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This has been a week of “firsts” and “finally’s”…I think this most definitely qualifies as a “finally!”  {Luke has had a lot of firsts this week; I’ll be sharing those soon!}

So…the dining room.  Although most of my own “befores” bit the dust in the Great Computer Crash of 2011, I did come across some of Marietta’s pictures, taken in 1979 (yes, they are all labeled on the back, she was amazing that way).  And guess what?  Nothing had changed since then.  🙂  From 1979 until we moved in 3 years ago…it had all stayed the same.  Bless her.  I already have a new theme in mind for the dining room {shhh, don’t tell my husband}.

Befores…

Actually, this is a more recent picture; you can see the old light fixture, and if you look close enough (it’s washed out by the light), there was some major water damage surrounding it.  We had a peeling ceiling for a LONG time.  It was so refreshing once it was scraped and painted over!!

And afters!

We had an almost nonexistent budget, so I, in large part, paint-sampled my way through this room.  We DID put up new wallpaper (the old stuff, once scraped off, left us no choice but to paper over the plaster.  Evil old glue!)  I googled bead board wallpaper, and I wish I could tell you where I found it.  It was a discount wallpaper place, but I for the LIFE of me can’t come up with it.  It cost $80 in all; we finished that portion of the room a little over a year ago.

For the details…my “muse” for this room was this Dwell fabric.  I lucked out and not only got it with a coupon from fabric.com, but there was a glitch in my order, so all totaled I bought 1 yard of it for $10.  I bought vinyl and popped it on right away, of course.  No sense having pretty fabric ruined by my kids. 🙂 And the chairs?  I picked up a quart of “oops” paint at Home Depot for  $2.  I’ve used it on 8 chairs, 2 bureaus, and I still have some left!  It’s Martha Stewart in “Seal”.

The chevron ended up being a little busy for me, so I broke it up with some Target napkins.

I bought a sample of Bayside by Behr and painted my built-ins.  I’ve had my grandmother’s china packed away for a decade; so glad I now have a place for it! And I’m a sucker for banners; we lasered the little pennants and I wrote one of my all-time favorite words on it…

The door you have seen before (full thing in one of those pictures up above); it was up in the attic so I put my beloved chalkboard paint to use on it.  And the oil paintings were another attic find.

The paper lanterns were up there for a baby shower; Luke enjoys batting them around so much that I just haven’t taken them down yet!

I kind of think little man has one of the best seats in the house; it’s like a little throne!  And right next to good reading, too.

I do really love this wall; if you saw the shop you got a peek of it this week!  And the pictures were the old engineering print from Staples trick that’s been floating around the internet for awhile.  3 bucks a pop.  Dad made me an mdf/pine box and we spray-glued them on.  All told, about 6 dollars a piece.  Not too shabby.

 I added little sparkles, just because.

I really needed a catch-all, so I used a basket from grandpa’s old farm in NM, and reused  my old drop cloth curtains for the liner.  Then just Sharpied in the MAIL.  The lamp bases were from the Christmas Tree Shop for $13, and the shades were Walmart; they were originally gray and fell pretty flat against the wall, so I painted them.  They are still a little iffy for me; I might give them a new color soon.

These chairs?  Their 4th life within a year.  4th life!  The fabric are napkins  from Divine Design; I bought them through One Kings Lane for a crazy discount.  $19 for 4, down from $60.  And I am so in love with them.  The window frames were from some dear friends.  I might get around to hanging them on the wall someday!

one chair is yet to be finished, obviously 🙂

What else… I painted the  table with left over wall paint and polycrylic…mom helped me add some inexpensive fabric (premier prints) to the curtains to drop them down to the floor.  When I change my mind, I can take them off and put a new print on.  Easy peasy.  The chandelier is from Ikea; I’d still like to dress it up a bit.  And I want to add some glass knobs to the built-in.  Also, the buffet is my grandmother’s; it really is in need of refinishing, so that’s on my to-do list as well.

In all, we came in around $300 between the wallpaper and paint and fabric and light fixture.  Not too bad!  Especially spread out over 2 years and an income tax refund or two.  My kinda design budget!

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linking up!

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