I Almost Forgot…

Posted: February 5th, 2010 | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: black dining room, Flototto | 2 Comments »

…in all the rearranging around here that I’ve got the Flototto settled in the dining room and filled to the brim with stuff.

Sneak Peek

Posted: January 29th, 2010 | Filed under: Landscaping, Our Projects | Tags: black dining room, landscape | 1 Comment »

Because I don’t listen to my own advice, I’m pleased to show you another unfinished project… getting to this point was too exciting…long time coming.

I. HAVE. STAIRS. (this is where I do a little dance, not unlike Elaine in Seinfeld)

Once I’ve stained the wood and all that jazz we’ll have a proper before and after, but this is beyond thrilling for me. The hog panels kick ass.

Oh, and I finally sold the 19th century buffet, so Flototto has moved in from the living room at last…big change-ups afoot here.

Switcheroo

Posted: September 17th, 2009 | Filed under: Just for fun, Shoppin' and Junkin' | Tags: black dining room, Walter Anderson prints, Walter Inglis Anderson | No Comments »

Much better. I had planned to create a photo wall above the buffet, but didn’t like how the others were working with Blurb’s photo. I’ve had this Walter Inglis Anderson print for years and decided it needed a facelift. New frames can be as fulfilling as a new paint job in a room…it changes everything.

"white trees" out, walter in

Close-up of print

Southerners know Walter Anderson..especially in the Delta, but if you haven’t heard of him…check him out. The Museum is still struggling to save much of the work damaged in Hurricane Katrina, and the best variety of his work is sold by his family here. I’ve been toying with getting a print of one of my old favorites…Water Spouts, but in looking around, I noticed Wild Orchid, which I hadn’t remembered seeing before. The nature drawings have always been my favorites and I truly love so many of them.

Walter Anderson's Wild Orchid

Walter Anderson's Water Spouts

I See a Red Door……

Posted: May 4th, 2009 | Filed under: DIY, Just for fun, Our Projects | Tags: black dining room, black interior walls, black paint walls, French bulldog black valspar | 2 Comments »

….and I want it painted black…..

It was only a matter of time… I had to have a black room. I’ve seen so many beautiful ones in the past year and I wanted to play too. The dining room was one of the few rooms we hadn’t painted before moving in, so it’s been on the list for awhile. Feeling a bit worn out with the process of getting the siding out to bid, I decided to focus on a small, instant gratification project. Hello, French Bulldog Black from Martha Stewart’s Valspar line.

BTW, this is how we renovate. (That’s how the mailbox got done towards the end of the kitchen remodel.) When faced with a big project that is very involved with tons of planning and details, we get impatient and need to feel like we are moving forward…so we go completely off task for a weekend with a “play” project. I guess we could call it the attention deficit approach to remodeling, but neither of us have ever been diagnosed…..yet.

I worry that keeping the chair rail white will make it feel too traditional, especially because I have this big traditional buffet (that I want to go away!) I hate the temporary lampshades, and I don’t have a place for the cookbooks yet, but all in good time…I will have it worked out. This is just a start.

For those who like these kind of details: The photo over the buffet is by Jon Armstrong at Blurbomat. Deer “trophy” from Cardboard Safari. White MCM glasses are a recent score from my fave antique store in Chicago. Fawns are (2) Roselane and (1) Northern Pottery…all 3 found on e-bay. Dining room table is a Pottery Barn Shelton just scored half price a few months ago. Chairs are PB’s Marais knock-off, BUT I got them a few years ago at the Pottery Barn Outlet for $60 each. All in all, an extremely inexpensive makeover.

We’ve had our fix, and now it’s back to research, negotiations, no shows, fuzzy math….