Decorating 101: "DINING ROOM"

Thursday, February 11, 2010


It's SNOWING!!!!!  (Just thought I'd pass that little tidbit on to ya......)




Although I don't cook, we've had many wonderful meals in this Dining Room.......fortunately for me, I married a man who does cook.  It was actually one of the requirements on my future husband list......

First thing that had to go when we bought this house was the bare white walls in the Dining Room.  Put a little Ralph Lauren Kauki color on the walls; tried a little technique on the lower portion of the walls that I'm growing tired of but still a cool idea......I purchased a pint of the same Kauki wall color, but in High Gloss instead of Flat.  I measured and penciled out equally spaced lines and painted every other section in the High Gloss.  This is a neat idea to do on any number of things........

I then had the problem of the HUGE empty wall......it needed something, but just couldn't decide what.  A picture wasn't big enough; then I saw this large 3-panel screen at Tuesday Morning one day and picked it up for $99.   Told Chuck what I had in mind; dismissed his rolling eyes and his "You do know this isn't meant for the wall??" looks, and told him we needed to find some studs in the dining room wall.   Chuck's learned over time to "just do it" and not argue with me, so he obediently got his stud finder and found this gal some studs.  Also grabbed a couple friends and everyone took a corner and we hung that puppy right up on the wall.  Looks pretty cool, huh?!

How much do you think I paid for this large artificial ficus tree?  A lot, right?  Think again.  I made that tree myself and so can you!  EASY!!  Simply went across the road and found some large dead trees laying around, dragged them home (Chuck was happy to see me doing this too.....NOT); purchased a $4 clay pot; poured quick dry concrete in it; stuck my dead tree trunk in it; stabilized it until the concrete dried; took Chuck's drill and drilled holes in the bark where I wanted branches; headed on down to Harry Hines Blvd. in Dallas (take a gun) and purchased a bunch of artificial branches from a wholesale chinese floral store and hot glued them into the holes I drilled into the bark.  Put the whole tree in a decorative planter and WHALLA......you have an expensive looking ficus tree for about $75.  EASY!!

Made the curtains, as usual, with my hot glue gun/hem tape........I found to give height to a window, take the curtain rod all the way to the ceiling if at all possible......at the very least, go at least 1-2 inches above the top of the window.

And as you've probably guessed by now, I love writing my favorite sayings on the wall.......