Spring into Action part 1

Spring into Action part 1-- "the mess"

Linda, from My Crafty Home had a fabulous idea to harness a little peer pressure to get her motivated and motivate all us "pushers" in the process. Twelve of us will be tackling something that we were putting off and "Spring into Action" to complete the task over the next few weeks.

My "Spring into Action" project is framing and hanging all of these prints in my dining room.

I'll be custom cutting all of the mats and custom framing five of the antique prints. The cool part is that I'll show you how and you can save major $$$ in the process.

Soooooo embarrassing

As you can see I've got some tidying to do also. The black velvet chair is going into my bedroom. It was intended for the library but that room shows no hope of being completed in the near future.

Let's take a look at my inspiration for this room and where I am now.

My dining room inspiration photo

I live in a neighborhood of new construction but there are numerous horse farms within spitting distance and the horsey look works for me.

This is my dining room without all of the crap.

I bought this rug on eBay and layered it over the beige wall to wall.

Then I got these pristine vintage Henckel Harris chairs for a song.

I found this Brunschwig and Fils fabric for $20 bucks on eBay. It retails for $300/yd.  3 1/2 yards and covered the seats in the dining room and I had lots left over.

We painted it a glossy Hershey bar brown and hung the antique chandelier that I also scored on eBay.

Horrible lighting, I know

In the shot above you can see the very open wall to my decidedly more feminine living room.

This was a decorating dilemma, as the wall bore no separation between the rooms other than that half wall.

My handy husband did this.

This bit of trim on the wall in the archway made a subtle separation between the rooms.

OK, back to the inspiration and what I have got to do.

I want lots of frames on the walls to resemble this country house look.

Some of them might go above the arch, not sure yet.

I have two fox hunting prints already framed and two still to do that will occupy this wall along with the antique silhouettes.

These antique prints are similar to the five that I will be framing and hanging.

 Here are five of the seven mats I will be cutting. Next week I'll give a step-by-step and dollar amounts.
Well, there it is, not the most ambitious of projects but it fits on my very full plate at the moment.
Check back next Thursday to see my progress. 

Please take a moment a check all of the projects "Springing up" on these gals' blogs.
 Suzy – Saved by Suzy

Tiffany – Living Savvy

Kerry – Design du Monde (me)

Laurie – Traditional & Modern

Cathy – Room Rx

Carrie – Hazardous Design

Lisa – A Room with A View

Sam – The Junk House

Becca – from Gardners 2 Bergers

Jean – Flower Hill Design

Nancy – Powell & Brower Home

Linda – My Crafty Home Life