my new dining room

When we bought our home last October I decided to make the dining room a top priority.

The previous owner had painted the lower walls dark maroon and painted all of the walls and trim

a tan color. Needless to say, those are NOT my colors!

Before shots of the dining room

The first order of business was to beg Caleb to put his handy man skills to work and

to put up molding on the lower half of the walls.

He did this for me in less than 2 days!

I think he did an awesome job ... especially considering that he'd never done anything like it before.

The dining room had a newish looking chandelier that looked like it came from Lowe's.

Caleb and I bought this GORGEOUS circa 1950's "made in Spain" chandelier at

a flea market last fall for only $40.

My dad installed it for us the day we moved into the house.

The cute white quail figurines I bought last week for only $1.50 (total!) at a consignment store

that is going out of business.

The large mirror I purchased at a thrift store for $20.

I like that it helps reflect light around the room.

The sconces are a pair that my dad bought me recently.

I'm still keeping my eyes peeled for candles that aren't white or maroon.

The pair of Hollywood Regency pictures I bought at Goodwill last fall.

I think I paid $20 for the pair.

I LOVE them and oddly enough ...so does Caleb!

I love it when we agree on decorating.

The rug is from Target.

My sister helped me pick it out. She also took all these photos for me.

We bought 6 of the chairs at a consignment store in Greensboro.

I think we paid $100 ish for all 6. Then we found a matching one at a junk store for $10.

I would love to find one more and make it a set of 8.

Because I'm like Monk and I don't like weird numbers. I like evenness.

The fabric was on sale at Joann's PLUS I had a 50% off coupon.

The chairs were stained a dark color and I spray painted them a gloss white.

The table is from the same consignment store in Greensboro and

I believe I paid $100 for it a couple of years ago.

It was a cream color and I recently painted it white.

The china cabinet is from a junk shop.

It's very 1950's - 1960's French / Regency style and I think it was $125.

I was going to paint it and then ended up liking the way it looked with the other furniture.

I got the curtains on sale at TJMaxx for $10.

A view from the living room.

I love the arched doorways in our home!

This is the first thing people see when they walk through our front door.

I knew I wanted to do something dramatic on the upper walls.

I decided to paint them with some of that metallic paint from Lowe's (Valspar).
The color is called "Simple Shimmer".

It's insanely expensive and it ended up needing way more paint than the paint can said...

However...I'm in love with the outcome!

It is a process and a half to put that stuff up and to make it look good.

I freely admit to being brought to tears by it midway through the painting process.

I found a set of matching vintage light switch covers with matching plug covers on Ebay for $15.

My dad helped us to install a dimmer switch for the chandelier.

I love being able to control the brightness level in there!

You can read about the peacock picture makeover here.

 I couldn't be happier with the outcome!
Having your dining room exactly how you want it and making it so inviting is a blessing.
It also has inspired me to be more creative with my table settings and to actually put to use all those
pretty vintage dishes I've collected for years now.

I love a good challenge and making over the dining room on a budget was fun!