Our Dining Room Today & How I Decorate

Our dining room today, is not a dining room anymore. 

I'm in the middle of turning it into a office space/library right now. If you look closely at the picture below, you can see I haven't even finished painting the room yet. Some of the drywall tape still needs another layer of plaster, then I need to sand it down, prime, and paint. The baseboard is not even primed yet. Well, someone is not painting in the right order here. I wanted to see how the room looks like in the new paint color, Benjamin Moore Seashell, so I decided to roll the paint on the walls first before anything else. Did I tell you I am a very impatient person?

I temporarily put the room back together for the playdate we had over the weekend. This was part of my "making the house look less like a construction zone" effort. Since I put the room back together, I took a few pictures of the room and see how it is coming along. 

Taking pictures of a room always helps me see if the room is coming together the way I intended. It's like having another set of eyes that show me the things I cannot see otherwise. Do you ever use your camera for that purpose?

I like what I see here. The mood of the space is warm and inviting, which I wanted. The room used to be painted in Benjamin Moore Horizon, which is a beautiful pale gray with a blue undertone. I really liked that color too, but I think this space was calling for a warmer feeling. The new paint color definitely works better in this space. 

The frames on the wall are way too small for the space. This is something I wouldn't have noticed unless I took the pictures. I need something larger in scale. 

I need to add some colors to the room to create a depth. Perhaps a shade of moss green and some type of blue. I want more white in the room to make it feel lighter too.

I like how the dark antique desk looks against the modern and cleaner line of the white Panton chair. Blending different textures and shapes creates a drama in the space and makes the room unique. Paring the furniture from different periods is one of my favorite decorating schemes I use.

My goal is to eventually swap the antique desk for a Saarinen 48 inch round table. This way, I can use the room as office, library and dining space. I love rooms and furniture that serve more than one purpose. 

Saarinen Table. via Elle Decor

I have this antique Moroccan (or Turkish) chandelier that goes above the desk. I think this will look fantastic above my future Saarinen table once it's refurbished. What do you think?

My half painted Mid Century credenza. The gray paint looks okay on it. I might try a different color to see if I like that better...

Like a slate blue-gray on this credenza. I think I can achieve this color with ASCP Graphite with two coats of clear wax.

image via Phylum Furniture

I will change the old pulls into brass ones like this.

Home Depot

This is the other side of the room. This room is so small that I can't even take a picture of the entire china cabinet without the chandelier getting in my way. 

I recently painted the inside of the faux bamboo china cabinet (a craigslist find) inspired by the below picture. I'm going to use this cabinet as a bookshelf and style it with something like white ironstone. 

image via Pinterest. Source unknown

Again, the picture tells me the frames flanking the china cabinet are too small. So, I decided to experiment with scales using what I had at hand.

 

This isn't bad. Perhaps I can put a contemporary painting where the blank canvas is. The chrome director's chair is not staying here by the way. I just wanted to see how it looks like when I flank the china cabinet with two chairs. 

What about an antique gold frame? I guess it depends on what I'm going to put in the frame. The first one with the blank canvas might be better when it comes to the scale though. 

What if I place my antique french chair there? 

Is this any better? Hmmm. 

Hello real life mess in the background (train table & football = reality)

I have a long way to go with this room, but I like the general direction it's taking and I enjoy the process of putting the room together.

This is the process I go through when I decorate a room. Tweak here, tweak there, and take some pictures and tweak some more. 

What does your decorating process look like?