Miriam's Dining Room Continues!!!

I AM SOOOOO TIRED!!!!! Yesterday I slaved away and worked on my sweet niece Miriam's dining room. Remember the before?

The walls were brown, the chair rail was low and the window treatments covered part of the glass on the windows, making a dark room darker.

Soooooo.......I had them change EVERYTHING!!!

Miriam and I wanted a shabby cottage look and her hubby Ross knew to stay out of the way and just supply muscle when needed.

I told Miriam we (I) should fabric the walls, since I don't have the know how or tools to wallpaper. I will show how to do that in a post in the NEAR future. I know Amy of Maison Decor is impatient for me to show this, but I'm not ready to share yet. I want to show my pictures first.

So Miriam and I chose fabric at Calico Corners, which I blogged about in a previous post. We brought samples home and taped them to the walls because you always have to see the fabric in the space. What looks good in the store is not always what is going to look great in your house.

We chose the one in the middle. It was wonderful that Miriam and Ross liked the same one. No one cared what Aunt Betsy thought. (That's not true, actually, since they are both scared of me, as well they should be.)

The week earlier Miriam and I had found this sideboard.

We sanded it and painted it to look old and dirty!!!! Yum, just what you want around food.

We had found this brass chandelier that I repainted. Boy is that hard. I didn't want to take the crystal chains down, so I had to work around all the glass, and I got paint everywhere and on everything.

I suggested (strongly) that they rework the chair rail detail to be similar to mine.

So my carpenter buddy Nigel popped off the old rail...............

This is a picture of Nigel. I call him Nigey. He doesn't complain 'cuz I get him lots of work.

Here he is putting up the new wainscoting detail. I love him. He always does what I tell him to do and I'm SURE it has nothing to do with any money changing hands.

Miriam and I found a wonderful table in Gloucester Massachusetts!

This table can expand to accommodate the whole family, so we may have Thanksgiving at her house next year. When I come back in the spring, I will clean up the finish and give this baby a good coating of wax.

Then we found 8 armchairs at a local auction. As I mentioned in an earlier post, they are the most uncomfortable chairs in the WORLD.

But don't worry, Aunt Betsy will fix them when she comes back in the spring. Oh, God, I'm referring to myself in the third person!

Here they are!!!! They need so much work that I'm afeared.

They will be totally reinvented by MEEEEE!

O.K., now I'm reviewed with you guys the scope of the project. In my next post I will show the transformation!!!!! Have I mentioned how tired I am????   'cuz I'm REALLY, REALLY tired. I'm going to go lie down now.
P.S. I just spell checked this post, and I'm soooo tired, that I spelled my name wrong.