October Updates - Freezing February Dining Room Re-do

At the end of January, on a shopping trip to Charlotte with my mom and sister, we stopped off at Interior Resolutions of Richburg, where I found the perfect fabric for my dining room drapes and chairs.  I was dreaming of a red dining room to coordinate with the fabric I already had for the living room since the rooms are side by side.  My sister laid her hands on the PERFECT stripe with all the same colors – red, navy, green and gold.  The fabric store has a sewing shop attached and it was a miracle that there was just enough fabric left on the bolt to make 6 extra-long panels, with just inches to spare. 

This began the dining room renovations.  I brought a swatch of the fabric home and decided on Sherwin Williams Antique Red for the wall color.  We used dark gray primer under the red, and even with that, the red took FOUR coats to cover evenly.  (If you’re going RED on any surface, especially plaster, I wish you mountains of patience!)  Luckily, we had 3 more days of snow in February, so I filled my time trapped in the house painting, painting, and painting.   A big thanks to my dad who dared to drive in the snow and came over to help me with a few coats! 

Here’s the dining room before we purchased the house. (Unfortunately this is the only true "before" image I took of this room)...  100% Beige everything and NO light fixture:

Here's some in-between shots of after we had moved in and began working

And here’s some shots of the dining room today:

Since moving in, we’ve bought a beautiful chandelier from The LiteHouse, received Buffet Lamps and a beautiful antique mirror for Christmas and Birthday gifts from my parents, re-covered the dining room chair seats, added beautiful curtain rods (a fun adventure in drilling/hanging things with plaster walls), hung the striped window treatments, repaired plaster, primed/painted walls trim and French doors, and finally re-arranged the furniture after receiving the piano from my parents house. 

Here's a before & after of the dining room chairs... I love re-covering the chair bottoms because it is an easy, inexpensive and quick change that can make a big difference in a room!

Finally, here's the big transformation before & after style.  I have already loved entertaining in our new dining room for our dinner club (we hosted the same weekend I finished painting & hanging curtains), parties, Bible study and a baby shower!

One more dream before I’m ready to call this room complete is art to hang over the piano, suggestions welcome!