dining room - before & after

wow.  i have lived in our house for a year and a half and am just now doing my first complete room reveal.  um....i don't know what to say about that.  except that hopefully we'll be knocking 'em out more quickly from here on out!

ok, here is where we started...  (shown with prior owner's furniture)

red toile wallpaper, boring chandelier and lackluster sconces - but good details with plantation shutters, chair rail molding and gleaming wood floors.  oh, and the most charming arched entryway that i fell in love with the second i saw it.  but the red toile had to go.  immediately if not sooner.

we hired a wonderful guy to strip the red toile away (do not try this at home, folks...sounds easy but it's not), and then had a quite sterile dining room for a while with all white walls.

but we did have my chandelier brought over from the condo to liven it up a bit.  i think i'm going to need to be buried with this.  i can never part with it.  it was an antiques & beyond find that i have been so happy with - i mean, it's award winning you know.  (this was ages ago, but it was chosen by erin gates at elements of style as a top 5 "best bargain")

this was taken the day the new wallpaper was hung.  it was pretty messy in there.

the wallpaper was a little bit of a labor of love.  jen and i searched high and low for just the right mix of colors, whimsy and pomp.  you know - elegant without being stuffy.  bold and fun without being over the top crazy.  different and unique without being weird.  bright colors but overall, not too bright.  (btw, don't ever take me on as an interior design client.)  i stumbled onto the makelike site somehow - i think maybe from the design*sponge blog? - and fell in love with their "lush" pattern.  it was shown in kind of a hipster styled room, but i knew it fit all of my many requirements and would look great in a more classic setting too.

it was sort of slated to break my bank...but then as i was randomly clicking on the flash sales at one kings lane....there was my wallpaper, 40% off.  score!  so that was that - the hard part was finding a wallpaper installer that did not think they were worth a king's ransom.  i ended up finding a good one if you are in need - email me and i'll send you her contact info.

anyway.  this is too much chatter, when i'm sure all you want to do is see the damn room already.  alright, here it is!  sources listed at the end.

i love ranunculus.  or is it ranunculi?  i did take latin in high school y'all.  i should probably know.

:: SOURCES ::
wallpaper: makelike.
table & chairs: on loan from my in-laws, but i know they got the table at the gables in miami circle.  the chairs happened to be upholstered in a simple cream pattern, so they worked perfectly.
side table: a garage sale in my now-neighborhood, years before i lived here.
ceramic bowl for lemons: it was $5 at another garage sale in my neighborhood (my neighbors sell some good s&#*!)
curtains: design is by the extremely talented jen (jen, maybe you can provide specifics in a comment?  i know they are double width, french pleat...right?).  ivory linen fabric procured by jen in texas, grey grosgrain trim along the leading edge.  kate at just kate made them.
sconces: here when we moved in; i spray painted them gold.
mirror: ballard designs - it was on sale!
chandelier: antiques & beyond

this room is such a happy room for me.  we eat all of our meals here (at least, we do until we get our kitchen banquette installed!) and i love that it can be dressed up or down.  high chair and children's place mats with mac & cheese...or fine china and linen napkins with a holiday meal.  the table is also a great place to trace envelope liners, i've found!

thanks to jen, as always, for steering me in the right direction - because i always want to go a million different ones!  :)

xoxo