Dining Room Makeover

This is the left side of the room, the second part of the Living Room Makeover I posted about!

The photos were taken with my phone and are a bit grainy in the "Before" and a bit dark in the "After" but they show the difference pretty well, still!

 

 

 

We had already moved the bookshelves and started the job when I remembered my camera. What we did in this room (besides move bookshelves!)

1. Painted the paneling a warm cream

2.Moved all the office supplies to the (surprise!) office.

3.Hung a wreath in the window to echo the circle shapes we used in the living room.

4. Added more lighting to the dark space by spray painting a $3 thrift store lamp in matte black and adding a modern drum shade.

5. "Borrowed" a beautiful cloisonne pot from the backyard for the beautiful jade plant that just wasn't as beautiful in it's black plastic nursery pot.

6. Painted the stained white canvas chair seats (more on this below)

7. Mostly? We did a lot of accessory swapping and re-vamping!

 

Notice how dark the room was, even in the mid-morning:

 

 

 

Ta-da!

 

 

 

 

 

The white cotton canvas seats on the chairs were stained from years of use. (Why do furniture manufacturers use such impractical material, anyway?!) We talked about re-covering them in a new fabric which isn't very difficult. I've often recovered seats, and it only takes some time, attention, and a good staple gun. However, in this case we were dealing with time and money constraints and I decided to simply paint the cushions. You know how when you drip a little latex house paint on your jeans and it NEVER, ever washes off? The answer is yes, you can paint fabric and it lasts forever, is super durable and even scrubbable, once dried!
Since I know the client well, I knew she'd like green...and it tied in well with her green kitchen which is adjacent...and I happened to have the perfect shade on hand, since it was leftover from my own kitchen!

 

The trick is to use latex paint (acrylic is too watery) and apply it in two thin layers instead of one thick one (therefore, no streaks or bumps) and this type of cotton canvas is the perfect material for this method because it absorbs so well. Oh and to save time, tape off the wood with blue painters tape instead of removing the seats!