Hello

Hope you had a smasher of a bank holiday weekend, mine was spent doing a little self inflicted DIY.  This time it was the turn of our Dining Room.

We moved into our house about 18 months ago and one of the first rooms to be given a quick lick was the dining room.

It looked very dated and chintzy, with flowery and stripey wallpaper and beige carpets.  So, with no budget at all we set about reforming the room. I’d been reading Abigail Ahern’s interiors blog, she is a fan of painting rooms in dark hues to create space and warmth. With a huge leap of faith we decided to go to the dark side and painted the whole room a charcoal grey. Gulp!

We pulled up the carpet and painted the floorboards a dark oak. Added velvet curtains and painted table legs and mismatched chairs.

The fireplace was just an open space so we decided to paint this gold for a warm glow. …. Tah dah total room make over for the cost of three tins of paint!

Fast forward 18 months and while the room has retained its sense of regal classic Victorian style it needed a focal point.

Again running three businesses my husband and I are usually cash short but ideas rich, we wanted the look of a traditional fireplace with wood burning stove but without the cost.

So we bought a shelf and mirror and enlisted the help of Pa Simpson to fix them up.  We decided to embrace our charcoal walls rather than adding a contrast colour, we painted the mirror and mantle in dark grey, this creates an illusion making the room look bigger.  We bought a gas cylinder burner for a fraction of the cost of a wood burner add a vase of flowers and a candle or two and voila….instant focal point, a warm beautiful dining place complete with focal fire.

What do you think?  Would you go to the dark side?

Love DSB X 

Sarah Arnett lamp and cushion by Lampara available on Boston&Boston