Dining room Christmas vignette

I’m late to the party! Ack! We’ve been busy with a choo choo tree, hubby’s birthday and my impromptu decision to finally paint the office. I am crayyyzay!

Anyway, I finished up our dining room vignette today, and I’m so excited to link up to Rhoda’s Holiday Home linky party!:

You may remember last summer when I removed the top of our dining room hutch:

It had bugged me for YEARS, and I was so excited to find a perfectly lovely buffet hiding underneath:

LOVE when that happens. :)

I was so giddy at the thought of having another space to decorate! That is what it’s all about folks.

I ran into Walmart the other night to get a bag of cat food, which was mistake number one – you never, ever, EVER “run into” Walmart for anything. Mistake number two was making a quick swing by the Christmas stuff. Have you seen their ornaments this year?:

Maybe I’m behind – I hear they had them last year? Oh my goodness, they are so pretty! There is an amazing selection! And they’re only a buck each!

It’s a dangerous, dangerous aisle. I’m warning you. When I saw these, I didn’t want to use them on the tree -- I had a different idea in mind. ;) I knew they’d be perfect for our dining room vignette.

I grabbed all of the glass pieces I could find from our basement and around the house – cloches, apothecary jars, whatever. I added some faux snow I’ve used for years, and nestled some of the ornaments in:

Those trees are one of my favorites!

The silver stars are large and intricate:

Love the little church too. I held back from buying one in every. single. color:

I couldn’t pass up the presents:

And the reindeer was a keeper for sure:

It was SO HARD to not spend $50 on $1 ornaments. Seriously – they are too cute!

I held it together, and then I saw these in the next aisle:

And I broke down again. They were a perfect combo of that chocolate brown and beautiful green! They were only $2 each, and I only grabbed a couple. I wanted to grab 45. Or so.

I use mostly red and gold to decorate for the holidays around our house, but I was so taken with that green color for our chocolate dining room! I saw some $2 beads at Target in the exact same color and added them to my Goodwill wine decanter:

Years ago I spray painted some simple twiggy cone trees from Hob Lob and I added a couple to the buffet for some height:

I grabbed a package of $5 green ornaments from Walmart and mixed them with some of the sparkly chocolate ones:

And I big fat LOVE how it turned out!:

Of course, I added some sprigs of greenery here and there, just to give it more fullness. I don’t think it’s physically possible for me to do anything Christmas decor-related without greenery. :)

It’s a combo of green, brown, silver and a little gold, and I LOVE IT:

I was going to just put everything out here and there, but the hives started, and my need for symmetry won out. :) I made it kind of even, but since everything’s not exactly the same, it’s not too matchy-matchy:

Ignore my after-8 p.m.-hair in the reflection. :)

I’ve been using the same spray painted pine cones and jingle bells in this space for six years, so I was so excited to do something a little different:

And all of the little stuff under the glass was well under $20. Not too shabby for a whole new look!

Don’t you just LOVE that green color with the chocolate? Walmart also has the ornaments in a beautiful blue color that would look fantastic with brown as well!

I am getting there with the Christmas decor…I have some fun plans with the Silhouette and I’ll show you that next week! :)

**Linking this to Julia’s holiday party!

Thank you to my sponsor!:

Decorating with Giant Clam Shells

(Julia Cumes for the Boston Globe)

We just returned from a wonderful trip to Sanibel Island in Florida. Like so many visitors to Sanibel our family got bitten by the "Shell Collecting" bug and we spent much of our time roaming the beautiful beaches hunting for shells. I am a big fan of using natural materials in decorating, especially shells, and one of my favorites items is the giant clam shell.

When I returned home I looked through my files and found that over the years I had several images of the giant clam shell. I wanted to share with you a few of my favorites. The photo above is vignette from the John Derian's summer home on Cape Cod. I love the unexpected texture the shell brings to this simple, rustic antique table.

(designingdna)

Perhaps the most obvious way to use a giant clam shell is on a table top. It lends itself well as a vessel for planting or housing a collection of fruit or decorative balls. I really love the example above. I find the contrast of the soft, willowy arrangement very striking against the rough coarseness of the exterior of the shell.

(Elle Decor)

Above is lovely living room of Ali Wentworth and George Stephanopoulos. You can see the giant clam shell in the fireplace.

(Elle Decor)

Here the shot is restyled and you can see a better view of the shell. I especially like the bold color of the back of the bookcases. It provides a wonderful contrast for the other shells which are displayed.

(coastal style living)

These next two bathrooms are designed by Barry Dixon and they are fabulous of examples of using the giant clam shell in the bath. The glass shower creates almost a terrarium like display for the shell and provides a fabulous natural element.

(coastal style living)

Barry Dixon again uses a giant clam shell and fills it with natural sea sponges. I love how the placement of the shell softens the lines of the tub. The chandelier and screen are also beautiful additions.

(Jupiter Granite)

I love to see the shells used in more unique ways like the sink above. I adore this!! Someday I hope to add a bathroom at the beach house with a giant clam shell as a sink. This particular one was beautifully executed.

(House Beautiful)

Here is a more opulent example of using a giant clam shell as a sink. This bathroom, with it's mother of pearl tiles, is located in Southampton, NY. You can read more about this amazing home here.

Finally here is wonderful vignette located on the back wall of the pool house of Antiquarian, Michael Trapp, via Joni at Cote de Texas. The giant shell adds a wonderful burst of white against the spectacular stone walls. This home is really extraordinary. You can read more about it here.

Our Sanibel vacation inspired me add more shells to our beach home decor. We came home with a suitcase filled with our beautiful finds. I am anxious to get them sorted and displayed. More to come!! Hope you all are enjoying the summer!!!

The dining room update

Heya peeps! I hope you had a great weekend! I finally finished up a project that was months in the making…really it was years. ;)

Before we built our house, we had been living in a two bedroom apartment for three years or so, and a small apartment translated to VERY little furniture in our new, large house. I lived with the bare dining room as long as I could after we moved in, and one day I told hubby I just couldn’t take it anymore – I was getting furniture!

Did I mention this was before we “met” Dave Ramsey? ;)

Before we even started shopping, I had what I wanted in my head – a long, lovely, dark table (which I got), and a long buffet. I did not want a hutch. But what did I get?

A hutch:

I remember standing in the showroom with the sales guy, asking if I could just buy the buffet piece on the bottom, not the hutch. He said nope, and said the hutch had to go on top.

FINE. I believed him. (Grumble.)

And since the day it was delivered, the hutch has been a thorn in my side. We’ve had it for five years, and I was never crazy about it. Last fall I did a little redo by covering the mirrors on the back:

But I was still dreamin’ about that beautiful buffet. So one day I started thinking about it (you know that’s dangerous!!) and wondered if there was a beautiful buffet under that hutch.

I knew it was two separate pieces, but figured the bottom part was unfinished  – you know – all  pretty along the edges, but particle board or something craptastic on top, since it wasn’t seen?

Well, one day I did some batting of the eyelashes at the hubs, and he helped me push the monster away from the wall (did I mention it is INSANELY heavy?), and we pushed the hutch back a bit to see what was on top of the buffet piece:

Cue the birds and angels singing Squeezays!! It was a glorious day!

Then came the hard part. (Did I mention the hutch was CRAZY heavy? Crazy.) Getting that thing off the buffet was a chore. I ended up taking the mirrors out of the back of the hutch, along with the glass shelves, and then took the doors off. It worked! We could actually move it off.

Yeeehaw! :)

Then the accessorizing started. The FUN part!!

I found a large mirror at Goodwill for only $5.99. I loved that it was large (two by three feet), but the frame around it was wimpy, wimpy, wimpy. I knew I could chunk it up, so off to Home Depot I went.

I found underlayment in a four by four sheet for only $6, and had it cut to size:

 

I took the mirror out of it’s old frame and used Liquid Nails for mirrors to glue it on the board:

Because I didn’t want the underlayment stuff to be seen from the sides of the mirror, I had it cut just shorter than the width of the molding I was going to install around it:

Then I cut my molding and used glue and my nail gun to secure it around the mirror. This is how it looks from the back:

My long ago dream of how the buffet would look included two fab lamps at each end, so I stalked HomeGoods for a couple weeks before I finally found lamps that made my heart go pitter pat:

These were a SPLURGE. Fifty bucks each baby. Ouch. It hurt just a little when I checked out. But when I got home with them and placed them in their spots, I knew it was totally worth it. They were loverly.

I wanted something substantial sitting in the middle of the buffet – and I REALLY wanted a bouquet of beautiful, fat hydrangea blooms. But my bushes aren’t cooperating this week, so I went with plan B. I got this humongous faux greenery from Hobby Lobby for $15 on sale:

And took the beautiful Pottery Barn footed bowl I got with my Amex points (whoo!):

And just started cutting and sticking the pieces all over in the foam till I was happy with the “poof” factor:

I loved how it was turning out, but I knew the buffet needed one thing a dining room isn’t complete without – candlelight. ;)

I skipped to the local Dollar Tree the weekend I highlighted Emily and her fab candleholders. Each one is only $2 – one taper holder for the base and a large glass piece for the top:

RUN, don’t walk to the Dollar Tree, cause right now they have candle holders that flare out at the top, and it looks SO much like the William’s Sonoma version!:

I still haven’t glued the base on, so they are a little precarious at the moment. ;) For now, I don’t breathe on them. 

But I love them so very much!!:

I big. fat. puffy heart. the whole darn thing!:

I LOVE how the beautiful curves of the buffet can really be appreciated now. No ginormous hutch bringing it down.

The mirror is now a chunkilicous 31 by 43 inches. Cause you know I like ‘em big. And chunkaaaaay (Moto Moto!):

The gorgeous crystal lamps play off of the crystals in the knock off Pottery Barn light:

It’s just what I wanted – simple and understated, but dramatic at the same time. And it makes the room feel SO much more spacious without that hutch on top!

Of course, I love it best at night, with the centerpiece all lit up!:

(To see how I made the centerpiece, go here.) Lurve:

I am GIDDY thinking of ways to decorate the buffet for the holidays! Yay!!

It only took me five years, but I got my dream of a buffet in the dining room. :)

The before:

And finally, the after I wanted from the start!:

Now I just have to decide if I’ll hang anything inside the boxes on the walls. Right now I’m think no – but I’m going to live with it for awhile and then decide. You never know what my mind will come up with. ;)