Dining Room Oak Party

Oak cabinets and I are not really pals. You may have figured that out from the post that I wrote about ugly 80s cabinets (the ones with the good lookin' oak trim). The beautiful, wonderful house that I moved into four and a half years ago came flying some serious oak cabinets! We will start our oak tour in the dining room. It came equipped with a sweet wet bar straight from the 70s with all the oak you could ask for.  The top was a strange, orange vomit color with random swirls.

Hello my new pal Glidden Gripper.  It is a primer that you use on slick surfaces and it really grips.

• I lightly sanded the cabinets
• Painted on the Gripper
• Then painted black over the Gripper

Now, it is a lovely home for my board games.

The other big change in the dining room was changing out the spot lighting used for the previous owner's sword collection to a more appropriate chandelier.

I found a chandelier that I loved. The only problem was that it only came in bronze. So, I spray painted it black.

I bought the table from my favorite store- Craig's List.  It was painted a similar green to my walls.  So, I primed and painted away.

Then I added three green table runners (my mother in law had sewn a ton of these for my wedding and I was happy to reuse them) topped with three bamboo table runners, and some cool napkins from Target.  I bought a couple extra napkins and framed and matted them because I loved the pattern so much.

The black and white art was a construction DIY. I was painting a baseboard and I had it resting on my knees. It kept leaving long white stripes on my jeans. I do not like waste but I do like random lines on canvas. So I grabbed a  few canvases and quickly painted them black. Then I laid the baseboard on top of the canvas and let the mess I was making on my jeans turn into art.

I hung the art on the wall and decided it needed a little something else. So, I painted a rectangle of green that was a couple shades darker than the wall color and hung the art back up. Tada! Instant framing!

My mother in law sewed the valance for me out of a shower curtain.

And that, my friends, is what I call the dining room oak party!