Dining Room Before & After

The dining room is the first room you see when you walk in my house because it's open to the foyer. When we bought the house, we didn't own a dining table. I had dreams of a big, rustic farmhouse table, so I searched Craigslist every day hoping that I would find the perfect bargain.

The room is fairly long, so I thought it needed a long table. Well, no one seems to sell cool long tables on Craigslist here, so when I found a 9 footer, I pounced on it (even though it isn't the rustic look I was going for, I still thought it was cool). I showed hubby the listing and he basically said it was ugly. Which made me mad. Really, it did.

"Can't you see the potential?" I exclaimed. "Have you ever looked for a 9 foot table in the stores? Do you know how much they cost?"

Apparently Husband did some researching of 9 foot tables on the internet, and he promptly called me from work telling me we could get it. I immediately responded to the ad...they said someone was coming to look at it that night.

I. was. so. sad.

I forgot to mention I was 9 months pregnant at this time. I went into labor that night and had the baby early in the morning. That afternoon, sitting in my hospital bed, the lady texted me back saying the people didn't buy the table and it was still available.

So my dear, sweet husband borrowed a trailer and left me in the hospital and went to pick up our dining room table that night!  The couple was also selling the matching china cabinet, which I didn't intend to purchase, but Hubby negotiated a SWEET deal and we got the whole set.

I refinished both pieces by priming them and giving them a couple of coats of black paint. Painting around the glass in the china cabinet turned out to be a BIG PAIN IN THE BUTT, so I ended up pulling it out and replacing with chicken wire. I changed out the hardware on the doors, but reused the drawer pulls after spraying them black.

I sprayed the chairs black and Husband recovered them (he rocks) with $20 worth of fabric. He also hung this super-cool wallpaper for me. I was out-of-town and came home and he had some of it done (he apparently watched You Tube to learn how. Ha!).  He also switched out the chandelier for me with the one in the kitchen. My final project is to find two cool chairs for the ends of the table. I found some awesome ones with cow print on the backs, and I didn't buy them. Now I'm kicking myself!

Before:

After: