We are huge fans of a clean slate.
In fact, so far 2015 really feels like the year we’re wiping the slate clean and starting fresh.
And that definitely has made an impact in our dining room! You might recall, it used to look like this.
It wasn’t terrible by any stretch, but there was something about the way the muddy grey dulled the light that just wasn’t in keeping with our beachy, coastal vibe.
What needs to be said is this dining room – all 9×9 of it, is the smallest room on the main floor, but it’s actually at the centre of all the action. From the dining room, you can see every other room.
We’d been reading a lot about reducing sight lines and creating colour continuity, and since the dining room is such a pivotal space, we decided the grey had to go.
Over a Friday night and a bit on the next Saturday morning, we painted the grey over with a wonderful, versatile white – JoJo Whitewash by PARA Paints*.
You guys – the transformation was everything we were hoping for. The eye now drifts directly to the ocean view at the back of the house no matter where you are sitting.
Not to mention it has given us that ‘clean slate’ we’ve been looking for.
This is the room where we sit with our lap tops in the morning sipping coffee and eating toast before work. It’s where we gather at the end of the day to eat a light meal and plot out our ‘to do’ lists for the coming days.
It’s also where on a rare sunny Saturday in February, we’ll just chill out with a warm cuppa tea, and stare out the back sun room window at the glistening water.
Now that the grey is gone, the room feels so much more hospitable and connected.
We have accessorized the space with the ‘skinny’ portion of our Hemnes china cabinet – which we use to hold glass and barware. Bonus? It’s basically Buddy proof and his tail no longer sends glassware flying to its death.
Our recently reclaimed retro MCM buffet has been accessorized with a bright white ceramic lamp from Kent, and a small gallery wall of local and sentimental curiosities.
We have our Nova Scotia print from PosterBoy (LOVE that guy!!), a black and white lithograph from Dan’s parents, and a wonderful and whimsical owl painting by a Nova Scotia artist. We bought him at a teeny gallery in Annapolis Royal. Isn’t he just the cutest?
Anyway, given the location of this room, it’s actually quite hard to photograph and capture the true vibe, but we hope you get the idea. 🙂
One thing we have not touched is the set of four chairs. You guys, every time we go to either paint of recover them, we stop short. There’s something about how visually unobtrusive they are, that seems to work. They aren’t fabulous. They aren’t terrible. They blend in with the rest of the wood in the house. The material is SUPER durable. We figure they will stay exactly as they are until we stumble across another set that jumps out at us. But we aren’t looking. We’re sorta happy with these $12 chairs.
Oh and before we go, we’d be remiss without a shout out to our current tea obsession. The blueberry tea from North Mountain Tea in the Annapolis Valley is the best. You should try it.
Chat soon!
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*We are members of the 2015 PARA Blog Crew and we were provided the paint and supplies to complete this project. Our opinions, however, are our own.
