Lighten up, wood ya!

Our dining room is filled with an abundance of dark heavy wood.  The walls are dark.  The furniture is dark.  The woodwork is dark.  But, I'm not quite ready to be the first owner to paint the original dark woodwork.  We've also got "popcorn" ceilings and that's just fine with me.  At least there are no cracks!  It even has glitter in the textured finish and when the chandelier is turned on, the ceiling sparkles!
 

Here are the wood furnishings currently at home in the dining room.

On the left is a secretary filled with a small part of my blue and white addiction collection.  The dry sink on the right is a $20 estate sale bargain destined for an Annie Sloan Chalk Paint treatment.

Mix-and-match sideboard with window-turned-mirror mounted above.  The mirror also needs to be painted.  Below, on the left is a bedside table from an old hotel.  The sconce on the right doesn't do much to lighten up the room.  It's a $12 find that is hanging on a nail, covering up more nail holes.

 

You can see where our plaster repair ended inside the dining room archway.  I'm not going to paint the gloomy green walls until we've repaired the many cracks AND as you know, we've already got one room in progress.

Here it is.  My version of a farm table, but with a lot more flexibility.  Without the leaves it is a 42 inch square table.  With the six leaves in place it expands to a whopping 102 inches! 

The legs are equipped with casters, so it's a snap to pull apart and add the leaves.  It even has a 5th leg in the center to prevent sagging.  The leaves are lightweight and store easily in the bottom drawer of the sideboard.  Our previous table was round which explains the round rug.  I've also picked up these mismatched chairs ( 2 more in the garage ) that will get new updated skirted cushions and a paint treatment.....eventually.

So, to temporarily lighten up the room, I made a faux grain sack table runner.  Here are some simple instructions to make your own and these are the supplies you will need:

• Length of burlap from the fabric store.
• Craft paint.  I used Folk Art navy blue.
• Scruffy stencil brush.
• Masking tape.
• Paper towel and newspaper.
• Professional painter's palette a.k.a. styrofoam plate.

To start, cut the burlap in half lengthwise to the width you want.  Fold the long ends under 3/4-1 inch and press.  Lay down 3 rows of masking tape on the long edges and remove the middle piece of tape.  This makes for a nice straight stripe.

Load your brush with paint and blot on paper towel.  Rub paint on between the strips of tape and pull tape off when done.  Place newspaper under the area that you are painting. 



For the small stripes, lay a strip of tape overlapping the large stripe.  Lay a second strip next to it, leaving a narrow piece of burlap showing through.  Paint the thin stripe and remove tape.

Continue taping and painting in this fashion until you have the striped pattern you like.  To finish the runner, turn up short ends 3/4-1 inch and press.  Sew a 4/8 inch seam around entire piece and apply fray check to edges to prevent burlap from fraying.  Normally I would fold the fabric under twice for a finished hem, but I thought it would get too bulky and not lay flat on the table.  If you don't want to sew the hem, you could use iron-on hem tape instead.  That's all there is to it!

The paint will look slightly mottled which only adds to the aged look.

Before.

Dark and dreary.

After.

Much better, don't you think?