I shared with you some weeks ago my plan to update my dining room.  Slowly but surely I am getting it done.  I have always said that I would show you my “fails” as well as my triumphs.  Well, this post is a kind of a mixture of both.  I will tell you upfront that one of the biggest fails was my photography!  Just when I think I got it all down…wham! Not so much!  Apologizing now…darn  photographer camera!

After adding the new curtains and reupholstering the chair seats.  I decided new art was the next big change.  I found these beauties at Ross and hung them immediately!

I did love them…but they kind of disappeared into the wall.   In the store they had some blue in them but when I hung them there was very little of the blue showing up – at all! I decided that if they had a frame they might have more impact.  These pieces of art are an odd size, which meant that a custom frame would be my only option.  And that wasn’t gonna happen!  So  I took them down and painted the sides of the canvas a dark brown.

You can see the dark brown edges did make the art stand out from the wall but still… majorly underwhelmed! I decided to live with it until I could decide if I loved it or was gonna get rid of it.  Fast forward a month or so and I decided that I could live with it, IF I didn’t find anything else!  Not a real endorsement, right?

I have always really, really loved botanicals.  I received my email from The Graphic Fairy and there they were -the most perfect botanicals, bird graphics, nest, and egg prints ever!  Woo Hoo!!!! They were perfect.  And what makes them perfect, besides the fact that I loved them, was that they are free.  Yup.  FREE!

I spent  all day a few hours browsing the site and came up with eight prints that I thought would fit my decor.  Now here is where things get a little dicey – even if I didn’t realize it until I was a lot further into the project.  I decided instead of buying new frames that were exactly alike that I would repurpose all of the old ones that I had in my stash.  I really liked the idea that they would all be different in shape, but unified by color.  So I rounded up eight that I like the shape of and spray painted them a deep blue that matched the curtains and the new dishes in my china hutch.  Printed off the prints – mounted them onto card stock and TA DA – instant free art!  SCORE!

Here is a little tip to help you with placement on the wall.  Lay your frame on paper – any kind will do – trace around the frame.

Cut out the shape and then tape them to the wall where you want to hang your prints.A totally easy way to get a feel for how it looks before you put nails in the wall!

Here is what I came up with.  Again, I liked it but it seemed a little skimpy.  I had hung four on either side of my hutch, but it didn’t have the impact that I was looking for.  So I decided that I needed six on each side.  Back to the printer, painting, mounting etc… deja vu’? Yup!

Ah…much better! Six on each side had the weight that it needed to make the impact I was going for.

Now here is where I have a confession to make.  Remember, I said that choosing different sizes of frames was not so great a decision?  On a good day I am mathematically challenged. For reals!  So when I was trying to hang these, it took me FOREVER  to figure out the correct placement.  And yes, I did say to use the paper cut outs. Which I chose to ignore on the second time around – TO SAVE TIME! HA!  It literally took me two hours. lots of hair pulled, a few chosen words and several un-needed nail holes to get these babies up!  But get them hung I did! YES!

Here is the entire room.  Again, not the best photography but you get to see the finished project. I love them! I am still thinking of updating the chandelier, adding a rug, and a few other fun things in the future.  I just don’t want to rush it.  When I see the perfect items I will know it, until then I will just enjoy the updates I’ve made so far.

So there you have it – the fails and the triumphs of my dining room so far.  Do you ever find yourself in the middle of a project only to realize that what seemed so easy just became a major event?  Ain’t nobody got time for that!

Until next time….