A Blank Slate

Since moving in almost one year ago, I have been putting off decorating the dining room.

For one thing, I don’t dine in there much. It seems silly to waste time and money on something used so little.

For another thing, it had this plate rail that I didn’t know what to do about. Part of me thought about taking up a plate collection, but seeing as I need another thing to collect like I need a hole in the head, well, the plate rail stood empty.

Last winter the top band was painted a soft pink, then last month I put up some MDF strips to give the walls that board and batten look that is getting so popular these days. It looks OK. Meh. For $25 worth of materials, it looks fine, but I wish I had taken my time with measuring more carefully. The bottoms of the strips don’t blend in the molding that well. Eventually I’d like a way to patch that, but for now, it’s fine.

As of this week I have a blank slate.

But as you may know, nothing stays blank in my house very long….

Changes a foot…

Is it a foot or afoot?

Whatever.You get the point. I’m making crap.

So, the pivot point to a dining room is the dining table, right? Mine is a nice old thing with lovely regency style bamboo legs. Love the bottom. Hate the top. The top is a mess and appears to be laminate of some sort. I was thinking about painting the whole thing minty green but now I’m thinking I’ll just gold leaf the top and call it a day. I like gold leaf and if I do it right, it will hide imperfections better than a solid coat of paint. Plus, it’s gold. Enough said.

But then there is the issue of chairs. I like the idea of a contrasting wood with a different material. Metal? I see those acrylic ghost chairs all over but they don’t look comfortable. I could do fabric but then I’d spend every Saturday vacuuming cat hair off of them. So metal is good. Red metal? Maybe. Hmmm….

The pajaki is a soon-to-be TBD DIY and the portrait gallery is already in swing. I have lots of art but I like the idea of hanging nothing but portraits in one room. We had a hallway like that as a kid. Of course, those were mostly relatives. I would like to open it up beyond relatives to include, oh, say, Neil Diamond?

Anyway, all of that is to say; stay tuned!