Dining Room Re-Do

Good afternoon, what a glorious spring day!  This is the prettiest spring that I can remember for a long time, everything is so green, and the blooming trees are spectacular!  What a gift just to be alive to witness such beauty.

My dining room colonial re-do is finally finished ... almost, hehe.  I still have to make the shutters and curtains for the second window.  Gone is the pink wallpaper, the glass chandelier, and the white curtains. The woodwork is now Valley Forge Mustard, the favorite paint color.

The first picture is the cherry corner cupboard filled with my great grandmother's flow blue china.  My mother found this corner cupboard in a barn, back in the 1950's when antiques could be found everywhere.  The table is cherry also, I hooked the rug on it, and also stitched the Dutch Beauty sampler.  I worked on it for four years on and off.  Perhaps you will remember the chandelier that I got on Craigs List for free.  When I took it to the Tin Peddler in town for repair, he recognized it as his work and said it was a $450 Chandelier.  He charged me $25 to repair it, including the light bulbs.   The tin sconces on the wall are repros from the Hospice Shop.

The next picture shows the back stairs going up to my son's part.  The framed pictures are of my great grandmother and grandfather, not the same one who had the flow blue, but on another side of the family.

On the tea table is a penny rug made by a friend, with a prim light from the Tin Peddler, an antique tea caddy made by another descendant, and a Brenda Gervais punch needle bird pattern punched by me and mounted on an antique oil can that I found in the barn.

On this side of the room you can see the shutters that I made using Judy Condon's instructions in her book
"Of Hearth and Home".  I love how they turned out and made a very simple valance for the top.

The sampler is one of my antiques, Elena Tratman 1824.  She is stitched on a very small count of linen, probably 50.  I have always had the intention to chart her and stitch a copy, but have never got around to it.

This is an original built in corner cupboard.  Next to it is a hand painted trunk and an old repro flyer from England mounted on wood, advertising "Sacrilege", for someone had broken into the parish church and stolen all "The Communion Plate".

So this was my main winter project.  I am very pleased with how it turned out, however, I want to ask your "HONEST" opinion on one thing... is there not enough "stuff"?  When I look in the prim magazines and books, they just have "stuff" everywhere.. do I need to add, and, if so, what and where?   Would love to hear your opinion, please let a comment.

Hugs,
Melinda