Dining Room & Kitchen Plan

It took me a while to settle on a design for our dining room. I lived with neutral taupe walls for almost two years before I couldn't stand the bland and went looking for colour! I've taken the time to listen and learn each room's personality and I'm really happy with the results. As our dining room is open to our kitchen, I'll be carrying this scheme into there.

At first, I thought I'd paint the dining room red. Wrong choice. After finishing our Andalucia Living Room this summer, I wanted a design that was complimentary, but not matchy-matchy. Our home is not open plan, but these two rooms do flow together. The lovely yellow paint in the living room looks sunny and fresh and I wanted to keep that feeling.

Once I saw Spa (500C-3, on the left) by Behr, I was hooked. I painted the walls in Spa and the alcove in Jamaica Bay (500D-4, on the right). Later on, Mr. Friday and I are going to custom build a buffet for the alcove space that suits both our needs and the look of our home.

Once the wall colour went up, I thought I'd go for an aqua and chocolate scheme, based on Mr. Friday's preference for this fabric. I lived with it draped over the chair and didn't fall in love with it. Not for the dining room, anyway.


Then I ordered a bit of Patty Young's hummingbird fabric in turquoise from her new collection to make Miss Friday a dress. When it arrived, I knew immediately that I wanted to use it in the dining room. I imagined this as a slipcover for a classic wing chair; a multi use chair for our multi purpose dining room (it's also my office). One trip to Etsy later, I had the necessary yardage and one phone call from my mum and I had a free chair! (Thanks, mum!)


One of the things on my 2010 To Do List is to refinish my dining room table and chairs. I've been reading a lot about it and thanks to Miss Mustard Seed and feedback I've received, I'll be spraying the chairs and table pedestal an antique cream and the top a deep chocolate. I need to wait until the warm weather to do that, plus make a spray booth. Canadian winters + spray paint = disaster!

The soda bottle artwork came from AllPosters.com and the lovely flappers came from flapperdoodle. Kate's having a $1 sale on her mini prints. Click here to shop. I have quite a few of Kate's pieces in our home and love them. They are fun, whimsical, and people always comment on them.

So, that's the plan. Onwards, MacDuff, as they say...



*Images are posted as inspiration / illustration only. No copyright infringement is intended.