A Peek into My Dining Room

Well, as many of you know, I am in the throes of a kitchen remodel, and I am glad to say that stage one is almost complete. Stage 2 and Stage 3, however, are still looming and I am itching for things to look pretty once again.

You know, without construction dust like this . . .

(Yes, that is a lovely message, but still . . . it's dust!)

And, quite frankly, you know that the dust is bad when you see your hubby, and you think that he is looking rather old and gray, and when you look more closely, you realize to your amazement that his older and more distinguished look is really just construction dust. (On a good note, however, after a shower, hubby is back to looking like his handsome, young-looking self. Whew!)

So, through the haze of dust, I have been longing for a pretty place to rest my eyes, and I have found it in my dining room. Hooray! This old 1927 house came equipped with some very pretty built-in cabinets that flank one side of my dining room. When we moved in, they were rather, ummm, shall we say . . . boring. They were painted in a beige color and the wall was a beigey light yellow color. The shelves and cabinets literally just faded into the walls with no pop or

pizzazz. Definitely not my kind of room.

So, I went to work. I painted the walls the same mustardy neutral color that is in my living room. I picked the color for two reasons: 1) I love,love, love the neutralness of the shade and 2) I had leftover paint from the living room (Did I mention that I am a bit thrifty??) This perked the room up right away. Then I painted all of the dingy beige molding with decorator white paint. Wow! Instant pop for all of the woodwork and cabinetry. But, looking at the space for a bit, I knew that I wasn't quite done.

Next, I found some fabric for 50% off at the fabric store. It was quite bold, even for me, but there was something about it that I just loved. I no-sewed a swag (read- spray glue . . . love, love, love it!) and used the swag to balance the slightly off -center window. With this OLD house, creative concealment is my friend for sure. And finally, Voila! I was beginning to love this space.

My last little tweak for the dining room involved one of my favorite colors. I knew that the cabinets and shelving needed just a bit more to really show them off. I decided to take a color from the fabric, a vibrant red, and then painted the backs of the shelves only to really show them off. I completely stole this idea from many different magazines and even some of your blogs that I read. It is genius I think.

The result?

A pretty place that I absolutely love to rest my remodeling tired eyes.

What do you think?

**** I am linking this to A Soft Place to Land's DIY Day. Hop on over for more great ideas!

I am also linking this to the Inspired Room's Beautiful Life Friday.  Hop on over for some bee-u-tee!