A Chandelier and a Ceiling Medallion

Posted on April 16, 2013 by DishOnDesignGal

I finally found a new chandelier for my dining room. I’ve been wanting one for a really long time and last month the stars aligned when I spied her at overstock.com…

Dripping with crystals, the perfect finish, on sale and in the price range I was looking for – she had me at hello.

Of course getting ready to have 50+ people to the house for Ashley’s bridal shower gave me the push to nab it. Parties are such a great motivation to get things done around the house, don’t you think? I highly recommend having one at least one per year.

When shopping for something specific, I like to think out my requirements ahead of time. Sometimes you need to adjust along the way, but establishing beginning guidelines can help avoid costly mistakes….

My Shopping Guidelines

Finish. I wanted an antique bronze finish – my house has lots of stained wood trim and 20-year-old brass door knobs. While I would love painted white trim and brushed nickel finishes, that’s not going to happen in this house.
Price. My goal was to stick to a budget of around $300.00, although I bumped it up a bit and ending up spending $332.09 including tax and shipping. It was worth every penny and I’m especially happy right now, because as I type this, the current price tag for it is $459.99.
Sparkle. I wanted a chandelier dripping with crystals… a bit of glam and drama. Specifically, I wanted glass crystals – you should always read the manufacturer specifications to make sure you are getting what you want. Many inexpensive chandeliers have plastic crystals and in my opinion, glass crystals have it all over the plastic ones.
Designer Look (with a budget price tag).
Size. Picking the right size is critical. I wanted a chandelier that did not get lost in the room (too small) or one that overpowered it (too large). My dining room is approximately 12′ x 14′. I could have gone a bit bigger, but a chandelier that was much smaller would have bothered me.

Tip: Read reviews. I am a huge fan of customer reviews and they have never let me down. Reviews are especially helpful when there’s more than one or two – mostly because I think that the more reviews that there are, the more reliable they are. I tend to ignore the one’s that are over the top good or overly horrible – unless the majority of the reviewers agree with them.

In this case, the reviews were really high with a few cons – most of which proved to be true – fortunately, I was prepared to deal with the cons and (because of the good price) was totally satisfied in the end.

Consider a Ceiling Medallion

I knew that I wouldn’t be happy unless my chandelier was paired with a ceiling medallion and I picked up this plastic moulded 27″ round medallion at Lowe’s a few years ago for a bit under $50.00…

The white wasn’t working for me so I decided to paint it the night before we hung it. Isn’t it amazing what a little paint can do?

I love them together, don’t you?

Tomorrow, I’ll share the details on painting the medallion. It’s a super simple project to do – you really can’t mess it up and if (like me) you decide half way through that you don’t like it, it’s not big deal to change it up along the way. I’ll walk you through it step – by – step! … xo Amy

Funny, (or not so funny) Dining Room Update

Posted on July 28, 2008 by DishOnDesignGal

For those of you who have been following the progression of my dining room, here is a funny (or maybe not so funny) short story… As you may know, I just got back from a trip to the beach with my family yesterday. We had someone to take dogs, but asked Alyssa, a friend of mine’s teenage daughter to come by daily to water the flowers and feed our two cats Beanie and Angel - whom I should add are our very adorable cats.

Beanie, pictured Below, is known for his outdoor hunting, but was kept inside with Angel all week.

Angel was adopted from the SPCA and has always been afraid of her own shadow. As angelic as she is though…she did traumatize Ashley a few years ago by leaving a mouse on her pillow.

Yesterday, we walked in the door after of an 11 hour drive home from Florida, and of course after saying hello to our beloved cats, I had to sneak a peek a at my newly decorated dining room. I about had a heart attack when I saw over a hundred black spots on my brand new carpet spread from one corner of the room to the next. From far away it looked like this…

Close up it looked like this…

Do you remember when Granny would leave and Sylvester would go after Tweety Bird and feathers would Fly? Well, in this story, right smack in the middle of the feathers was a dead Tweety. I’ll kindly spare you that picture. We’ll never really know what happened, but I’m thinking that the poor little bird came in through the chimney, and flew to the dining room (the ceiling is sky blue!) only to be foiled by the protectors of our home – Beanie and Angel. Thankfully, Alyssa never saw it – she would have never come back! I can tell you, I will never look at that room in quite the same way.

My Dining Room Makeover – Part II

Posted on June 12, 2008 by DishOnDesignGal

Yesterday I wrote about the history of my dining room, my thoughts going into the makeover, the items that I’m using for inspiration, and some of the colors and materials. Here’s a quick update with pictures, including the recently adopted, broken tailed dog that now sports a beautiful brown, tinted gold fur coat.

I’ll post in a few weeks more about decorating styles, but my dining room is not so much about a particular style, as it is the atmosphere that I want to create. As in most homes, my dining room is rarely used, in fact it probably would be more practical to use it as a library/office. But the reality is that any more, the only time my family is all together is during a holiday for a good meal. Cooking is not my favorite thing to do, but when the kids are in town and grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins are coming over – I really do like to cook. I like to get out my grandma’s china, put the leaves into my dining room table, and have everyone suffocate me in my kitchen. For that reason, my dining room will never be an office. And it’s for that reason that instead of going with a particular style, I’m more interested in creating a warm happy room with things that I love.

Things like my grandma’s china.

And this porcelain carriage a beloved aunt bought me years ago when scouring a vintage market.

Here’s what’s new…the ceiling is painted and the lower part of the walls are as well. This picture shows a hint of both. You can also see a little of the furniture that will go into the room.

The color below the chair rail is Behr’s Gold Buff and the Ceiling is Valspar’s/Martha Stewart’s Vintage Map

And here’s a close up of the textured painted wallcovering.

Oh, and I almost forgot. Sami, our newly adopted dog who has a broken tail, could not stand to have the paint brush get more attention than her. When she tried to crawl on my lap when painting the lower part of the wall, I said in a panic -”NO!”. Of course she then rolled over, sliding down my newly painted wall which now has not only a fabulous floral raised print, but lot’s of dark fur buried hopelessly into the paint. Sami of course now has a rich golden hue to her normally brown long hair coat. Fortunately, she has paws to match as she stepped into the paint when she left the room. Lucky for her, she’s already successfully embedded herself into my heart. I’d show you a picture of the paint on her, but she won’t quit rolling over.

Hopefully, next time I post, I will have found carpet, chandelier, draperies, and a picture!

My Dining Room Makeover – Part 1

Posted on June 11, 2008 by DishOnDesignGal

Before we bought the house

As you can see by this picture, we did not buy our house based on the interior decorating. This is a picture of the dining room that I shot the first time we walked through as potential buyers. At first glance, you are probably saying “oh my!” That is much nicer than my first reaction. But my second reaction was “hmmmm, this room could be gorgeous…” The size of the room is perfect for my dining room table with all of its extensions. The ceilings are 9ft. high with beautiful crown moulding and there’s a matching chair rail around the room.

If you think that the interior of your home does not effect you, think again. When we moved in, I immediately took down the draperies and wall paper; promptly improving my mental state. At least now I had a blank canvas. See for yourself. If you see a pink glow, it’s from the carpet, which I should add – is most DEFINATELY being replaced.

I have lived with this for quite a while, mostly because I have been just too busy with work, but with Ashely’s graduation in less than two weeks, I have been shamed into action. I will admit to you that I don’t have a final vision yet for this room, mostly because I need to find ready made 95″ draperies and that will determine my direction. I do have a set of my grandmother’s china that I love. They will be part of my inspiration. I’m also working with my other grandmother’s antique dining room set, which is not my first choice but for now, it will do. I’ll take a picture of them for you tonight. Here is what I know about my room so far.

I want a blue ceiliing. A friend of mine who is a designer in Georgia uses blue celings as her trademark and those ceilings are so happy. I want a happy ceiling. My blue will be a tiffany blue. Note that the blue is not a color that I will bring in anywhere else, it’s going to be there to really set the mood of the room. You won’t really notice it at first, until you look up – and then it will be a lovely suprise. I also am going to add a medallion, but the finish that I put on it will be dermined by the chandelier that I buy. Stay tuned for that one. The chandelier really screams the 70′s, and I am not so in love with the style (or the fashions) of the 70′s. It’s definately going to be replaced.

The color for the walls will be Behr’s Gold Buff – I’ll show you that in part II. It’s a common color that will eventually be used throughout my main level. I like it because it’s warm and really acts as a neutral color. The color of the room constantly changes depending on the time of day and light. My previous home had this color throughout and you’d be suprised how many people didn’t really notice the color, as much as how it made them feel. It’s warm and welcoming – it makes it home for us.

I did want to add some texture to the walls, so I hung a scrolling textured/paintable wallcovering below the chair rail and will paint that gold buff as well. Here is the unpainted textured paper up close. It’s pretty inexpensive and it just adds a nice dimension to the room. It hangs just like wallpaper, but can be a little tricky to trim. I was a little irritated with it, but then again, I wasn’t being a patient laborer. haha! In the end, I would do it again.