On To The Next Project: Dining Room Inspiration

The coffee table I'm building is coming along nicely. In fact, I'm hoping to finish it this weekend! We just need drawer faces, the top, wood filler, sanding, staining, polyurethane and drawer hardware.

But of course, since I have project ADD, while working on the coffee table I haven't been able to think about anything except the next project, our dining room. We are going to be hosting Christmas dinner for the first time ever, since we do the every-other-year holiday trade off between my family and my husband's family. This year it's Christmas with my husband's family, and since my BIL lives in North Carolina too, it just makes sense for his parents to come out here, rather than all four of us travel there.

So that means we need at least a dining room table, since currently we have a pretty empty dining room.

And I finalized the plans this past weekend, so wanted to share.

First, some pretty inspiration.

via Houzz 

 via The Chronicles of Home

via Decor Pad

via Lulinha.com 

via Picasa Web Albums

via The Inspired Room

via Houzz

via Houzz

And that's just my top favorite inspiration photos, I've got lots more in my Pinterest Dining Room Board. But as you can probably guess, I'm drawn to dark walls, wainscoting, and a mash up of rustic and traditional elements, with a few modern touches.

This is what I'm envisioning for our room, dark blue, grey and white, with mint green accents:

1. A beadboard ceiling (which my husband isn't exactly happy about, considering we already spent all the time and effort to scrape the popcorn and give it a smooth finish. Oops.)

2. This Pottery Barn light fixture, which I've already ordered because it was on sale for 20% off this past weekend, and it was already back ordered through the end of November. Originally I was thinking we could DIY something like it, similar to how Amanda and Corey made their own fabulous dining room fixture, but considering lighting is a "must have" before Christmas, and we've got no lighting in the room at all right now (I refused to put back the ugly fixture that came with the house after we did the ceilings, and so we threw it away), we decided to just buy it.

3. Grey linen nailhead trimmed chairs, for the ends of the table.

4. Six smaller side chairs. These ones from Overstock, actually, that I plan to paint grey to match the end chairs, and reupholster. I've looked on Craigslist for six matching chairs, but I can't find a better price than these brand new ones that have the clean silhouette I'm looking for, so new it will be!

5. Curtains with oil rubbed bronze hardware. Fabric TBD, but something white with grey details is most likely.

6. Dusty Dark Blue wall paint. I'm thinking about Vermont Slate by Benjamin Moore, which is actually on the same paint swatch as the Labrador Blue in our family room, just a few shades darker. Of course I'll need to do a test on the wall before making a final decision, but I already know it will be great with the adjacent kitchen and family room, but with the more dramatic and formal flair appropriate in a dining room.

7. Some kind of rustic stained wood picture frames or framed mirrors on one of the walls, to tie in with the rustic table. This is another likely DIY.

8. Mint green lamps, similar to something like this. I want to have the option for a little more lighting, and bring in some more of the mint green accent color.

9. Some kind of sideboard or buffet. I've been stalking Craigslist, but haven't found anything yet, so I might need to make the rounds at the local thrift shops. I plan to paint it a medium grey, to match the side chairs (pictured is this buffet, color adjusted in Photoshop).

10. Picture frame wainscoting, under the existing chair rail. This will be an easy DIY with our miter saw.

11. A DIY dining room table, which is a knock off of this Restoration Hardware table, built with plans from Ana White. I can't wait to get started on this build, now that I'm getting more confident in my carpentry skills!

So, that's the plan for now, and my tentative budget is around $2300 for the whole room, aside from other wall art, table top decor, etc that will come together as the room progresses.

However, considering it is already October, the fact that I still need to finish the coffee table, and have some travel plans between now and Christmas, we only realistically have like four weekends to work on the dining room. But prioritization is the name of the game when it comes to house projects, so as long as we can have a completed table, chairs (not necessarily painted and reupholstered though), and a light fixture hung, we'll be ok. But on top of that, my other goals are to install the wainscoting, scrape the old wallpaper off the walls and paint them, paint all of the crown moulding, window and door trim, baseboards, chair rail and wainscoting and maybe get a sideboard, if I can find one by then.

Basically, we're going to be busy!

Anyone else planning any room makeovers between now and Christmas? Have you ever hosted a big holiday dinner before? I haven't even started to think about all the cooking!