Greener Grass Dining Room Tour

I've been working on putting up all of our Christmas decorations over the last few days, but before we talk Christmas, I want to show you the "After" pictures of our dining room. I took these before Thanksgiving, with every intention of showing them to you last week, thus the pumpkins on my table. Just roll with it, people.

OK, remember the "Before"?

Crazy chandelier, bright red paint, all of our painting supplies on the floor....is this ringing any bells?

Alright, here's what it looks like now! We painted the same color above and below the chair railing, rather then using two different colors, like it was before. I think that this really makes all the molding and trim in the room stand out.

The dining room is a great example of how our house is a "work in progress." We buy what we can, when we can, and we work on things as we find the time. We love this room, but it's far from finished and even further from perfect.

Exhibit A-The two chairs under the bay window belonged to Nana and have been used in many of my family's houses. She was about to get rid of them, but she asked if I might want to use them. Yes, please! I had big plans to slipcover both of them and use them here, because they have a great shape with nice clean lines. I slip covered one, with Nana's help, and it was so exhausting that I haven't even started on the other one. It's been about a year since I started that little project. Maybe I'll get back to it one day soon!

Another example of the "work in progress" is the picture frame gallery on the wall. I picked out the frames and arranged them on the wall, but I haven't picked out the pictures to put in the frames yet. One day, friends, one day.

Tip: If you want to create a gallery wall, the easiest way is to trace all of the frames you want to use onto newspaper, then cut them out. Use painters tape to tape the paper tracings of the frames onto the wall until you find an arrangement you like. When you're ready to nail, just replace the paper tracing with the real frames one at a time.

For those of you wondering where the big A ended up in the house....Here she is! I put it on top of my china cabinet. Due to the enormity of the A, I will be requiring a much bigger lamp. Look how tiny this one looks next to it.

That's my tea towel art leaning against the A.

Our table is from Scott's Antique Market and we love it. David found it on one of our trips there. It was perfect, so we tied it to the top of my Subaru and drove through downtown Atlanta, all the way back to Macon, with a hugemungo table on the top of our car.

The light fixture in the dining room is kind of a make-shift creation. I was dying to get rid of the bronze chandelier. I liked all the drum shade pennants that I had seen in magazines, but they were so expensive! I ended up going to a local lamp shade store and purchasing a 17 inch drum shade from their sale table. This one has a teeny tiny spot on it, so the lady sold it to me for 10 dollars...Score!

Daddy came into town and we went to Lowe's for the rest of the project. We bought a light kit that is made to work with recessed lighting, like this one, for about 17 dollars.

Portfolio 1-Light White Mini Pendant Light

To make the pendant light fixture look larger and more finished, we also purchased this ceiling medallion, for about 15 dollars, I think,  that goes around the place that the light fixture connects to the ceiling.

Colonial Medallion

Put it all together, and that's a light fixture that packs a big punch, all for around 40 dollars. Not too bad, huh. I've got a project planned to give the drum shade a little more life in the near future. As with everything else, it's looking better, but we have much further to go.

We love the dining room, even with all that's left to be done. We love filling up that big old table with friends and family and good food. Come on over, and I'll even let you sit in the slip covered chair...I don't mind the other one so much.

Melissa

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