Shine a Little Light

Shine a little light on me!
Who loves a chandelier?? 
Me, me me~my hand is raised high!

The first chandy we had in the house was in our dining room.
It's rubbed bronze and even though it's 10+ years old,
it's still a favorite!

Talia Chandelier

I decorate it with ornaments and beads every Christmas!

When we fixed up Maddie's bedroom over 11 years ago
 (is it time for a re-do?)
we found this most adorable one from Pottery Barn!
So sweet and girlie - just like sweet M!

Chandy in Maddie's room!

The Mister and I had been chatting a bit about

changing our foyer lighting fixture.
We both had our own ideas as to what would work

in our nearly 100-year old house!

I was leaning toward a vintage crystal chandelier

from a local re-use store - Out of the Box.

The Mister was leaning toward a flush-mount glitter ball!

Seriously!  

A Vegas-looking glitter ball in our traditional old house???

What had he been smoking?????

Well, once I explained to him the error of his ways

and we visited Out of the Box Together,

he saw the LIGHT!

And he loves it too!

Bye bye glitter ball!

Hello lovely vintage crystal chandelier!

Ta Da -- Dining Room Done!

Are y'all sick of hearing about my dining room? I am finished or really close to being finished with the redecorating project. I even spent nearly the entire day yesterday (Sunday) washing windows!

My first project in this room was to repaint below the chair rail. I did that a couple months ago while Mr. Tennis was out of town! Shhh- don't tell, but I didn't move one large piece of furniture to paint behind it, I just painted a bit behind it, so you can't tell I cheated.

Then came the new chandelier, new rug, new curtains, re-covered chairs and a little bit of this and that. I think the exact words uttered by Mr. Tennis were -- "trying to solve the recession all on your own???" Kidding -- he thinks it looks tons better too, though he was initially skeptical of the power of an on-line decorating consultant -- the fabulous Rhoda of Southern Hospitality blog.

We have this great built-in corner cabinet that I've always loved. Lighter-colored paint below the chair rail and new curtains hung up higher than the old ones. Wow -- that makes a huge difference and the room seems so much larger!

Here you can see the new rug and recovered chairs a little better.

This is the honking heavy piece of furniture (can't really see it, but take my word for it - it's heavy) that I could not move to paint behind, but I got in close enough, so you can't tell. Even the Rickster hasn't realized (yet anyway), I haven't painted behind it.

Do I need more accessories on it? I'm terrible at accessories, so opted for less instead of more. Love those two buffet lamps and the reflection of the cool new chandelier in the mirror!

Gotcha Covered!

Trying to remember to take a moment now and then to smell the roses -- this was a beautiful rose, wasn't it! Even so, it feels like I've had so much going on lately that blogging is taking a bit of a back seat. Speaking of seats, I finished re-covering my dining room chairs -- part of the dining room update project that has been going on for months! Oh my goodness -- what a project! I've seen all those bloggers that make it look easy, and maybe it was easy . . . for them! It took me a LOT longer than an hour or two!

First, I removed over 130 (I kid you not, I counted) staples from each chair -- that took a weekend at least. Then I had to find some fabric. Score - found a lovely neutral that will go with the new rug and also had a little other fabric to play with and use too. Then the cutting began!

Did you know that I failed cutting with a scissors in kindergarten? Yes, I did and so did my twin. My Mom said to the teacher-- "What -- there are two of them, why would I be crazy enough to give them scissors???" And we both did poorly in beginning sewing when we took it one summer (make that two summers in a row)-- again, still can't cut a straight line!

Finished chairs!

Anyway, the first chair took days and days! And then I dawdled some just thinking about it all. Finally, last weekend I swore I would finish the rest of the chairs! And I did! Doing the corners was way harder than I thought it might be, but I persevered. And now look -- do you love them? The stripe fabric was a remnant and just happened to match my neutral fabric. My plan was to make two chairs striped -- you know, the Mom & Dad chairs. But somebody (Maddy) got a really sad face and also wanted a striped chair, so we have three striped chairs and three plain. Works for me! The dining room is really coming together. More photos when it is done -- which I hope is soon!

Sneak Peak - Dining Room Light

I've been working tirelessly on a little project. Well, I guess you could say (and I think Mr. Tennis has said) that I've doing more than my part to stimulate the economy! Yes, after living in our lovely, older home for the last 15 years without doing a whole lot, I decided some changes needed to be made. So I had an on-line consultation with Rhoda of Southern Hospitality. Not joking when I say that both Mr. Tennis and my son kind of scoffed at the idea, but really she has given me some great ideas and suggestions!

Many of her ideas are still being put into play -- this redecorating stuff takes a while! But, we just got a new chandelier for the dining room and I love, love, love it!

I had thought about spray-painting the old brass one, but when this new one was on sale and I got an additional discount, I could not resist. While many people can make the spray-painting work, Mr. Tennis spray-painted an ugly lamp about a month ago that he bought at TJ Maax a couple years ago. After his efforts, it became an ugly black lamp, so you can see why I'm too confident about our spray painting abilities.

More changes afoot in the dining room -- new curtains to be put up, rug into place and some other little touches. Also, new seat cushions on the chairs. Have spent the last week removing over 120 staples per chair to remove the old fabric! Oy! I need to start the recovering process -- keep fingers crossed!

It's been fun and I'm so thrilled with the way it's shaping up. Stay tuned!