We are still working on decorating our new place and though it is a bit slow going, we are happy with how things are coming along.
The living room/dining room is so massive that it really felt bare and empty for quite a while. Now it is feeling positively cosy! Getting a dining table has helped fill the space and we love having a proper table for entertaining. We found it at a local antique shop (Crystal Palace is known for its antiques!) and just love it.
The base of the table is my favourite part:
I also put up shelves in the dining area to display some of our nice silver, assorted vases and other pretty things. (I'm going to remove the third shelf at the bottom. I thought it would work for some of Charlotte's toys but it just looked cluttered.)
Speaking of dining tables, Charlie got her own little table and chair set, too! She likes to sit there to play with her puzzles and sometimes we drag it into the kitchen for meals:
Another new addition to the living room has been these lamps that live on either side of the couch. They have really helped brighten things up in here and I absolutely love their green honeycomb bases:
A major decorating challenge continues to be this big expanse of wall over our dining table (with a little nook that looks into the kitchen). We have talked about a number of different options, but haven't absolutely loved any of them yet, so it remains blank for now. Chances are we'll just put up something we already own until we find the perfect piece of (affordable) art. We've tossed around the idea of painting the nook or putting up wallpaper and have even considered hanging a large ceramic moose head, but nothing has been right. Any ideas?
You should paint a giant face in the nook, with the mouth where the pass-through is.
ReplyDeleteOr, cover it with corkboard or a magnetic surface and make a giant collage that you can modify whenever the whim strikes you.
Or, put up some cool trompe l'oeil wallpaper!
http://www.mineheart.com/wallpaper.html
Ooh! So creative!! Wouldn't the book wallpaper by so much fun?!
ReplyDeleteAs soon as I saw the space and started thinking about what I would do with it, I thought about a plate collage. I'd paint it a darker color (grey?) and then cover it with fun plates I picked up from flea markets, thrift stores, etc. Here's a few links with some photos along the lines of what I was envisioning:
ReplyDeletehttp://worldinapapercup.wordpress.com/tag/plate-wall-art/
http://rebeccaodell.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/dining-room-2.jpg
http://modantiquarian.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Google-Chrome-43.png
http://tinyanchors.com/2011/02/03/plate-walls/
I think it could work.
Good luck coming up with something. The room looks great! I LOVE the lamps!
Oh my goodness, Hilary!! I LOVE that idea! I have a collection of 12 or so hand painted plates that we got from Jason's stepmom before she passed away. I like to use them when we have parties, but it would be fun to be able to see them all the time! I would want to get some in different sizes to mix things up though. Let's hope Jason doesn't think the idea is too girlie!!
ReplyDeleteThanks!