My Mother's Dinning Room

I have been holding off on showing pictures of the redo from my mother's dinning room and kitchen for some time now because I am waiting for pictures of the kitchen. (Ahem, are you reading this, sister??)
But I can wait no longer, so I will show you the dinning room today. I call it the dinning room, but its really just an extension of the kitchen with a table in it. We also have a formal dinning room, but that is used more as a sewing room.
I painted the dinning room many, many years ago for my mom, after removing the old wall paper. I really don't know exactly when this happened, but it was before  Prom of my senior year of high school. I found a highly amusing picture of myself on Prom night in the dinning area, with the wall behind me painted.

The dinning room and I, freshly painted circa 2004

My mother loved the color I had picked out for the kitchen (and I had bought about twice as much as we needed) that we used it in the dinning area as well. I think this was actually a good idea anyway, as they are essentially one room with a bar separating them.

The before color is a decade-old color called Parchment. I don't know what brand it is if you're interested in making your dinning room look circa 2001, but it is probably Glidden.  Considering the crazy 70's era wallpaper that was there before, this is a huge improvement.

The dinning area, my brother and grandmother, circa 1998
(Brother is now 14!)

The "parchment" paint really lightened up and cleaned up the room. We were in the process of a deep clean at the time of this picture, which explains the covered table.

And After: Again, this color is Silverleaf by Valspar.

I think the color kind of reads blue in these pictures, but its definitely more grey in person.

The black candle holders are new, as are the mirror tiles. My mom had really, really old candle sconce and mirror set on the wall that just needed to go. 

Another thing we need to work on is the curtains. I couldn't find the Young House Love style white breezy curtains I wanted in my quick trip home (strange, right?) and didn't find any other suitable alternatives in stores, so I left the curtains as is. 

I would love to see something with a subtle pattern and perhaps bamboo instead of those plastic blinds, 

or maybe just roman shades, as I don't think those blinds ever get pulled down.

Perhaps someday soon I will have pictures of the kitchen!