The Dining Room Reveal

The Reveal.

Sorry it took so long. In typical Emily fashion, once the project is done (or almost done) I move to the next project and forget about the finishing details, like taking pictures. Plus, I'm looking for a mirror to sit above the black shelf where the picture is. Then the picture will sit on the top shelf and it will be complete. But, I've looked around and I can't find a mirror I like, so when I finally get one, I'll let you know!

I know you were worried :)

 And... Tah Dah. or is it tada? [side note. I've been stuck at home with two little girls with the flu. I'm feeling a little crazed.]

Here are the things I love about my dining room. And why you should be jealous!

1. The color. I love the gold/yellow. It makes me happy. It also looks great with the wood in the house. The honey tones in floor shimmer. I also think the white trim pops off the yellow. Yes, it's a very strong color, but the rest of my house is pretty strong in similar nature driven tones, so it works!

2. I super love how open my dining room is. Don't super love that the highchair is so prominent in the pictures or that the child who uses the high chair leaves evidence of her meals everywhere. But I do super love the reason we have the high chair.

3. Uncluttered corners are my new favorite decorating space! I realize that floor space is a premium in houses. But man, I am loving the uncluttered and very freeing empty wall and corner! And, because I don't have furniture and other stuff competing for attention on that wall, I can do fun artsy things like iron fabric to the wall and make canvas wall art! If you missed the post about how to make the artsy stuff, check out the tutorial tab at the top of the page.

4. And finally, the china cabinet wall. The table and china cabinet are in my favorite style. Pretty to look at, but not fancy. I think the simple lines of the furniture play beautifully with the room and contrast nicely with the china and glass in the cabinet. [another side note: yes, this is the same china that I tried to sell unsuccessfully for the last few years.  Since cleaning out lots of junk, I have room to store it. Maybe I'll even use it!]

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed my dining room tour.  Ooh. maybe I'll make a little video later today! Come back tomorrow and see! Look!! I made a really sad video!! Enjoy! :)

Eat, Pray, Love: Custom Dining Room Wall Art

Last weekend it was the fabric portion of the dining room.  Here is the reminder picture. If you missed it, you can CLICK HERE to go back and check out the starting point of this project.

Once I had this, the traditional paintings that I had up just didn't fit. As seen below. While I like mixing styles and such, the contrast between the contemporary graphic quality of the floral fabric and the romantic paintings just did not work.

So, I decided to do something fun and different. No, I haven't seen the movie. I didn't even think of the movie while I was making the pieces. My students however, were nice enough to point out the movie title to me! So, I really hope the movie is decent since it appears that I am advertising it!

How did I do these? Well... first, I bought 3 black stretched canvases. Then, I used my Pazzle and designed the images (or you could use a Cricut if you have the fonts and pictures). I cut the art and the words in white intermediate vinyl and adhered it to the canvas.  My awesome dad offered the tip that if you heat up the vinyl with a hair dryer, the vinyl will adhere to the canvas better. It did and now it looks like the vinyl was painted on!! Hooray for having a super awesome creative dad!

After getting all the vinyl on the canvases, I bought twill tape in a nice red and some 1" thick Heat N Bond Ultra and ironed it on to hide the staples.

And there you have it. Truly custom dining room wall art!

Fabric+Iron+Wall= Art!

It's still a work in progress, but I love it sooo much, that I had to show off my dining room wall!

I can't wait to finish up and post pictures of the entire dining room.

But for now, here is the motif that I put in a small section of the room. I love the whimsy and the colors. It's more vibrant that you see through my camera phone.

How did I do it?

Well, I found the pattern was perfect. I ironed on the bonding backer, cut out the pattern, ironed the pieces to the wall and there you have it.

I'll put a tutorial on here asap! You will love it as much as I do!