Shall We Dine?

Hi Dee Ho my Peeps!!!   I've been super dee duper busy around here painting away and I figured it was about time for me to show you my handiwork!!

It could be the only time in my life you hear me say I'm somewhat jealous of Marge Simpson!

Let's look at the before shots:

This is the little nook off our front entry by the closet.

This is a preliminary after where I painted it LoneStar blue chalk paint. 

This view if from the great room area looking towards the front door.  Can you believe they had those glass inserts covered with curtains when we moved in???  

This is another preliminary after with the inside of the doors being painted the same LoneStar blue.

Before I show you the "afters" I must offer a full photo disclaimer:

I just upgraded my Mac OS and I DO NOT appreciate what Apple did with iPhoto!!!  Seriously, iPhoto was the bomb and now it's just gone???  What the heck Apple??  With that being said, my photos are unedited because well quite frankly it's a darn miracle I even got them in this blog post.  

Moving on from my software bitterness, I present the Afters:

This is that same door with the nice LoneStar blue on the inside and now the walls are Sherwin Williams Mindful Grey.  

The Mindful Grey color is going to extend into the den and stairwell areas so the two areas will flow together a bit better.  

This is just another view without the bright Texas sun blaring through.

(I still have decorating to do but the painting is pretty much complete)

This is that same little bench area by the front closet. 

Amazing what a little paint and some hooks to hang your coat on will do, huh?

I still am looking for a rug to fit in this space but it's already much more functional and pretty.

Now for a few new additions to the Living Room.  Which I already showed you right here

Once again, please forgive the bad lighting in the unedited photos.

You can see where the archway looks towards the little entry area.

I added the nice little iron side table from Home Goods beside the chair because that is such a great chair to curl up in and read there and there was no place to sit your beverage.

I mean seriously....what if someone is upset??  Offering them a hot beverage isn't much help if there is no where to sit it down. 

Last thing for the Living Room- I went back and painted the two tiers of the ceiling.

Yeah, like I said, suuuuuuper jealous of Marge Simpson!!!

Let's move on to the Dining Room  and sadly there are no before photos at all. 

All I can tell you is White....it was all White everything just faded into each other. 

This area is currently housing a small table but make no mistake I WILL find a nice vintage bar cart that doesn't require me to take out a small loan.  Until then this works just fine.  

Looking from the entry/Living Room area into the Dining Room

Another view

This is looking towards the hutch.  As you can see I moved my big ole' fork and spoon in here from the kitchen.  This room just felt way to formal and out of place in the house so I tried to tone down the formality of it all. 

In the spirit of toning things down you'll notice that my lovely cowhide rug affectionately known as Ferdinand is now a tablecloth.  We were in a store and we saw a cowhide used as a tablecloth and Hubster just thought this was a grand idea.  Yeah.....because everyone wants a $300 tablecloth!!!

Actually Ferdinand looks pretty good on the table but I sure do miss him under my feet in the den.

If you look really close you can see that I also recovered the chair seats.  I used a blue ticking fabric and it's great!   So much less formal than the other fabric and I also added a little extra "puffiness".  They are old chairs and not exactly the most comfortable but hopefully now we can get through a holiday dinner without our booties falling asleep!!! 

Because I like to use things that have some sentimental value to me while I'm redecorating I'll show you some very boring photos.  I actually have these because I decided I wanted to turn the rug and I had to take everything off the hutch so we could lift the edges and I took pics so I could put it back together quickly.  That's LAZY right there!!!

From the left is an old oil lamp that honestly I've had since like forever. I mean really like forever and I like it and occasionally when the lights go out I use it!  That lace doilie underneath, my grandma tatted.  (that's a sewing term not a inked up body reference)

The little Fleur-de-Lis sign is from the Hobby Lobby and then there's the monk cookie jar.  Seriously if the day comes that this jar breaks you will find me in a corner sobbing loudly.   This was my Grandma Adams' and if you like I'll tell you all about why this means so much to me.   That's one of my very first Longaberger baskets, it's currently holding a small faux fern and Ghirardelli chocolate caramels.    

These glasses belonged to Hubsters mom and the little tray was a gift from the girls grandmother Mim.   The Jack Daniels is almost gone??!!!   This house is just falling apart isn't it?!

I actually made the little faux plant one day.  It just moves around the house as I see fit.

The little glass bottles belonged to my other grandmother, MeMama. She had lots of them and I ended up with four and I wish I had more of them.   The fat bird...well he was just a funny purchase one day.  I was probably with LL and it was probably from Hobby Lobby.   I like him because he's "fluffy" like me.  Guess he should get his thyroid checked too.

An old blue Mason jar filled with coffee beans and a tealight holder tucked inside.

The wire basket is an old egg basket.  I'll put eggs in it one day when I get chickens but until then the faux chicken gets to hang out next to it.

My Longaberger pottery pitcher is holding on to some faux hydrangeas.  The little blue fish bottle and purple bottle are the other two that I have from my MeMama and the brass bell was also hers.

The little wood tray was just a bonus from an Etsy purchase I made one day.  You know those kind of purchases where you get the whole lot of items even when there is only one thing that you really want?

Here is the last shot of the hutch and I think I have finally sufficiently toned down the vibe of this room.   It is a formal dining area but I needed it to feel less formal and more inviting as you enter the front door. 

What do you think and no worries, we have reached the end of the Koi Pond paint in the house.  The formal Living room, formal Dining Room and the garage entry have Koi Pond on the walls.  I'm tired of being green for awhile so now I'll switch to Mindful Grey and finish out the great room area with it. 

Just to give you an idea what is coming, the kitchen will be the top swatch of SilverMist. Mindful Grey is in the middle and the Denim will be on a focal wall that looks out into our back yard.   So I'll be adding lots of Mindful grey to my painting clothes in the near future.  Unless I decide to tackle the kitchen first.  One never knows.....I do have a significant amount of alone time on my hands!

What do you think? I mean besides the fact I really really need to learn how to edit photos in the new app on my Mac.   

Is anyone else melting or is it just Texas?  I leave you with this:

Peace, Love & Paintbrushes!!!