Before and During...the Dining Room

I promised you I would invite you into my home, and I could kick myself for speaking writing before I think. I am quite awed by many of your homes, and am a little embarrassed to be showing you mine.

I am only an amateur home decorator. I have always had a passion for design and decorating. I have had a passion for art I think since I could hold a pencil. I would have loved to have gone to an art and design school for college, but, the left side of my brain (and my parents) won. I have a business degree in accounting and marketing.

I am always redecorating, and making many mistakes along the way. I don't mind though, because I always learn from them. I get tired and bored easily with various looks. I love almost every style there is. I don't know what I would call my style. I loved Tuscan/Old world for a long time. The colors throughout the house go with that warm feeling. It looks fine the way it is; I just want a change. I want less clutter, more neutral walls, and a way to marry my dark woods with the new light feel I'm looking for. I want a fresh look!

I feel like my house is always a before picture. I'm calling my dining room my "during" phase because there are many things left to do. I would love everyone's input, because, like I said, I do not have any expertise in this area. Only my instincts and the things I've learned from books, magazines, and now, wonderful design bloggers!

Here is my before of my dining room. If I had known that I would be blogging when I took this picture, I would have taken more pictures. While I love red, I was very tired of it. You can see my sample color boards on the wall and on the table:



Here are some during photos:

Here is the painted dining room. After such a drastic change, I almost repainted the walls. I felt like the window treatment and painting clashed with the new wall color (a warm beige/grey). I now rather like the clash, but I'm going to make new window treatments out of 20 yards of white linen. I'm also planning on making some white slipcovers for the chairs, switch out the painting, add some molding to what's existing, and get different end chairs. I'm thinking of painting that chandelier. We will tear out the carpet and put in wood floors like the rest of the first floor at some point. The wood floors are a dark, warm rosewood stain:

Another view. I need to take off the table cloth and re-accessorize the top. You can see the living room off to the side:

This hutch belonged to my in-laws. We inherited it when my mother in law passed away. No one in the family wanted it. It's a high quality piece, but it was that 70's wood stain with the greenish tint. We took it, I painted it, and put in new knobs.


Here is the back wall. I have been planning to paint the chest for a few years. Maybe this summer I will finally get around to it. I need to clear off some of those accessories:

So, in summary, here are my plans:

1. wood floors


2. new window treatments


3. slipcovers


4. end chairs


5. paint the chest : white or black? I'm thinking a distressed white.


6. practice restraint with the accessories


7. anything else?

Any suggestions? By the way, I'm not married to the wall color, either. I should also add that I have mostly dark wood on most of the furniture, as well as dark cherry cabinets in the kitchen. The dark wood will have to stay. The labor in painting all of it will be too intensive. My upholstery is also dark, but I can also make slipcovers for that. So much to change.... maybe I just need a psychologist!