It's Almost Here!

I am transforming my living room into a dining room! Some might think that is an odd thing to do, but I have a good reason. I don't have a dining room. My kitchen has a table that seats 4 - or 6 if you put an extra chair on each end and then you cannot get around to the kitchen cabinets because the table and chairs are wall to wall. My family is growing! I thank God for that every day. This past Thanksgiving and Christmas I was sad at family gatherings because 4 or 5 people would sit at the table and the other 8-10 people would go downstairs to the family room and eat around the coffee table or off their laps. So I had a revelation!!! It went something like this - "Jeanna, you need a dining room table. But where would you put it? Well, there is the living room that you hardly ever use. Why not transform it into a dining room? Great idea!!" So that is how it began. The decision was made - I would use my income tax money to buy a dining room table!

So in January I went shopping for a dining room table and I found one - but...it wasn't there - they had sold it but... they did have a picture of it. I really liked the picture! They made me a copy and I proudly hung it on my refrigerator to remind me of what my income tax money would go for.

Well income tax preparation day was very sad. There would not be enough money to buy my dining room table. So my plans were put on hold.

I soon decided that summer school money would provide me with my dining room table. The picture continued to hang on my refrigerator as an inspiration of what was to come!

Summer came and it was time to make it happen!

So step one was to paint the walls. The walls were a faux pink - kind of reminded me of being inside a bottle of pepto bismol. It was rather calming and I liked it. But I gave them up for my new inspiration. I chose 'Desert Fortress' as the color for my new room.

I also added a brown scarf to the window treatments.

I was going to paint the fireplace, but was talked out of it by 2 very special people (daughter, Kate, & friend, Gay Ann). So I just painted the fireplace mantel and hearth. The mantel was a dark walnut and the hearth was concrete. This is a BIG improvement! I chose a color called 'Boston Legacy'. I love paint names! It really does influence my choice! Crazy, don't you think?



I soon discovered a problem. There is no overhead light in the living room. An overhead light is a necessity in a dining room. So I had to find a light and someone to wire for it and hang it. Finding the light was easy - it was even on clearance! Finding someone to wire it and hang it was a different story. But I finally did and he took care of it this morning! So....

The light is up!!!

My dear friend, Gay Ann, went shopping with me for the dining room table and chairs. We checked out several furniture stores. Of course we went to the store that provided me the picture and this time they had the actual table and chairs! But we were still looking so we drove down the road a ways to the next furniture store. We found a beautiful set and it was less expensive than the previous one! It has been ordered and should be here within the next week.

I will be sure to post a finished picture of my new dining room!!

Let's see . . . next will be a rug for under the table, table linens, dishes, wall decor . . . the list goes on and on!