Shiny and New

That's how the dining room feels, and it isn't even close to done yet. We still need art and new furniture. The color isn't even that much of a departure from the old color, but it is absolutely amazing how much it lightens and brightens up the room. Before, our dining room felt dingy and dirty to me, and now it feels, well, shiny and new... like a virgin freshly painted dining room. It almost (and I emphasize almost) makes me like my old dining room set I bought out of the classifieds in college. Almost.

Before

After, oh glorious after!

We're looking into getting a round pedestal table such as the one below from Ballard Designs. The small buffet would be moved to the left of the window closest to where it is now, and I'd like to get a taller piece for the other side of that window. I'd also like to put up two large shelves above the buffet for decorative plates or something like that. Ooooh, ooooh and I really want a capiz chandelier to brighten it up, since I think we're going to stick with black furniture in here.

I also almost finished the half bath this weekend. The main stuff has been done for quite some time, but I finally finished most of the decor. I still want something for the wall to the right, and I have two small canvases that I've been meaning to paint, so I might see what I can whip up. Mind you, I am no artist... at all... I mean, truly... no artistic talent outside of doodling.

I apparently do not have a before picture on my work computer (yes, I blog at work... when else would I do it!?) ;) but it was bad. It was the same putrid yellowish, peachy horrible color as the rest of the house but to add insult to injury, it had terrible fixtures and a gold light fixture that looked like it was going to fall off the wall. So, we replaced the ugliness as noted in my previous post and painted. We will likely re-tile at some point in the future, as well. I also didn't do the best job edging around the ceiling (thankfully we have 9 foot ceilings on our first floor and most people aren't in the bathroom to look straight up), so I told Matt he should install some crown molding. I'm not sure I've ever seen a powder bath with crown molding. It's my solution to all wall to ceiling oopsies.

And, during a random outing to Ballard's outlet (which is in my neighborhood, lucky me!), I found this mirror that I've been coveting FOREVER! It was on sale for $149.99 plus another 15% off! I DIE! I think it was $350 full price. Plus, I was going to buy a very boring floor mirror from Ikea for $100, so I'll gladly pay a few bucks more for something much more interesting. This beauty will reside in our sitting room off the master. Speaking of master, that's next... paint, switches/outlets, new fan and light fixture. If you have any good bluish grey paint colors, let me know. I do much better using something somebody else has already tried than picking my own.

And, one last picture, because what the hey. This is the gorgeous amaryllis our amazing realtor, Mary Stuart got us for Christmas. It is unbelievable!

Oh geez, and because this post isn't long enough already, I almost forgot! The stairs look SO MUCH BETTER. Not close to perfect, but as close as they're going to get, and I really don't think anyone will even notice now (shoot, they probably didn't before until I pointed out what a bad job I did Scotch Painters Tape did). The Minwax stain marker was a lifesaver. Oh, and I don't hate Scotch anymore. Apparently, I was using the cheapest tape they make, but if you buy their most expensive stuff, it works great. Matt used it in the dining room. Go figure.