My Dining Room Revealed

When we moved into our house 1 year ago, I couldn't wait to get my dining room finished. After living in a super tiny, yet fantastic one-bedroom apartment for the past 3 years I felt an embarrassment of riches with all of the new space I had.

I promised everyone I knew, specifically my mother and mother-in-law that now that I had a dishwasher I would learn to cook...

But first I needed the perfect table!

Ryan and I knew we wanted something simple and traditional. I have a habit of trying to buy everything "interesting" but when every piece is a standout, the overall room becomes more chaotic and less special.

Therefore, as much as I would have loved to buy a rustic table reclaimed from a barn, or a fabulous french cafe table complete with carerra marble on top, iron legs, and black tulip chairs (okay I've thought about this once or twice)...I decided to go with a traditional aka safe choice.

I really did fall in love with our table from Potterybarn:

And I am still patiently waiting for these tufted nail head trim chairs:

At $329 a chair, if I saved $1 a day...a set of 6 would be mine in 5 1/2 years :)

Have I mentioned my love affair with nail head trim? Oh well I'll talk more about that later...after all we did just meet!

I knew I wanted to bring real bold graphic elements into my dining room. I totally had my heart set on this Kelly Wearstler Imperial Trellis Wallpaper:

Bungalo8

While I still would give my left arm for one roll of this wallpaper...I decided to try a different approach. My dining room flows right into my living room, which already has the graphic tile print pillows:

Potterybarn

So instead, I painted the top half of my dining room with Restoration Hardware's Charcoal colored paint, and the bottom half Benjamin Moore's Chantilly Lace.

I kept the window treatments simple and light with these ivory opaque linen panels from West Elm:

West Elm

After purchasing 4 medium-sized white frames from Target, I went out and bought craft paper from Michael's; Paper Source in bold prints.

Here are some of my favorites:

The hardest part of the whole project was to make sure the frames were perfectly lined up. But I think it came out great.

Here's how my dining room has progressed over the past year: (This proves good design does not happen over night, it's a process of finding your voice)

September 2009: Don't you love the previous owner's staging techniques? :)

November 2009: I added some beautiful chocolate velvet curtains...but they were too dark!

December 2009: I thought I needed something graphic, so I added these medallion curtains:

But as the rest of my house was shaping up, I realized this raspberry and chocolate color palette was what I would have had in my apartment, but wasn't what I wanted in my new house.

Current Day:

What I love most, is that with this bold yet simple backdrop I can swap out the graphic elements, including the paper...and even my table linens when I grow tired of one look.

I haven't given up on my Imperial Trellis dream...maybe one day in my office?

And don't worry the medallion curtains found a home in my upstairs guest room (I'll post reveal pics soon)...and the Chocolate Velvet are for sale :) Anyone interested?

Where to buy:
Modern Light Fixture: West Elm
Oversized Chrome Curtain Rods: West Elm
Table Runner: Crate & Barrel
Candlesticks & Candles: Potterybarn
Glass Container & Lemons: Potterybarn
Espresso Microsuede Chairs: My mom got me these awesome chairs from WALMART! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??? She bought them for my basement card table (a later post...let's just say it consists of 1 fabulous table almost 100 years old, my parents, some stain, etc.)...but until I save up for my nail head trip beauties (see my comment above) these will do just brilliantly!

Ciao!