Our Dining Room: The “Plan”

I used to not understand why the first thing we did when we closed on our house was paint the dining room (seriously. why.), but now I know that it is all because of that nasty little bug I discussed last week. With the dining room, I was the student who wrote an essay in 5 minutes without knowing their thesis statement. Metaphorically speaking, of course. English teachers everywhere get frustrated with students like me. English students everywhere get frustrated with teachers like me trying to make everything a metaphor.

Let’s put it this way: I painted the dining room a deep, dark teal without any clue about what the rest of the room would look like. And maybe smarter, less clueless people would know how to deal with this in a way that didn’t require repainting, but I am not one of those people. Instead, I’m slowly putting together a “plan.” It’s only a “plan” as opposed to a PLAN because, historically, my “plans” are generally just Potential Scattered Thoughts That Change Monthly Daily, IF I have a plan at all. However, this is the first time I’ve ever actually thought about all of the pieces before I just started haphazardly slapping paint on the wall (obviously), and it is my goal to make it into a PLAN.

Are you following me?

1. Walls in Benjamin Moore Hazy Skies. It’s a taupish-grayish-greenish sorta color. I think. I’ll decide for sure once the chair fabric arrives. Either way, I will be going with a lighter color. Our dining room gets very little natural light, and the current dark wall color makes it even more cave-like.

2. Hutch in Benjamin Moore Fairview Taupe. The buffet in my “plan” looks nothing like our actual hutch, but that was my color inspiration. And as you can see from the picture below, we’ve made great improvements to it since we moved in. I strategically styled all of that junk to draw your eye away from the crooked drawers and other impairments. I read about that trick in House Beautiful.

Bjorn appears to enjoy his life amongst clutter.

3. Two upholstered end chairs in Premier Prints Duck Oatmeal. Duck oatmeal sounds like something we would have tried on our cruise. Yum? I don’t currently have these chairs, and will definitely not be attempting to reupholster them myself, but I’m liking something like this:

Let’s all take a moment and laugh about how I will never own $300 dining room chairs.

4. Curtains in Artee Cotton Duck Aqua.

I’d like to layer the curtains and have some white in there as well, probably using the same fabric I used in our bedroom.

5. Fabric for the chair seats—Covington Savannah Paisley Surf. Both this and the fabric for the curtains has been ordered and shipped.

6. A pretty girly chandelier. Maybe. Maybe something more simple. We’ll see what I can find. I seriously have a thing for chandeliers...

7. Eight shield-back chairs (my Downton Abbey replicas) painted antique white.

Same shape + slightly different patterns = a better match than eHarmony could come up with. Or something.

8. Large table stained dark oak. We already have this, too, purchased from Craigslist a few months ago. It extends to 108” with the leaves. I’m tempted to hire out for the refinishing process, because sanding intricate little things sounds torturous makes me want to thread my hair through my nasal cavities is not my idea of a good time. We’ll see.

Aaand that’s my “plan.” Implementing this" “plan” is on my “to-do list” for the summer. It’s only a “to-do list” and not a TO-DO LIST because I recently found my TO-DO LIST from last summer and laughed about how 3 things were crossed off of a list of 85.

Are you a “planner” or a PLANNER? What do you hope to accomplish this summer? Do you use that tip about using clutter to draw the eye away from eyesores?