A cleaner vibe in the dining room

After making changes to my living room it wasn't long until the same thing happened in the dining room.  For the past few months I have been hmm'ing and haw'ing over what changes to make.  It's a conversation I have in my head, with myself about once a week.

Pinterest helps.  House Beautiful and Elle Decor help.  And my daughter has been on the other end of the receiving line just a few times.  (Sorry Meg!)

For a time I was focused on painting the window trim of the three windows that make up the window seat.  As they are the only windows in the dining room I thought that would make a BIG impact in a cool way.  Black would be impactful.  But then I worried about painting the molding and NOT the mullions and how that would look.  So, I was stopped in my tracks.

Then I thought white, I will paint the room white to give it that slightly more modern edge I seem to be craving in my old age.  It has been a beautiful mushroom'y greige for a couple of years now.  

I also brought the corner cabinet into the thought process.  

It was a piece that came with all our re-purposed kitchen cabinets when we moved in 9 years ago.  When we gutted our kitchen we were lucky enough to find a complete Rutt custom kitchen that we were able to re-work and install.  And while the large corner cabinet definitely did not fit in the kitchen it was part of the set we bought so we figured we would try it in the dining room and it has been a work horse ever since.  

That baby holds my 3 sets of china, serving platters, 18 water glasses, hand made ceramic bowls, bud vases, a crystal dinner bell, glass votives, tea lights, cocktail napkins and more.  




So while I may not have been feeling the the cream painted piece 9 years later I knew there was no way I could get rid of the it.

In our master bedroom we have a large, built in armoire that takes up one wall and shortly after we moved in I painted it black.  Super cool.  So I figured why not try a go at the china cabinet?

Projects in my own home are a "when the mood strikes and when I see an open day on my calendar" kind of deal.  When the Memorial Day parade got cancelled last week I grabbed it and ran!

Because I couldn't face Home Depot on Memorial Day I went to my basement figuring I must have some black paint or dark chalk paint I would use.  The Annie Sloan Graphite came up but something was funky about the formula and after a few brush strokes I knew I couldn't use it.  Next I found a can of Rust-Oleum Charcoal Chalk Paint.  Two coats later and I had this....



But after living with it for the night and next day I realized the charcoal had WAY too much blue in it and the reality wasn't matching what was in my mind.  Plus,  you can't use chalk paint and not finish with a wax or poly coat and I can get lazy sometimes.  So off to Home Depot I went to get proper black paint.  And two coats later I got this....



I should back up a bit and say that on Sunday, the day before Memorial Day I painted the room Ben Moore Decorators White.  It felt brighter, and bigger.

So once all the painting was done I stood in the room and questioned the final product.  I moved my wall art around, 



I shuffled my side board do-dads 




and I added some green to my wood dining table.  



I even shopped in my house and brought a gold sun burst mirror from my master bedroom to the blank wall above the green bench.




And just this morning I ordered a new light fixture...also on my mind for some time.  Its a modern piece with gold and white accents.  

I have to say that the all white room is a big change.  Hubby wasn't too excited about it and the cleaner, more modern vibe is def something to get used to.  But I have to say it feels more free and less encumbered.  











We need to live with the changes and see how they feel.  

For now my brain will rest.







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