The Dining Room...

We've been really busy with new house stuff lately.  Most of the projects are well underway... some even finished.  However, Matt and I have noticed that when we check one thing off the list we seem to add 5 more.  It's been fun though and we are seriously enjoying our new space!  I thought I'd share a dining room update since I have literally posted NOTHING in months.  It's about 90% finished and it will  most likely stay that way for a while! 

Here's a before... like really before - as in before we bought the house! (realtor pic) 

The previous owners loved heavy dark cherry stained furniture.  Every room was full of it!  This is just after we moved in...  Doesn't it look so much brighter already?

And here is my beloved INSPIRATION pic...sigh...

I love you Ethan Allen but this room was going to cost me about 20K.  You can see a few pics of our dining furniture (in our old house) in this post.  It's pretty old, not cool old but just outdated old...  I painted it black 6 or 7 years ago because it was that horrible 90s maple and I actually really liked it but I was getting tired of all black.  Plus I sorta didn't use the right paint or prep the wood very well... I've learned a lot since then (thanks Pinterest!)

Here is what our dining room looks like today:

 



It may not seem like we've done much, but I promise there has been a lot of detail work (mostly to the furniture).  We didn't paint this room, it's one of the few that the paint was in "okay" shape.  Here's what we DID do:

1. stripped the table top of the old black paint... NOT easy but we knocked it out in a day or so.  I then stained it a walnut color.
2. stripped and refinished the hutch.  Again, NOT easy but worth it.  The above pic makes it look more primary red but it's actually a brick red.  Matt replaced the back with bead board and I was happy to add my grandmother's dishes back!
3. built the "lantern" sconces on the sides.  Yep, Matt built those!  We used some old wood from a fence we tore down, ikea lanterns ($7) and plant hangers ($2).  I stained them with the same stain as the table and voila.  I love them!

Here are a few other pics because everyone loves visuals:

Sconces:

Initially I was going to get sconces similar to my inspiration room, but I changed my mind after really studying the details of the room.  My inspiration room has wooden beams - they totally give the room character.  Our dining room has picture molding... so I knew I needed to offset that a bit and bring in that wooden beam feel.

I scoured the internet for some pics of what I was looking for...

(All source info can be found on my Pinterest board.)  Once I figured it out, Matt went to work.  I just love how they turned out!  And they were SO easy to make... 

FYI:  I did find sconces just like the ones in my inspiration room.

The ones on the left are Ethan Allen and they are gorgeous...They are also $300 each.  The ones on the right are Ikea.  You could easily spray paint them with the metallic shiny silver paint...  They are $12 each...

Hutch:

Another of the hutch from a different angle.  This is a little more true to the color we "see".

You can also see in this pic that we added legs!  The legs definitely update the look of the piece.  And the bead board?  Ugh - it's my favorite!  We actually had a piece big enough laying around from another project so it didn't cost us a thing. 

Here's what's left:

There are a few things I'm still thinking about and haven't committed to yet...

1. The light.  We actually purchased that barrel shade from ikea and placed it over the existing chandelier.  The old chandelier is hideous - think giant boob light with silver and frosted glass.  I do like the lighting in the Ethan Allen inspiration room but we put something similar in our breakfast area so for now the barrel shade is staying.
2. A rug.  I found a rug almost EXACTLY like the Ethan Allen one... at Target... on clearance... But Matt said he actually likes the look of the wood floors.  We have large area rugs in the study, living room and breakfast area already (downstairs) so maybe we'll leave it without a rug?  I can't decide.
3. The chairs.  I considered getting chairs like the Ethan Allen white ones at the head of the table.  However, we have kids... so... not a good idea.  I think I'll recover our existing ones, I just can't decide on what I want to recover them in!  We also plan to refinish the chairs and legs of the table at some point but it's not high on our priority list.
4. The curtains.  Every window in this house was covered with tacky heavy curtains when we moved in.  We've replaced most of them.  The dining room curtains are some I already had because I can't decide exactly what I'd like in there. I think eventually I'd like plantation shutters so again, for now it's staying the way it is.

So there ya have it.  I must have looked at hundreds of dining rooms when I was thinking of how I wanted ours to look and I just knew I'd found the right one when I saw the Ethan Allen one.. I didn't want it exactly the same, but I loved the overall feel of the room.  I think ours turned out pretty well. :-)