Dining Room

Hunter green carpet! That was all I saw when we first walked through the dining room of our current house. Though it was in pristine condition, it was still hunter green! Can you say, "The 90's called and wanted their carpet back!" I know that hunter green and cranberry was a popular combination in the 90's because those were the colors of my teenage bedroom! Needless to say it was hard to look past the carpet to see the beautiful wood railing, nice fireplace and built in desk area. This is what the room looked like after we moved in in October 2009.



In January 2010, we hired a contractor to rip out the carpet and put new laminate wood flooring in the dining room. He also put in a new tile hearth on our fireplace. I am willing to tackle lots of home improvement projects, but definitely did not want to undertake such a large project by myself, especially since we had our son's first birthday party in less than a few weeks. He ripped out all of the flooring and started installing the new laminate the same day. Within a week, we had all of the furniture back in place.



I believe that the room has a bit of an old world, country style. Here is a breakdown of the elements of the room: The window treatments were another bargain find at JCPenney's. I got 2 of the panels for $1 each. I hung them on top of an existing cornice box, but I needed one more to fill in the gap in the middle. I went to every JCPenney's within a 50 mile radius and could not find another one to match. My wonderful husband stopped at a Penney's on a business trip and found out that they were clearanced because of a mistake in which the company used different dye lots. Fortunately we found one that matched for just $25.
We added a hutch which we found on craigslist for $100. I filled it with all of my fruit themed teapots from my sisters bridal shower which were all found at Goodwill for dollars a piece. The buffet was also a Goodwill find for $40.

I would still like to put some coordinating glass tile around the fireplace and possibly paint the surround. I have also been contemplating adding some crown moulding. Finally, I have wondered whether I should paint the hutch and the buffet black to match, possibly leaving the tops as they are to match the dining table. I'm not necessarily the matchy matchy type, but both pieces of furniture are a little worse for the wear and could use a facelift. What do you think, paint the buffet and hutch to match my table, leave as they are or paint them another coordinating color?