Musical Chairs In The Dining Room

Remember the game musical chairs? You start on one chair, move til the you're forced to stop somewhere else, and try to plop down before anyone else does-never gracefully. I had a love/hate relationship with that game. Recently, I started thinking that is what my home was feeling a bit like. Last year it was three rooms upstairs that played the switch-a-roo game. This year there have been lots of projects brought right up to the brink of completion but then quick-like plopped down; in working order-not gracefully completed. It is more of an "it'll do til I can get back to it" sort of order.

We live in an old home. It has come to us (rather,  we came to it) knowing it was filled with challenges. We saw the charm while others just saw a hot mess-minus the hot. The main floor has three rooms, one kitchen and a half-bath. You walk into the front door facing a central set of stairs flanked by a room on the right and a room on the left. Behind the stairs sits the third room. That was the room we used as our dining room when we moved in but I wasn't convinced it was where I wanted the dining room to be.


                                                 Don't hate me for using a Christmas photo.

It was sold to us labled as a "colonial-cape". I guess it gets the "cape" classification because the ceilings upstairs are low and sloped and the windows are little and low to the floor. It gets the colonial label because from the street the exterior is symmetrical (almost) with a center entry. Originally, from what we have been able to find out through historical information, the house did not have a front porch. It probably had a more prominent front door with some sort of pediment but with the addition of the front porch it was sacrificed. That being said, I love the front porch and have no plans of reverting back.  The colonial label also comes with the idea that upon entering the front door you can head upstairs or turn to either side to enter either the dining room or the living room (parlor). 

The room to the right is our living room and because of that it made sense to me that the room to the left should be the dining room. There is a built in cabinet in the room. The top part at one time had glass panels with drawers below. When we moved in the glass was long gone. We used the room as our home school space for years and I used the cabinet as supply and book space but always thought replacing the glass to display my great-grandmother's china was in its future.

                        

When we renovated the kitchen I thought it was a perfect time to switch things up. My girls were older and our home school materials have managed to migrate to every other room in our house so I thought I could eventually clean it out. I stenciled the walls (in lieu of wall paper) and hung bold green curtains. I found a used table online and refinished it and was happy with the results... except I couldn't do the glass inserts yet...still too many unsightly books and supplies need to be housed in the cabinet.

                     

Mister was a good sport but never really liked eating dinner where we could be seen from the street. These older homes were often built close to the road. We live on a small street with little traffic so it didn't really bother me. I enjoy driving by homes and seeing families at their dining tables-homey and comforting but when it is others looking in on us... well, Mister wasn't on board. And, we never really figured out what to do with the old dining room except to house my crafts and desk. It was always an untidy, disarrayed collection of stuff staring at me as I sat on the couch. I tried to keep it neat but it just never happened. 

                            

Fast forward to February of this year. Our tv went on the fritz and we bought a new one. We decided to hang it on a different wall and that led to a whole big mess; redoing our master bedroom, living room and yes, dining room. We took down the cheap bead-board that covered the lower half of the walls both in there and in the living room, replaced the baseboard, moved the chandelier and painted the walls a yummy color. I thought I wanted the downstairs to remain neutral in color. I tried... really I did but when you walk into the paint store and there all those colors.... I caved!

I used  Dragonfly by Benjamin Moore for the walls. On sunny days the color looks more green than blue. On cloudy days the color looks more blue than green. Bonus: I was able to use the old window toppers which I love and Mister loves not having to buy new ones.

                                  

The color looks similar in certain photos to the color that it used to be which was more of a gray-blue color but in reality that is not the case.

I still have some things to hang on the walls in there and am toying with building something to house my serving platters. I am still thinking about painting the buffet and I have yet to paint the silly chairs but they'll have to do til I can get back to them. (I think that is how I started this post.) I am presently using the stenciled room for an office and craft space and yes, it is a mess. Project after project-weddings, work for others, and anything else I can find to do to avoid it.... It will go through some more changes in the next couple months but that will be for another time.

This does seem to be a better place for the dining room. Not exactly sure why but it just feels right, like an old familiar song, gracefully danced... which is music to my ears.

Don't stay away too long...you never know what room we will move next!


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Life With Lorelai