Monday, April 23, 2012

Just a little update

I've been formulating on a little mini-makeover for the dining room. This is actually the first room we did in the house...could've been due to the fact that there was a full on moonscape taking up one whole wall when we moved in (yes, a moonscape.
Way back when we first moved in to our house I saw a picture of a room with super dark blue walls and all white furniture and I was totally inspired by it. It's total drama and I love it. Clearly I am not a white wall kind of gal.  It has evolved over the past 4 years but that is still pretty much the main color scheme of the room. I have added a dark wood buffet (which is really a dresser) because I like to have a mix of furniture. Here's a pretty recent pic to get the general idea of the room-
*Please don't mind the too high chandelier- this used to be in my bedroom and the wires were cut short so it could hang over my bed. This has since been fixed.

I love my white table- I think it was the first piece of furniture I bought on my own when I moved into my first apartment in Queens- it moved with me and the room has kind of been designed and decorated around it. Here's a pic from when that was the only thing in the room...so cute that we only had a table in there for like 2 years. I actually kind of like the openness of it, there is more room to breathe.

I've been pinning away on Pinterest for a couple of months now and I am loving contrasting chairs and tables. I decided this would be a great little update (one that I can even do on my own. Without Greg's help...maybe)  

Here are my inspirations...
 I'm all sorts of obsessed with this dining room- rustic wood table, white legs, black chairs from Restored Style.

Rustic wood table with white chairs- also awesome. I love love love the idea of a rustic wood plank table- and so does Greg which makes it even more awesome. I love when he loves things that I love without me even having to mention it 1302 times.
One day when we're ready for a new table we would love to build a table just like this-

                               

Here is a more modern take on it (a la Rachel Zoe's house). 
I love this- it's totally different from everything in our house but I think it's awesomeness. Yes, that's a word. 

 This one is closest to what we will actually end up with- white table, colored chairs.

While I am painting the chairs I figured I might as well go ahead and reupholster them as well. Why not? Plus, I knew my mom would help me with this one as she has actually done this before. So my mom and I set out last week to find a fabric at The Fabric Mill in Plainview- they had so many beautiful fabrics to choose from and we ended up finding a really great blue and ivory print that I think we will look great in the room. Here it is just laying on the chair-

The hardest part was finding something that would go with our table runner- one of my most prized possessions. We bought this from a small stand on the side of the road in Costa Rica. This woman and her family spend months making these embroidered items by hand. Amazing. It's so absolutely beautiful and it is such a great reminder from one of the most memorable trips we've ever taken.
Now I had to figure out a paint color- first I was going to do a really pale aqua but once I brought the fabric home I realized that wasn't going to work. The blue in the fabric is more of a light periwinkle type of blue so I felt it needed something darker. Off to the paint store I went and brought home swatches of just about every blue/aqua/teal that Benjamin Moore makes. Then I just held them to the chair and the fabric and kept eliminating until I was left with this.
I ended up leaning more towards the teals and even some colors that are reading more green. Could be interesting. We'll see. I'll leave it there for a few days while I think it over. I have to get Greg to weigh in as well. I think I already know what my favorite is though. Hopefully I'll keep the momentum going and get this done in the next week or two.