To Paint or Not To Paint

that is my questions for you peeps.

Here's my dilemma.

We have this one wall in our kitchen and it really has no purpose. We didn't put cabinets on that side for two reasons - 1. we were basically out of money from having just gutted the kitchen and putting cabinets everywhere else...and 2. we weren't sure if we were going to maybe knock that wall out and open the kitchen to the living room. (please excuse the Diego Rescue Backpack in the lower right of the photo AND the tools all over the stove. They are not, in fact, supposed to be there but the hubby and the 3 yr old seem to use this part of my kitchen as a "catch all" dumping ground. )

SO I just made do. The stove is an old Chambers that was in the house when we bought it. It probably still works although it isn't hooked up to anything right now. We just moved it over there b/c I thought it was cool and old and I didn't want to part with it. I store water bottles and capri suns in it now! Anyway - I don't really want to get rid of it yet BUT, truth is, I could use more storage in the kitchen. And it is kinda taking up a large amount of room without a large amount of function. Not a good combo.

Now - for reference - here is picture of our other side of the kitchen - so you can get a feel for the color of the cabinets, etc.

I *tried* resizing 3 times - no idea what is going on here - but you get the idea of what the kitchen looks like.

Here's what I'm wondering. We have this China cabinet in our dining room - the dining room that is currently under Re-DO. This was part of the dining room set that hubby's dad gave us. We didn't buy it or pick it out - it was a freebie.

We already *have* a china cabinet in the dining room that is built in and original to the home. You can see it in these pictures.

Original leaded glass. *swoon* I love this cabinet.

Point is I don't need two. It is cluttering up the space. And it is big and dark. And ...well...I just don' t love it. BUT it was given to us by hubby's father. This was hubby's parent's dining room furniture.

So do I take the doors off, paint it the same creamy color as the existing cabinets, and move it into the kitchen - it could hold my dishes and I could put baskets in the bottom (where the doors are now) and use it for storage. OR should we leave it as is? If we leave it alone it is going to the basement to be stored.

*sigh*

Obviously I'm on the side of painting it and USING it. Hubby is afraid we'll "ruin" it if we paint it. I told him I would rather be using it and loving it instead of having it languish away in storage. I don't know. I need opinions!

I'm linking up to Amanda at Serenity Now's Decorating Dilemma's party!

OK then, the dining room transformation is underway!

So I didn't get it quite together enough to download the pictures - hopefully later today.

I have decided on a paint color for the dining room. HOOORAH!!!! Good lord - THAT only took, what, 5 months? ugh. Dark, stained, red oak wood trim will do that to you. You'll think you have the perfect color, get the sample color home, and EGAD.

But, I have found the one. It's called Burlap - from Sherwin Williams. It's a lighter neutral...sort of a green/brown/yellow/gray/taupe?!?!?! lol - I know - but it is one of those "chameleon" colors. I LURVE it. AND it looks good against the wood trim AND works going from our living room, which is painted Butternut, into our kitchen - which is painted an old Martha Stewart color, called Fell ( a dark, olivey-army green color - I know, sounds crazy but it's beautiful against our cream glazed cabinets).

I'm excited about the paint color and I think I'm going to start priming those red walls this week. Then painting. THEN ordering new cream color curtains and a rug.

Here's the next part. We inherited our dining room furniture from hubby's parents. It isn't really our style but it was free. So you go with what you got - right? Anyway - I've never been in love with the chairs. They are a bit too formal for my tastes so I was looking around for possibly getting new chairs.

I'm in love with the "Couture" chairs from Ballard Designs. LOVE them. LOVE the slipcovers. Love the pleat details. NOT in love with the $230 price tag that goes along with the chairs. Seriously. $230 each. Nope. BUT the slipcover, which is SO cute, is only $20. THAT is doable. I was thinking of maybe slipcovering our chairs myself - but for $20 I'm thinking those may just be the better option. Now, our chairs dimensions are almost identical. My thought process is that I will order 1 slipcover and just see how it works on our current chairs. If it fits - I'll order 3 more - if it doesn't - I'll send it back and attempt slipcovering them myself. It could happen...

Another potential problemo is that we really have 6 dining room chairs - but 2 of them are meant for the end of the table and they have arms. Well, they just don't sell slipcovers for dining chairs with arms or at least I haven't been able to find them if they do. So I may have to attempt those myself or see if I can find a seamstress around here to work something up for me on those. Or maybe I'll just put those chairs away and move our bench into the dining room....hmmmm....

I've also re-vamped the current chandelier in the dining room. More to come on that too. Stay tuned...