My dining room

[WitchyOoman]

It's a large formal dining room, without running downstairs to measure exactly, I believe it's 17x20.


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At the top of this raw diagram is the big bay wondow with window seat/shelf.

To the left is another window (looks out on porch and back yard) and the door leading out onto the back porch.

At the bottom of the raw diagram is the double-hinged swinging door to the butler's kitchen (and on thru that is the kitchen & back door out to driveway).

To the right of the diagram (open area in this post) is a semi-wall with a large open archway into the living room... where there is an even larger bay window that overlooks the front yard and the street.

[WitchyOoman]

Re: My dining room


My dining room set is a typical Chippendale cherrywood set: breakfront, sidebaord, silver chest, table & a few of the original 12 chairs. (the rest gone - some broken & languishing in the cellar, some lost before Mr Witchy's mother found the set waaaay back in the 1950s)
Yeah, it's the Real Deal - Chippendale - from an estate sale of the very early 50's.


Between the back window and the back door (to the porch) is my big cherrywood sideboard, and underneath that rear window is a chest-high vintage golden oak bureau - where I store the silver, flatware, table linen, and little odds and ends like napkin rings, etc.

On the wall, to the left of the bay window is the cherrywood silver chest. Full of larger silver... and the gold flatware. To the right of that bay is a Victorian white wrought iron tea cart.

On the wall, to the right of the swinging door, is another dark oaken piece - a glass-fronted breakfront. (can't put anything on the left of that swinging door, not if you want to be able to open and close the back door onto the porch)

The wall to the right, that leads into the living room... on the upper part in the diagram (the left of the archway if you're facing it) is a walnut breakfront with a large glass-fronted walnut hutch on top. This walnut piece (it's actually two pieces, but appears to be one) stands only a mere few inches (maybe 10 or 12 inches, at most?) from my 9-ft ceiling. On the lower/right side of that wall stands my cherrywood breakfront, tall (but only about 7 1/2 ft high) and also glass-fronted.

In the center of the rooms is my cherry dining room table, lengthwise (ie: up-and-down in the diagram, or parallel to the porch and living room and perpendicular to the dining room bay window and butler's kitchen & kitchen).

[WitchyOoman]

Re: My dining room


9-ft high ceiling.

Wooden Greek-key trim where crown moulding would be (top of walls where it meets ceiling).

Broad-plank oak floor from 1941 (when the house was built).

Old plaster walls & ceiling.

[WitchyOoman]

Re: My dining room


Elaborate wooden (but not nice nuff for unpainted wood to show) interior window shutters at back window and bay.


Wooden doors at back porch and swinging door.

[WitchyOoman]

Re: My dining room


Just finishing painting.


The walls are divided into upper two-thirds and lower-third by a chair rail. The lower third of the wall also has nice decorative wooden trim on it.

Upper walls have flat Behr Crimson (a very rich, very dark red).

Lower walls have flat Behr Eastern Amber on it.

The Greek key crown trim is hi-gloss Behr Eastern Amber.

The ceiling, woodwork & trim, doors, shutters, and chair rail and lower wall wooden trim are all Behr hi-gloss white.

[WitchyOoman]

Re: My dining room


The oaken floor will be almost completely covered with a rug. (a few inches around the outer perimeter of floor is all that's gonna be visible)


This rug is Oriental, wool, and has a standard Chinese pattern to it. It's background color is crimson red. It's pattern's colors are gold, golden light-brown/tannish, black, and white. Primarily, it's red, with it's trim being primarily golden tan in color. (matches the Eastern Amber paint perfectly, although that was an accident and entirely fortuitous)



I will have a smaller area rug and a long runner rug of the exact smae pattern, too... but I dunno what I'm gona do with those, yet.

[WitchyOoman]

Re: My dining room


I just bout new Murray Feiss wall sconces. Oiled bronze fixtures and creamy beige glass shade.





Four of these, each with a 100-watt bulb in it.

Two go on either side of the bay window (on that wall); two go on either side of the swinging door into the butler's kitchen (on that wall).

[WitchyOoman]

Re: My dining room


There has never (before now) been any light fixture in the ceiling. No chandelier. The housepre-dates that kind of decorating...


I have just run the wiring into the ceiling and thru & over to the center of the ceiling. As soon as I return from my cruise, we are hanging the Tiffany lamp with which I grew up. (it was the light that hung over the big eat-in kitchen table, in the house where I grew up in Philly - Mother gave it to me [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif[/img] when they sold that house 4 yrs back and moved into a condo)

Dont' have pix of the lamp, but it's white glass on top and the sides are colored glass fruits. Mostly red glass. Mostly large red apples and other red fruits, with purple grapes, some yellow lemons, and some other fruits... It's primarily white and red, with the red the most visible (the white being up by the ceiling).

[WitchyOoman]

Re: My dining room



Now that I've told you the basics of that room..... I need some help decorating it!

There is a large antique (late 18th century) gilt square mirror that we always hung on the wall over the side board.

But, that's the largest single wall space (the only real usable amount of wall space, really) in the room. I thought to put my plates on the wall there... I have the entire original set of 12 Russian Legends plates - still in their boxes, never opened other than to see that they were undamages, when they arrived, back in 1988. (looooooong before I knew Mr Witchy)

And, I already know that other is giving me another entire collection of Russian fairy tale plates. (she's got 9 of 12, the last 3 she never collected, so I'd have to scour ebay, craig's list, etc to find those)

I thought to put my plates up on the wall over the sideboard, and her plates on the top of the wall that's over the bay window. (I believe it's juuuuuusssst wide nuff for the 9-inch plates and a small-ish holder(s).)


Then, I can put one of my Russian samovars ([img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/rolleyes.gif[/img]God Alone knows what I'm gonna do with the others[img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/rolleyes.gif[/img]) in the center of my sideboard, the Place of Honor, as is befitting any heirloom Russian samovar in any Russian's dining room.

On either end of the sideboard, I can put one of my Morroccan tea sets (prolly the oldest - a sterling silver pot with bone inlay pieces, a matching silver covered sugar, little colored glass NMoroccan tea glasses, and a squaretangular matching silver tray it all sits upon), and one of my Middle Eastern coffee sets (prolly the brass set from Jerusalem that a friend brought back for me last summer (a little briki<span style='font-size: 14pt'>/</span>ka'h'qua pot, metal cup holders, little white ceramic cups, and a matching brass tray that it all sits upon).



But......... What in the world am I going to do with everything else that I've had displayed, that I want to display, that needs to be displayed??? [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/eek2.gif[/img]

How much is "too much"??? [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/confused.gif[/img]

[Green_Biscuit]

Re: My dining room

Goodness Witchy, It sure sounds like you have a lot going on in there, in terms of furniture and accessories. My immediate reaction is that you will need to be very careful not to overdo it. Is there any way you can take photos? While I do have a good sense of what you mean, without the photos of the room, as well as the actual furniture pieces, it is hard to make specific recommendations.

Couple questions - what is the light exposure of the room? (north, south, etc). How would you desrive the overall natural light (this goes to the mirror question).

Do you ahve a storage area (attic, basement, closet) that you can store accessories and heirlooms that are not currently on display? I have more than I could ever display at once for example, but I swap things out all the time. I would say I change things in a major way at least twice a year, some areas more. What and how much I have out depends on the season.

It certainly makes sense to start with a priority list such as, "I really want to have my 3 favorite samovars out. I would also like to display my Russian Legends plates". Other possible options include a plate rail type trim, since your ceilings are quite high (above the door casings).

The danger here will be to not overdo.....Photos please!!!