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.
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 OrchidWalter Anderson's Water Spouts
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….
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