Well, I went and did it. I fell in love.
You might recall that I teamed up with 17 other bloggers to all make over rooms in our homes that we were NOT in love with, in an effort to FALL in love with them. We also needed kicks in the pants to get moving on these projects so we gave ourselves six weeks to get it done.
Except in my case it was more like two weeks because of two wingback chairs I was upholstering for a client and the Home Depot Holiday Style Challenge.
Let’s start by taking a look at where things all began in my dining room, which was my room victim for this makeover.
We had just moved in when this picture was taken and one of the first things we did was add the crystal pendant and flip flop the living and dining rooms.
I never got to see how the people we bought the house from had this room decorated (remember this was their living room) but there were really beautifully made floral drapes on the windows that looked great with the green walls, and I can imagine that this bold wall color could have been nice with the right furnishings.
But for me, in the dining room, the color wasn’t working.
When I added a soft seafoam-gray rug to the dining room a few months ago the bright green walls really took a turn for the worst. You’ll also notice I moved the floral drapes out – these black and tan ones came from the original dining room.
My plans for the dining room had a few big components:
- grasscloth wallpaper
- wainscoting
- new upholstery on the chairs
- new drapes
And for two weeks time, I think I did pretty well. I finished the wallpaper. I finished the chairs and they are glorious. I sewed and hung the drapes yesterday. I hung a chair rail and painted the bottom third of the walls.
I did not get to finish the wainscoting, so that finishing touch is still to come. I also didn’t hang a thing on the walls. Since I’m going into wallpaper and not wall I can just patch if I change my mind, I want to be very certain before I nail anything up on the walls!
Even so, I think the difference is pretty remarkable.
Ready?
The chairs…I just…I love them so much I am practically speechless. Practically.
The Lacefield Designs Malta Mulberry fabric is just the perfect punch of color and pattern in an otherwise neutral room with traditional furniture. It adds a bit of fun, a little contemporary twist, and the pattern will be so much more forgiving with stains than the plain beige on the chairs before.
You can see a video tutorial on how I recovered these chairs, and how to recover any chair seat, really, HERE.
The fabric I used for the drapes is also from Lacefield Designs – Calais Indigo.
I waffled a little (or a lot) on the window treatments fabric. I didn’t want solid but didn’t want anything that would compete with the chairs. This pattern turned out to be just right, and I love the navy and the pink together in the same room.
I couldn’t help putting together a few side by side before and afters :)
The wall here is still blank, but like I said above, I want to be very sure of what’s going there before I start making holes in the grasscloth wallpaper!
You may also be wondering why the table is half set. Some new photo staging technique? Nope.
Tomorrow I’ll be sharing a Thanksgiving table and I didn’t want to give too much away. Stop by tomorrow to see where this is headed.
And for goodness sake, make sure you check out the other downright amazing rooms the rest of these ladies churned out! So much goodness.
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
Thank you to Lacefield Designs for providing me with the gorgeous textiles for this makeover!
Do you happen to remember how many yards you used per chair? I’m feeling inspired ?
I used about a yard and a half per chair, but what you need depends on the size of the seat. Most fabric is over 50″ in width so you can usually get two seat widths out of that, but you just want to make sure you don’t need more than a yard and half each for the depth of the seats. Sounds like a fun project!