniture and items. 

*They will look into adding a washer/dryer to the mud room so that they won't have to come upstairs to do the laundry. 

 



I want to thank you for hanging in there with me for the entire tour.  As you can see, we have a lot of potential to make this our dream home.  I will be posting about our move and all the projects that embark on as we begin settling in to this new space for us.  I hope you stop back by to see our progress. 

Blessings,
Cherri