I’m not sure when or how or why it happened, but one day I realized that I had a thing for shiny, happy, sparkly rooms. Pretty crystal chandeliers, shiny silver accessories, mirrored furniture… they’re the things that really kick the glam factor up a notch. But a room can’t live on glam alone – there needs to be something whimsical… light-hearted… unexpected. The combination creates an elegant room that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
And so this was the inspiration for my dining room makeover.
As you know if you’ve read about my other room makeovers, our whole house was pink and green when we moved in ten years ago. The dining room was not just green, it was two shades of green…
Previous home owner’s colour choices & decorating. Not my cup of tea!
I can’t find any pictures of the dining room between when I painted over the green and when we installed the wainscoting. These pics were taken after the wainscoting was installed and primed with a paint sprayer a few years ago {yes, I’m super-slow when it comes to making over a room!. We bought the dining table & chairs about eight years ago {Gramercy Park Collection by Lane Furniture}, and the chandelier about four years ago.
Guess I took this picture just before I painted the ceiling ;-)
I’ve shown you a couple of projects over the past year that I worked on for the dining room. First there was this layered mirror project using the mirror that was already on the wall and another mirror that was leaning on the wall outside the dining room for about, oh, two years…
And then this little frame repainting project {original artwork by Fifi Flowers}:
And there’s one other makeover that never made it onto my blog. It was inspired by these chairs that Samantha Pynn had painted white and reupholstered in a lavender faux ostrich leather.
I wrote to Samantha Pynn to ask where the fabric was from. I got a reply a day or two later with the information, and I ordered a few yards from InVU Drapery in Toronto. The chairs went from this:
To this:
Yep, they’re big-butt chairs!
And now, the dining room is finally done – YAY! Let’s start with the chandelier. I can’t remember where I first saw this chandelier, but I loved it right away and found it on the Horchow website:
But at almost $3,000.00, I didn’t love the price tag! After some searching, I found an almost identical chandelier on Ebay for a fraction of the price:
There were already white sheers in the bow window. I don’t love them, but they provide some much-needed privacy so they’ve stayed. I’ll be replacing them when I figure out how to hang new shears to the floor. I really wanted curtains to add some pattern & softness to the room. Because our ceilings are 9’, it’s hard to find pre-made curtains that are the right length, so I had the curtains custom made. They’re silver silk with a band of patterned lavender & silver fabric and beaded trim.
A sparkly room needs a sparkly curtain rod! {Fabrics & curtain rod from C&M Textiles}.
My mom’s old Royal Doulton “Caprice” china sat in a box at the cottage for years after my mom died. My dad started pulling the china set out a few years ago and gave it to me. Some pieces have gone missing, but I have enough to put together eight place settings. What goes better with Royal Doulton china than silver giraffe print place mats? ;-)
Well, how about black & white zebra print place mats :-) I couldn’t decide, so I bought a set of each from HomeSense. {Purple chargers from Z Gallerie and flatware from Mikasa}.
I really wanted some unique artwork to hang in the dining room. Maybe even commissioned artwork, so I could get exactly what I wanted. I contacted Fifi Flowers about creating a painting for me, and we worked together to come up with these three fun and colourful Hollywood-inspired paintings:
I’ll be writing a blog post next week about the process of having Fifi create these cool paintings.
Whimsical, check!
When we bought the dining room table and chairs, we decided not to buy the matching hutch/sideboard. I didn’t want everything in the room to look the same. It took about six years to finally find the perfect sideboard. It’s the Somerton buffet from Cymax Stores. I love the curvy lines and open shelves, and the doors and top have the same diamond design that’s on the backs of the dining chairs and the layered mirror.
The colour scheme was inspired by the faux ostrich leather and the dark furniture. I love painted ceilings, so I thought why not go dramatic and paint the ceiling dark brown. The walls are Sherwin Williams Ash Violet and the ceiling is Bittersweet Chocolate. Hubby and I designed and installed the wainscoting. It’s painted Benjamin Moore Ultra White, as is all the trim in the room.
And how does it all look together? Sparkly, glam, and whimsical – just the look I was going for :-)
The sideboard styling still needs some work – I’m so bad at accessorizing!
Although I love the big clock above the sideboard, I think I’m going to move it to another wall in the house and hang one of these horse photographs by Diane Schuller there instead:
I love having fresh flowers in the house, especially when the season for outdoor flowers is over. Please don’t be a carnation snob – they’re pretty flowers, and they last forever :-)
My best buy in the room has to be the small mirrored console under the artwork. It cost a whopping $15.00! And it just happens to have the same diamond design that’s repeated throughout the room.
Now just need to break it in with a real & official dinner party!
I’m linking my dining room makeover up with Metamorphosis Monday over at Between Naps on the Porch {the party starts at around 9:00PM tonight}. I’m pretty sure nobody else will be sharing a purple dining room with a chocolate brown ceiling, but I bet there are lots of great & inspiring makeovers to check out :-)
Set designer Mark Lane – I want his job!
