Before and After: The Dining Room

I think the dining room just may be one of my favorite rooms in the house.  Next to the bathroom, it's probably the most dramatic difference.

Before

This is the third set of "before" photos I've shared here.  This is also the third set of "before" photos that involves wallpaper.  It doesn't get any better from here. ;-) 



During

Fortunately, the wallpaper came off really easily:

I honestly have NO idea why there were so many folding chairs in the dining room!

Here's the dining room with a fresh coat of paint, before we removed the painter's tape and added chair rails:

It took some convincing to get my husband on board with the green, but I fell in love with Benjamin Moore's Adirondack green, but I'm glad he eventually agreed, even if it was just to appease me.

The chandelier in the photo above was pretty cheap and tacky, so we picked up something that was a bit more our style:

We added new curtains, in a black and white damask:

The white hutch in the photo above was from our apartment.  It now provides additional storage space in our laundry room, but for the time being it served as a china cabinet, until we got this:

After

When I took pictures this week, I had a bit of trouble with lighting, so bear with me on this. ;-)

First I tried using natural sunlight, but the only way to get a shot of the dining room was to stand in the den and face the window.  I tried to balance the sunlight from the window with a brighter light in the den.  There are some pretty crazy shadows in this shot, but the colors are pretty true to life:

Here's one with the shades closed.  Not nearly as shadowy, but the colors are a bit off, and the light from the chandelier is kind of ridiculous.

The new chandelier in action:

So there you have it:  Easily one of my favorite rooms in the house. :-)

I think I'll take a vote on which room you'd like to see next: master bedroom or den/library/music room?  Tell me in the comments!