{Dining Room} Area Rug

Isn't she lovely?! We had a rug we bought for our living room when we first moved in, almost 6 years ago, and it was moved to the dining room a year or so ago. Well, between a cat that has stomach issues (I think hairball issues but we're not sure because it's 99% NOT hairballs that come up) and a chihuahua (that has since found a new home) with pee and poop issues (although house trained), the rug had seen better days. It had SMELLED better days. And although we vacuumed it, shampooed it, washed it, sprayed it, everything, it still felt nasty when walked on barefoot and smelled bad too every once in awhile. One corner was really bad. 

Enter Joss and Main. I had never bought anything from their site before but had been a member for a long time. So after searching other places and finding a style I liked, I went over to Joss and Main and found this beauty. Luckily I measured before buying because I would have bought the bigger one and not needed it. This one fit perfectly in between our china cabinet and our liquor cabinet and is the perfect size for our table. Even when we put the leaf in our table, it'll all fit on the rug. It's navy and slightly cream/white and it matches the cushions on our chairs perfectly. The dining room's ceiling is a pale blue and so our the curtains. It's definitely helped finish off the room (possibly the most finished room in the house even though that wasn't planned!) and helped make it more modern and up to date. 

I will say that it's not as plush as our old rug but I think if/when we buy a pad for it, it'll be ok. Plus since it's in our dining room, it's not like we're playing on it with Lily and the future Little Man. 

{Home Tour} Dining Room

This room has come a long way from when we bought the house (almost 6 years ago!). We've removed wallpaper, painted the ceiling, walls and trim, added a new curtain rod, added new curtains (I so wish I had a true before photo of what was left!), and a new rug. We've added lots of details and I still need to photograph some of what we've done. But here's where it is now.

The double curtain rod allows for the white sheers (made my mother-in-law after not finding the right length) and light blue curtains also now hold my collection of silver and mercury glass globes. It was a holiday decoration that I've left up for now. I like the extra sparkle.

This small liquor cabinet (for lack of a better name since it does hold a bunch with it's built in shelves) matches the china cabinet and dining room table. We actually bought the three piece set with the house. We liked it then and I still like it now, although I'm not sure if it would be what we'd pick out but if we hadn't bought it at the time, I don't know how long it would have taken to deal with this room. It holds a couple photos (one of Doug and I at a wedding) and one of Doug holding a newborn Lily in the hospital. It also holds our salt rock and many other rocks and geodes (my grandfather was a collector and he actually donated a good portion of his collection to Harvard).

A small candle from Bath and Body (Sparking Icicles, my favorite and I'm almost all out), and some rocks of my grandfather's.

One of my favorite glass ornaments from my mom. I have a seahorse and two different peacocks. I love their bright, vibrant colors.

 This sweet little bowl (it has a heart on the bottom) holds some of Doug's grandmother's collection (and some from my family) of rose rocks. There's a geode on top too and is so much prettier in person. As Lily would say, it's "sparkledly." 

A bottle that my grandfather had made up when he was running for an office, I believe.

A random collection of Asian inspired china from various family members. 

One of the peacock ornaments mentioned earlier. He clips onto my plant. 

A tray full of random goodies... a neon green pothos, a candle holder with sand from our trip to Florida, a giant chunk of coral from the Florida trip, and some rocks from my grandfather.

Table view. 

Our new light, it's so much better than the old chandelier.

My knick knack shelf. It's almost all from our two beach trips but there's some other stuff there too. It's an old printer's drawer that I've had forever and finally decided to use (instead of almost giving away for free!) by hanging it up vertically instead of horizontally. The door to the left goes to our basement and the one on the right is to our kitchen.

Some finds from our Alabama trip. 

Here's some before photos, just so you can see:

Before paint and after most of the wallpaper removal.

The ceiling before painting it a light blue.

Ohh... the wallpaper. It's been in every room of the house almost (minus the upstairs and our TV room).

After removing the wallpaper on the trim.

The old chandelier.

{Dining Room} New Light!

These photos were all taken with my iPhone. I will eventually take photos of the whole room with my nice camera and post about everything. However, you can still see all of the before photos and how far this room has come.

Let's just start with how I've never been a fan of this chandelier. Supposedly (according to the selling realtor who was friends with the previous homeowner), it came from one of the states in the south and is an antique. Well, this antique needed to go. It was a pain in the butt to clean and I wasn't a fan of its style. I may try to sell it, so wish me good luck on that!

Why yes, that's textured wallpaper on our ceiling. That's not the only place it's been but I didn't feel like removing it for fear of what could be underneath, so it's staying.

After Doug removed the old chandelier, we were left with the hole in the ceiling and a two toned medallion. I'll get to that later!

And after we tried unsuccessfully to install the first light we bought (same thing as below), we returned it to Lowe's and got a new one that worked fine. The first one had an issue that needed fixed. This one was perfect.

It's a nice pewter/stainless steal with five arms and a little crystal on each one. Simple and lovely.

It helps the room feel and look so much better than with the old chandelier. Once our table isn't full of junk and the room is cleaned, I'll take a wider shot. I also would like to have some natural light and by the time I get home in the evenings, it's gone. But isn't it pretty??

{Home} Before Photos

At Lily's birthday party today (pics to come), I realized many people in our family had never seen the before photos of our house. One of my friends said that I should make a coffee table book. That would take some more time and finding the old photos of everything, which I'm hoping are on my old computer. But anyway... here are some photos from the house before I got my hands on it!

BEFORE - the hallway bath. Brick red ceiling, aqua blue walls, shell border around ceiling and cut out detail, pinkish tan painted trim, tile halfway up walls, wallpaper on ceiling.

BEFORE - old bath area in front of window was converted to shower area too (with the new "wall" to house shower pieces.

BEFORE - bathroom - circle medallions match those found in dining room (all cut out of larger wallpaper pieces).

BEFORE - columns in living room. Two tone with glaze.

BEFORE - living room into dining room (house is a mess while painting started). The living room had already been painted, dining room is still a dark red.

BEFORE - dining room side was solid brown with glued on decals.

BEFORE - living room - "antique" (according to previous homeowner), wallpaper (that's the sheet that was cut out for all borders and circle medalions), corner pieces from wallpaper, hand painted border (wallpaper), dark red (with black glaze) walls, brownish ceiling.

BEFORE - dining room - just another shot of the darkness and random details.

BEFORE - dining room - showing off the hand painted (NOT by me!) wallpaper border.

BEFORE - that's a lot of work - glad it didn't take much to remove it all!

BEFORE - dining room - wallpaper on trim. Why?!?!

BEFORE - door. The true before would show the old hardware, but we replaced that for a new lock and dead bolt within weeks of moving in. Security first people!

BEFORE - kitchen - OMG was this bad! And yes, those are grapes that are climbing up to the ceiling.

BEFORE - kitchen - oh the green ...

BEFORE - kitchen - up close - and in progress, the black is just a temporary fix until we can afford a true makeover

BEFORE - Lily's room - two closets, poop brown trim, stenciled gold medallions

BEFORE - Lily's room

BEFORE - Lily's room detail of the stencils on the walls

BEFORE - living room - dark brown trim, mustard walls (with glaze), wallpaper (hand painted again), two color door, "ornate" (?) switch cover, dark green curtains with tassels.

BEFORE - living room - wall paper on ceiling

BEFORE - living room

BEFORE - living room - trim on bottom and top of walls. Green thing with strings is the curtain and the tie back (that's looped up so I can start cleaning and removing wallpaper).

BEFORE - living room - window decorations

BEFORE - fireplace

BEFORE - living room - more wallpaper!

BEFORE - upstairs office (look at the belly!!!)

BEFORE - our garden area

BEFORE - was after - of garden area (and also pre-fence too)

BEFORE - upstairs - two different colors of trim, wood trim everywhere (instead of properly finishing drywall), wood paneling on vertical surfaces

BEFORE (kinda) - upstairs. This shows teh color, wood trim, stair carpet, brick walls that were on all four eaves