Our dining room is underway! Well, it has been for a year now… ha! Slow and steady. And I have to say this outright because it bothers me every time I look in this room, but I know our light fixture isn’t low enough! It was hung too high and no one ever came back to adjust it during our lighting install, so please pay no attention to that! The shades are also on crooked and I need to work on that after we put in the right light bulbs, ha. Again… slow and steady!

 

When we moved in, we just had white walls that looked like this…

 

…but now we’ve filled the walls with a beautiful wallpaper I’m so in love with. I’ve always always wanted a paper like this, but since wallpaper is such an investment, I wanted to make sure we put it in a house that I plan to stay in a very long time.

 

The paper is IKSEL Decorative Arts, a very fine division of Schumacher that has these most beautiful hand-painted wallpapers. I actually saw it for the first time at Rhodes Home & Gift, which my Charleston friends might already know as one of the most stunning home stores we have in town. I think I’ve storied the inside of their store before… it’s in South Windermere and is beyond with home decor, fine china, linens, wallpapers, giftware, candles, serving pieces… the list goes on.

Anyway, they have a mural paper by IKSEL on their walls in the store that looks almost identical to this. When I spotted it, I fell head over heels in love. Since they carry all of the Schumacher products, I was able to order a complimentary sample (called a “memo”) on the spot to try out at home in our own lighting, and with Betsey’s blessing, we ordered directly through Rhodes!

 

 

This paper took about 6 weeks to come in and was well worth the wait.

 

Okay, but here’s the problem… I absolutely loved my table and chairs in our last dining room. But now, it’s just too much beige.  Also, this room is off of our front porch that is super deep, so it just doesn’t get too much bright light, making it look even darker and more beige.

 

While I definitely wish I didn’t have this problem, it kind of makes me excited for a bigger change. Betsey and I have been chatting about a few different options but most all would bring in a darker table for contrast, lighter chairs (possibly in blue!), perhaps painting the ceiling… maybe in a lacquer, etc. Here are a handful of drawings that show some of these ideas. (If you can see past the scribble scrabble and really use your imagination!)

 

I don’t know! Maybe a white table?! We will see…. more to come on that soon. Just having the wallpaper alone makes me so happy. If you’re in Charleston and wanting to see some really beautiful papers in person, or just to shop for home things, I can’t recommend Rhodes Home & Gift enough. They made the ordering process a really wonderful experience and were so patient with me as I requested about 30 different memos to try out at home. They also have a clothing boutique next door that is filled to the brim with goodies! 🙂