the dining room is done. for now.

huzzah!

i've been such a boring blogger lately. hopefully this post will make up for my transgressions. the dining room has been the bane of my existence for nearly two years. although it is still not how i ultimately envision it, it is now a space that doesn't make me cringe. i can officially have company over and not feel embarrassed by floral wallpaper or--even worse--partially removed wallpaper. it now feels like me. and that's how a home is supposed to feel, right?

the past couple of days have been spent adding the finishing touches to the walls. you know, the fun stuff. i allowed myself a budget of $100 and ended up spending $75. not too shab-a-lab.

let me introduce you to the bike. i found this vinyl bicycle wall decal on etsy (god bless america and god bless etsy). just in case you're interested in applying your own wall decal, here's what you need to do.

this particular decal came in four big chunks. i started by arranging each piece on the wall and temporarily attaching them with painter's tape.

each section was labeled so i knew the correct order for applying the decal.


i may or may not have used some unladylike language while trying to line everything up properly. as they say in london, mind the gap.

applying the actual decal took all of my patience and attention, which means i couldn't risk taking pictures. so i applied one of the many butterflies that came with bike to a piece of cardboard to show you the exact application process i used.

slowly peel away the white paper backing, exposing the stickyish decal and transfer paper.

place the decal sticky side down and smooth it with your fingers.

use a credit card (or this super snazzy squeegee the company provided) to get all of the air bubbles out.

slowly peel the transfer paper away from the decal.

bam.

now picture that same process for each of the following pieces:

piece 1.

piece 2.

piece 3.

a note on piece 3: i kid you not, i spent about 15 minutes making sure the decal was perfectly lined up before i started the application process. apparently when i put the first piece up it shifted, thus causing each piece thereafter to shift.

so this happened. my parents insist they like it better this way and it adds some depth to the wall. but they're my parents and they have to tell me whatever makes me happy. i'm still not so sure. i don't hate it, but i'm so frustrated with myself for not getting it straight. ah well.

piece 4.

but of course i couldn't stop there. that big ole wall needed some shelves. which required a whirlwind trip to ikea. i drove two and a half hours to ikea, wandered the store for about half an hour, turned around and drove two and a half hours home. that's just plain silly.

i enlisted the help of two stud finders. their names are dad and rich.

three lack shelves and a couple of odds and ends later...

the styling of the shelves is definitely not complete, but i'll live with it for now.

i found both of these holland themed prints using a google image search. i had them printed at walgreens and they look awesome. you've gotta love cheap art.

these matryoshka dolls are going to replace the pine cones on the white cake stand for a little pop of color. i received them as a gift a few years ago, but i could never open the big one because it was practically glued shut. after much elbow grease, my mom was able to crack it open. all it took was a hammer, a screwdriver and dental floss.

dining room, we've come a long way baby.

this is what she looked like when i first moved in.

i tore down half of the wallpaper and lived with it like this for far too long. shame.

a fresh coat of paint does wonders.

it's all in the details. pay no attention to that electrical outlet that doesn't have a switch plate yet.

yes, i think i can eat a meal in this room.

won't you join me?