I have a corner china cabinet which I have been intending to update for awhile. Yesterday I posted that I was into shiny and black, but I like to mix things up. So the cabinet is staying glossy and white. And it probably shouldn’t be called a china cabinet since it’s not in a dining room anymore. So I’m going to call it my “hutch of pretty things”. And continue putting crystal and a little china in there along with miscellaneous lovely items. Pretty, pretty, pretty!
I’ve seen many projects in magazines and on Pinterest with the interior of cabinets painted or wallpapered. I’ve been wanting to update this cabinet and a bookcase in my family room but always get sidetracked with other projects. Since I’m renewing everything in the music room, I thought it was time to add a little flare.
Here’s a some pinspiration….
I love this wallpaper but possibly too busy with the blue willow dishes I have.Love the blue background with the white flowers together but still a little hectic. And no birds allowed.
I decided to paint rather than wallpaper. The walls are already aqua so I picked a darker color on the same color strip.
That’s my piano under the pretty quilt.
I picked up a stencil at Michael’s.
And stenciled randomly–whatever I thought looked good.
I love it. A nice subtle effect. The room’s almost done. Still need to add a little more lighting, some art, and a dog bed (Maggie has a bed in every room!) The dog bed will be the easiest envelope style pillow, ever!
As I mentioned in last week’s post about the Music Room, our first update many years ago was replacing the bucket lights with chandeliers. Very inexpensive shiny brass ones from either Lowe’s or Home Depot. But I was going for a modern cottage or beach chic look and shiny brass wouldn’t do! With a little spray paint, some shiny crystals, and a cord cover, I had the look I wanted.
But that was the look I wanted ten years ago. Now I’m over that and want to make it more shiny like a baby grand. So down came the chandeliers.
Now, if I was Michelle, these would have been done up very fancy like what she did for her chandelier over her enormous tub. But I’m more the “hit it with a spray can” type. And that’s what I did! Off to my “spray booth” where they got a liberal dose of Semi-gloss Spray Paint from Valspar.
I changed out the light bulbs for a little inexpensive update. Terry hung the chandeliers back up but that chain was REALLY ugly!
I’ve made cord covers a few times and usually use dupoini silk. This time I found a remnant of black cotton for 44 cents at Wal-mart so used that. And they were hideous–they just didn’t lay right. So I went to Jo-ann’s and bought a 12″ piece of black “silkessence” fabric on sale for $1.00. So much better.
You can get cord covers at Ballard Designs but they are a little pricey and so easy to make. Just take 2 or 2 1/2 times the length of the chain and wide enough to go around it. These particular chains are very short–due to the change from dining room to guest room a few years ago. We were afraid one of our guests would run into them. Or a grandchild would be hanging from them when they jumped on the sofa bed. So Terry shortened them quite a bit. Which also happens to be the perfect height for over the piano. So this chain is only 9″. I cut two pieces 18″ x 6″ then narrow hemmed all four sides.
I usually use Velcro to attach them to the cord but this time I just attached it by hand stitching. Just got up on a chair and stitched them on. (My arms got a little tired but not as bad as when painting a ceiling!)
So much better! And another step completed in my music room renovation! Tomorrow there will be more!
Way back when we moved to “Perfect”, this was our dining room.
So small. So boring. We’ve moved multiple times over the years. And I like to live in a house for awhile before I start decorating. Call me crazy, but I think that the house will tell me what it wants. Seriously. But I had this massive dining room table from our previous home that had a HUGE dining room and I so loved it. So we put it in there. (Did I mention that we still hadn’t sold the other house?) And there wasn’t any room for anything else except a corner cabinet so I picked one up at an unfinished furniture store. I also hated the bucket lights in the cove ceiling. Come on, who puts bucket lights in a dining room? So I bought a pair of cheap brass chandeliers at a big box store and I updated them with paint and crystals and Terry installed them after a lot of curse words. Cheap, cheap, cheap. Oh wait, frugal.
Then we installed hardwood floors, (yeah, we FINALLY sold the other house). Here’s a view from the other doorway.
But that table was so freaking huge. If I actually had eight people here to dine, I had to serve from both doors. There was no way to get around. But I LOVED that table! Like a child. I was torn….so I let Michelle adopt it.
That table is so happy being adopted into a family that actually cooks and uses it every night!
Once upon a time, when we lived in a far away kingdom, we had dinner parties. A lot. And that table was used. A lot. But here in “Perfect” we don’t have dinner parties. We have cook-outs. A lot. And we eat outside in the screen room. Or the garage. Or in the yard. And it doesn’t matter about the weather. On the hottest days we use fans. On the coldest days we have a patio heater and a fire pit. We really needed a third guest bedroom more than a dining room!
But there was that Christmas Eve meal that we usually still ate in the dining room and if we had guests from the great white north in July, we didn’t force them to eat outside. That would be just plain mean!
So we put a sofa bed in the room. And a smaller drop leaf table which could be moved into the corner when we needed the bed. I made drapes with black-out lining and we put curtains in the doors when guests slept in there.
I think we dined in here once this year! But the sofa bed was used numerous times.
Meanwhile, the formal living room was evolving. Who uses a formal living room? The piano was sitting in there looking very pretty and then we turned it into my office with a huge computer armoire and hutch. And then I set up a sewing table. And then a cutting table. My beautiful piano was crammed into a corner. And every time I cut out fabric I got a bruise in the middle of my back from backing into the piano. Or I tripped over the ironing board because it’s always set up if I’m sewing. I need more room!
Then one day I was out for a run and came up with a scathingly brilliant idea. We don’t need that dining room! I need a music room!
Pretty, Pretty, Pretty!Here’s my happy banjo and the grandkids toy instruments.
So much better! And I use it every day. My piano is as happy as the dining room table is at Michelle’s! And my piano is very happy that I didn’t give it up for adoption!
But I’m not done. I’ll share more of this project next week and most likely a few weeks after…..
So much better! And I use it every day. My piano is as happy as the dining room table is at Michelle’s! And my piano is very happy that I didn’t give it up for adoption!