What Ana Does

 Like a fresh spring green, like the chairs at the Jardin Tuileries in Paris. Like the leaves of my Monstera plant. I'm deeply in love with Matcha Latte from Clare paint. I get a hit of oxytocin every time I walk through here.  Some early morning Sunday photos. This top one is filtered for max green impact! WOWZA! Just a few things about the color to review. I wanted to follow the same bright blue I have in the front room and in the cabinets. The old green wasn't the same temperature and felt dull in comparison. This green feels the same youthful, modern color. And with the new chairs, white wainscoting, black and beige accents in the rug and curtain. It all mixes for just the happy vibe I was aiming for.  I hope people come to my house for a dinner party, and never want to leave the dining room. 

Let's talk lighting.  I love the chandelier over the dining room table. I love how it's long and black, and pulls the color of the cabinet and also the shape of the table. It also matches the rest of the house chandeliers and eventually the one that will hang in the foyer.  But a secondary light source is needed.  I briefly considered tall lamps on the black buffet cabinet, but that felt dated and will take up space. Not deal for this space. So sconces it is!   I searched for scones that were wired. But then I found this pretty cool innovation -- sconces that used LED puck lights on a remote.  I found these on Amazon for $50 for the pair. And they felt fight. A little goosenecked. A little rounded for interest. And super-easy to install. No wires. No wiring.  Perfect! And they arrived in a few days.  As far as location, I'm taking inspiration from our kitchen, and putting them up above the ledges. Centered off center.  Now they're up, I'll m...

I have been casually looking at dining room chairs for months. And months. But not getting serious -- just gathering ideas of what is available and to my taste. And prices. I knew I wanted more stylish, less used-by-children, and more comfortable chairs so diners didn't feel like they were sitting on a block of granite for the meal.  I was DONE putting it off, once I decided to repaint the walls, I added new chairs to the plan. So I sat myself down (on the hard dining room chairs, ugh) and made some hard decisions.  First,  I decided to stop worrying about the chairs matching the dining room table. It's an 8 ft warm/greyish wood tone table -- as was the popular style 10ish years ago -- we bought at Restoration Outlet for a steal. To try to match the wood stain, even new Restoration chairs, would never work. It's aged. It's seen lots of sunlight on it. I'm sure it's a different color.  And who cares?! I looked through Pinterest and thought the matchy-matchy set...

It's been a while since I thought much about our dining room, other than the chairs that I'm desperate to replace. They're in terrible shape, too big and not comfortable. But, lately, every time I'm in the room I find things that annoy me. And since there's no major renovations in the budget for the year, I'm going to pour a little time and effort into this room.  Let's review my to-do list ...  The wall color. While I love this "Greenwich Village" color, it's not the same temperature as the blue in the kitchen or front room. It's too muted, and the rest of the house with color is brighter.  There's a lot of holes in the walls from where I moved art. And I tried to patch areas, and the sample I used wasn't the same color.  It's dark at night! There needs to be another light source.  The light switch is lose and has needed to be replaced since we moved in.  The aforementioned dining room chairs. Too big, too uncomfortable, too ...

Remember when I made those art ledges in the old dining room? Here's the post to jog your memory .  Of course I wanted them in my new dining room and I wanted them MUCH LONGER than the old house. 8 feet!  Now that I've made a few, they are super speedy to create. 30 minutes accumulative and $70ish at Home Depot -- I used cheaper Select Pine instead of the fancy Oak in the old house.  I LOVE the way it turned out -- though I need to spend a few days styling them out.  Just to take a trip down memory lane ... here's that wall when I started.  This suites are style much better.  I've got two more things planning for this dining room: a new chandelier and installing curtains (need the texture). But those are low on the budget, as I've got the basement and other projects to tackle.  It's never ending. In a good way. 

I am not against a red wall or even an accent wall. Far from it. And I'm sure the previous owners of this house were really excited about the red wall. So great for them.  But for me, not so much. The brassy red tone with the brown/tan walls just felt like a lot of visual noise to me. So, it had to go ... first!  When you have a very dark wall, it needs to be primed first. So after work last week, I put a layer of primer on it. And even that made me feel a lot less chaotic.    And primed ...  I'm so excited to start with our color. I really wanted a gray-green tone in this dining room -- I don't know why, it just felt like the right direction. With the white lower half continued around the whole room.   Here's the first coat on that wall. The colors are Behr's Village Green and the white is Behr's Whisper White .   The color is absolutely amazing. I love it!  No matter how many rooms I paint I will never ever get over the impact a new ...

Big news! I built my own picture ledges and it really wasn't that hard!  Here they are all built and holding art and family photos in my dining room. Aren't they so FUN! And, the best part, building them myself saved me sooo much money. If you were buying them from a store, a sold wood picture ledge 6 ft long is about $80-100. Sometimes more! I spent about $40 for the finished oak at Mendard's for each ledge. Ok. So I've been seeing these picture ledges all over Instagram and Pinterest. And they're so attractive and allow for flexibility when arranging the art. I can pull some off and add new ones. Or add seasonal additions, too. But they are expensive. Here's my inspiration photo. I liked the light wood and the mix of frames and images. And I love the light fixtures above them -- but that's another story. OK. So armed with some DIY instructions and a firm idea of what I want it to look like, I headed to the trim aisles at Mendard's. Afte...

I was tip-toeing through some old blog posts and discovered these early photos of our living room ... Living Room: Before Our house in New Jersey was much smaller, so we didn't have a lot of furniture when we moved in. I didn't want this "formal" living room to turn into a kids play room, this space was too valuable to me to make it into a toy dumping ground as I've seen other families do. I wanted a true Living room where I could chat with visitors and family, without the TV blaring in the background. A comfortable place to read books and the New York Times. Maybe nibble on some cookies and drink tea. Living Room: Before 2 First we found the sofas. The coffee table and the grayish wall color. It's my favorite room in the house (other than my bedroom). Follow the evolution here . And what we ended up with is pretty nice! Here's the rooms from the same angle today ... Complete with Halloween decorations this year. Spooky! I have been ...

I have loathed the dining room chandelier -- if that's really what it can be called -- since we first looked at this house. I remember pointing at it and saying "that's got to go." (See an early dining room post here .) But, on the List of Things That Had to Go (and it was pretty long) this chandelier kept getting prioritized lower because it was functional. And I did a pretty good job camouflaging it with those pretty silver stars ! Ooh! My Dining Room With Stars! But, because we couldn't find replacement parts, we're down to one, flimsy lightbulb. So not only was it ugly, it wasn't working. That's a one-way ticket to replacement-ville! I know what you're thinking ... why bother replacing it, we're leaving for Paris in a few short months? But, guys! It was so annoying not to have a bright light in a room I like to use. Also, we're not entirely sure what we're doing with the house while we're away but having functional ligh...

Current status: Registering for summer camps, buying village pool passes and looking at possible road trip ideas. My view while pondering all this ... Our first significant snowfall since December. It's been a weird winter.

The view from my sofa ... Into the Dining Room I'm in full cleaning and organizing mode, now that I'm back from my trips. But I took a minute to collapse on the sofa and was mesmerized by the light coming in from the dining room window. (Every time I see this room in photographs, I'm reminded that the dark wood coffee table should really be white! Gah!) See the evolution of my dining room space here ! 

I snapped this picture just before I removed all the breakables to prepare for the carpet installation. I thought it looked kinda pretty, so thought I'd share.  Dining Room Wall

When we started talking about this flooring, way back on Friday, I would have said no to more carpet. Having a dining room table on carpet is odd. But after discussing with the floor guy and looking at some samples, I got pretty comfortable with it. Ideally, we would continue the hardwood floors from the house into the living room/dining room but unless I discovered an elf with magical flooring powers that can match the 15-year-old wood, it's not going to happen. So, we got new carpet that's designed for the traffic and use of this room. It's low pile (but not berber, that snags!) and very family friendly. And it was installed in about 2 hours. Obviously, the dogs are very happy on it. New Carpet Now that the furniture is moved back, and not the clutter, it is making me rethink all the junk that sits on those white shelves. Do we really need it? Also, that coffee table really should be white, right? Related links: More posts about the Living Room 

We're not going to blame this one on the dogs, but ... we're replacing the carpet in our living room/dining room. First, why is there carpet in this room anyway? Putting carpet under a dining room table is ballsy, right? And this carpet is high-pile, the same that we have in the bedrooms. Plush is awesome for bedrooms, but in high-traffic areas, it's the "wrong carpet" as the floor guys says. And yes, the carpet is a little yucky because the dogs love this room.  Not stained, but a few areas that look more frayed than others. Anyway, Dave called the floor guys and they gave us a pretty good deal to get it done quickly. I guess they had a crew with nothing this week. So posting some BEFORE pics: Dining Room Looks Magazine-Ready .. But Focus on the Floors Living Room - With Benny Wandering Around

I love the start of a new year. The concept of shedding the old and welcoming the new. A pin that separates the past from the future. Like everyone I'm making all kinds of goals and plans and promises for this new year. I'm optimistic about what's to come. And grateful about the many wonderful things that happened in the last 12 months. Happy 2016!!  The Stars in My Pretty Dining Room Related posts: More about my pretty dining room

I detest the chandelier -- if you can even call it that -- in my dining room. It's dinky, underwhelming and sometimes it just refuses to turn on. It was the previous owner's attempt at modern, maybe? Someday I vow to replace it. But for now ... the only good thing about this chandelier is I can hang stuff from it. Which I do. A lot. I found these glorious silver stars at Target last weekend and they look amazing dangling from the hideous light fixture. Stars for the Holidays Related posts: You'll love my dining room stories

It's beginning to get a little spooky around here ... Frank, Drac and a Little Devil Related posts: Read more of my Decorating stories

After seeing the bouquets at my CSA farm stand last year, I jumped at signing up for the CSA Flower Share this summer. Every other weekend I pick up an amazing arrangement of flowers grown on the farm, just up the street from me. See? Living in an outer-ring suburb near the prairie does have some advantages! Filled With 'Snow on the Mountain' Lisianthus, Statice and Feverfew Lisianthus - Looks Like a Simpler Rose The Flowers From Above

Before: Old Buffet Furniture gets moved around in my house. Quite often, in fact. It's a hobby. But sometimes, moving things around makes me feel like a decorating GENIUS. And I do a cartwheel. So, I bought a new shelf from Crate & Barrel (doesn't it always start with that...). It was 50% off, so I HAD to buy it. I had been crushing on it in the catalog for months, so there was no choice. Click! I wasn't exactly sure where I'd want it. I had three spots in mind when I clicked "purchase" and was just going to see what it looked like when it arrived. Dave built it on the day before Father's Day, because he's really awesome. It's HEAVY, just so you know. But we tried it in two spots and the second spot is where is now lives. (See, I didn't even ask him to haul it up the stairs, which was a possibility, because I'm a kind wifey.) Pushing the old buffet out of the dining room was the key. The height and open shelving adds more ...

I have been drooling over this Crate and Barrel cabinet since we moved into this house. And the more white I incorporated into our dining room, the more I wanted it. Right after Christmas I decided to do it. Get it. It's MINE. But then, Crate and Barrel made me wait THREE months to deliver it. Apparently, it's a very popular little cabinet. In the Dining Room We picked it up within two days of hearing it was finally available. Happy dance! Originally, I had thought about using this cabinet for serving pieces -- to move them out of my kitchen where they are taking up valuable cabinet space. Then there are the Spode dishes to consider. Glassware? Well, I'll try and few things and see what works. For now, I'm just happy to see it finally in its rightful place. There's a space on the other side of the white buffet, too ... dare I get two and go for a symmetrical look? Hmmm.