Thursday, April 10, 2008

Chairs vs. shelves

So, I mentioned in my last post that I was contemplating painting my Dining Room chairs a nice bright white color. The Lovely Bryn, posted this picture earlier this week and it really got me thinking. Could my dining room handle the white?



I pretty much adore everything about this West Elm picture. The green walls, the dark table, the white chairs. Such a striking contrast. Of course, then I remembered that I don't have green walls, I'm lacking the streamlined table.... and basically, I'm questioning initial excitement.

Please take note of my actually dining room. Although, try to refrain from noticing our horrible off center chandelier that I'm pretty sure the previous owners picked up at a Home Depot liquidation sale. We'll be replacing it soon with a chandelier similar to this.


Anyway, our dining room 'corner' is pretty dark. Two years ago when we bought the house, I really fell in love with the dark wood with mixed with black look. Now, I'm pretty sure it's contributing to the black hole that is that corner. And while I LOVE our PB entertaining shelves, I wish I'd look around a bit for a better way to hang them. (However, those things were a NIGHTMARE to hang... so I'm hoping to avoid moving them too much.)

But, what if I painted the shelves white and left the chairs? I could pick up three square pictures to replace the old college era picture I currently have hanging on the adjacent wall. It wouldn't nearly measure up to the loveliness of that is Sherry and John's dining room... but maybe it would come close?

7 comments:

Kristina said...

I like the white shelf option. I would be worried about painting the chairs...those are a lot harder to paint back. The west elm photo also has several light items on the table, like the runner and the white bowl. So maybe in addition to the white shelves you could put something on the table to bring a little brightness to that corner.

Jennifer said...

I think the chairs would look great white. And if you hate it, you could always go back to black ...

With the dark, heavy table, I like the shelves dark, too. Having that dark element higher on the walls gives it some balance.

Completely disregard if you disagree, just a thought!

kellie said...

thanks for the comment- i love your blog!

i agree with kristina, the shelved painted white, then some white and light-colored items on the table would look really pretty.

Anonymous said...

I think your chairs could benefit from some of those lovely PB seat cushions in a brighter color, also adding some light colored accessories to the table and the chandelier you mentioned would all do wonders to the room. I would say no to painting the chairs just yet because if you hate them and want to go back, you'll have the whole ordeal of stripping the white paint off ( I think?) to avoid it looking all chunky with paint.

Good luck!

Alison said...

I LOVE your dinning room Meg! I wouldn't change a thing!! :) --Alison (MyABCLife)

Mrs. Limestone said...

If you want to brighten up the room a bit, I like the white idea but it needs to spread all over the room...not just on the shelves. So if you painted the shelves white, added a trio of white framed pictures on the long wall, added a white tablescape and put some white accents in your living room, it would really brigten up the space. I think just adding it one place will make the room seem disjointed.

But I don't think you need to add white. You can get the same accented effect by adding any bright color strategically in the room.


By the way - I really like the way you use the shelves for some practical wine storage!

Emily Main said...

I hope you chose going with white chairs... I think that would really make that room pop!