Ombre and light

With some time off during the holidays, we we able to make noticeable progress on the house one again. We had plans to host Eric's mother and aunt for dinner shortly after Christmas, so that gave us the push and incentive we needed to get a number of smaller projects finished as well as making a good start on a larger project: the dining room.

We aren't a fan of wood paneling at the best of times, but we had concerns the wood paneling in the dining room was used in place of drywall. As we worked out a pesky screw mount, we did indeed determine that is the case. So luckily, we didn't attempt to remove the wood panelling in the dining room. Instead, a good patching and priming gave a solid foundation for the fun that was to come next. We've always said that we wanted to create a dining room that feels like the Blue Bayou restaurant in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney. So to set the mood right, we needed a rich palette. Also, we wanted to make use of the paint that went unused as a reject from the master bedroom. With that and a $5 gallon of off-tint teal from the paint store, I decided an ombre accent wall was in order. It still has a long way to go, with a few more shades of teal added in and a second coat of the dark blue, since the first coat was very thin and washy, but we're pretty pleased with how it has turned out. We will be painting the trim around the windows white after the ombre effect is complete and once we have the privacy screen of plants outside the window, the light though the day will be beautiful and slightly magical in feel.

In addition to that, we finally installed a light over the dining room table. Now our friends who have previously dined with us have graciously put up with candlelight meals will have fake candlelights to light all their meals henceforth. :) After a frustrating rejection of 90% of all the light fixtures we came across, we chose a box chandelier as one of the few we could agree on that we both liked. It works with our overall style and still gives a nod to Blue Bayou.

We hung a number of art pieces around the house finally so the rooms no longer look like empty boxes, although we need a few more pieces hung before the house can be considered "the eclectic artist's house."

A bit more lighting got installed in the coat closet and the back yard. We also prepped the curtains to be hung in the living room, but then realized that the longest curtain rod that we were able to buy was not long enough, so we'll have to figure out where we can get a 125 inch curtain rod that's not to expensive before we actually get the curtains hung.

paint tray #1

paint tray #2

Coat #1 of the ombre effect. The goal for this pass: get rid of the white.
Next coat or coats will help me even out the fade effect to something a bit more even. 

closet light with motion sensor

the curtains we didn't hang on the curtain rod...

...they did hang everywhere else in our house

like the stairewell

and across chairs

Eric putting the finishing touches on the light that we connected twice, since we almost forgot to put the cap screw on the chain. 

well-lit patio for future gatherings. It was way too cold out today. 

table set for dinner with the family. 

graphic location canvases: New York, Paris, London, all places we've been.