One project down...

I have been working on several little projects around the house lately. Nothing major; I've just made some minor changes and adjustments. Mostly the things I'm working on have involved painting furniture. I'm on a serious painted furniture kick right now. Anything in this house is fair game! Ha! Anyway, my latest project was this corner china cabinet that my grandmother generously gave us:

I painted the whole thing a cream color and then did some light distressing.

After I sanded it down to my satisfaction, I put a light coat of tea stain on the whole thing. That was a VERY frustrating process, because it was a hot day when I was doing it, and it was drying before I could get it blended like I wanted it. I ended up having to wipe the stain off several times and start over, and I really thought it was going to still look awful when it dried. I may or may not have had a slight meltdown about how awful it looked. Haha! Once it dried and we got the doors put back on, though, I think it looks pretty good :-)

I still need to decide on knobs, and we haven't put any of our china in there yet, but I'm satisfied with the end result.

But of course, around here, one project usually leads to another ;-) So now I'm thinking that I want to paint the sideboard, too. Told you I'm on a painted furniture kick! I was actually thinking that I might want to paint the sideboard anyway, and seeing the painted piece in the room kind of confirmed it.

Here are the reasons I'm leaning towards painting it:

-It needs to either be painted or refinished, and I think painting it would be easier.

-The walls are really dark, and I like the lightness that the cream brings into the room.

-I kind of think that just having one piece of painted furniture in the room makes it look somewhat like an afterthought. I think if both the sideboard and the cabinet were painted, it would make the furniture look more like it goes together, and the table would stand out as the only piece of the furniture in the room that NOT painted.

-I think the sideboard gets lost behind the table since they are almost the same color and it doesn't pop off the wall. If it were a light cream color, I think you would notice it a lot more. Of course, there are some cons to painting it, too:

-The sideboard is an antique, and it really is pretty wood.

-If we paint it, I'm going to have to do all the work since I would want it to look like the cabinet, whereas if we stain it, David would probably do it. Haha! Kidding (kind of).

-I'm worried that it's going to be hard to get the tea stain looking right on such a large surface. It was hard enough to smooth it out on the cabinet shelves, and the top of that sideboard is clearly a much larger surface.

So, does anyone care to weigh in? To paint or not to paint? I won't be offended if you think I'm crazy for considering painting a nice piece of wood furniture. I know that's sacrilegious to some people ;-) Just don't be offended when I paint it anyway. Haha! :-)

I still need to get something to hang on that big blank wall to the left of the china cabinet. I've been racking my brain about what I want there. Also, we will eventually be getting curtains for the windows. That probably won't be anytime soon, but, depending on what fabric I go with, that will bring some lightness (or darkness) and pattern into the room.

Here are two fabrics that I LOVE for the windows:

So, there you have a little update on our dining room and an idea of how I create projects and work for us around here. My husband loves it, trust me ;-) Haha! No really, I just love changing things around the house, and my house really will ALWAYS be a work in progress. That's just how I roll!