One Room Challenge: Blue and White Dining Room

I've been waffling back and forth on this idea for weeks and finally decided this morning I was going to give it a go! If you aren't familiar with the One Room Challenge, its a brilliant idea, started by Calling It Home, to transform a room in six weeks. Six weeks may seem like a long time but it sure does fly by. It's quite a challenge and this will be my fifth one! 

To see my previous rooms click here:  Baby Girl Nursery // Hall Bathroom // Living Room // Den 

If you are new here, I'm Katie and I am a wife, mother of two, living on the coast of North Carolina. We bought our current home in October, did some initial upgrades, moved into the house December. I am really just catching my breath from the move. We might never move again :) Our house is a two story white colonial, black shutters, timeless design and layout. We are settled in pretty well but none of the house is "done" if you know what I mean. Everything is kind of 50% there...we still have a stack of pictures in our living room waiting to be hung, hardly any drapes hanging on the walls, and little projects in each room to be completed. I am choosing the dining room because it has taken on it's own little path of actually getting somewhere and I want to go ahead and cross this one off the list. If you know me, you are familiar with my love for mixing traditional and modern design, touches of vintage/antiques, fresh flowers, and a healthy dose of blue and white.

I wanted to be completely transparent and show y'all what the dining room really looks like when I am in the middle of a project. I have drapes waiting to be hung, the hardware strewn across the table, and a good amount of clutter. I love the large size of the dining room table because it is so great for a make do work space! (By the way, we traded out our old dining room table with my parents for their new beach house. It was theirs when they got married and it really fits well in the new house. So we now have their old dining room table from the beach house. Not sure it will be permanent but I have actually grown to like it quite a bit!)

I love our china cabinet with the blue and white collection on the top. 

This nightstand-ish table and mirror landed in here and I actually really like it in here. I use it to store extra linens and keep an extra stash of diapers and wipes in there if I don't feel like running back upstairs. It needs a coat of paint and I'm not sure what color yet.

We put this white table in here about a month ago because I needed something on this wall. The lamps are not staying and the art will move too. I would rather have a narrower piece here because space is a little tight with the chair.

Ok let's talk about the brass chandelier....is it bad that I really don't mind it? I mean, I think it is pretty even though it is so old school. Initially I said it had to go, but now I'm not sure. What do you think?

Overall, I want this to be a "fun" dining room. Like most people, we hardly use it! Since I'm not in here all the time, I want to layer on the pattern and color. My drapes are blue leopard, by the way!  Here is some inspiration I found, some rooms that I have long adored:

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The project list:

-Caulk and paint trim (a doozie...dentil moulding)

-New window shades (these are terrible mini blinds)

-Hang new drapes!

-Paint walls (I'm thinking an icy blue OR a stencil. Is stenciling still in??)

-Paint nightstand-ish piece of furniture

-Decide on chandelier

-Fix the table/lamp/art situation

-Flank china cabinet with mirrors?

-Remove door to room

So, not terrible but I certainly have plenty to do. This week the plan is to get the drapes up and decide on the walls...I would love to do a paper but I don't want to spend a fortune on it. We have a garage addition that is about to happen and paint vs. wallpaper definitely seems like the smartest option. Any thoughts on these stencils? I would love your input! These are from Royal Design Studio:

 

Thank you so much for reading despite my terrible photos of this drab room! I can't wait to see everyone else working alongside of me during this season's One Room Challenge!