New Year = New Look

For the past two months, unemployment has allowed me to take the time to catch up on some craft projects I've been meaning to get to. When I think of redecorating, I am immediately drawn to the living room because it's the most commonly occupied place in the home. This is the room you are always showing off to guests, and the space you relax in every night. You may have noticed in my earlier post, that I recently repainted the living room, and added a few more touches to tie the room together.

During the holidays, however, I spent countless hours in the kitchen and became painfully aware that my dining area was in need of a major revamp. Although the dining space was "cute," it didn't really tie into the whole theme of the apartment. This year, I've decided that my apartment will be nothing less than glamorous! So this week my dining room got a glamour makeover...
BEFORE

The architecture of the kitchen/dining space was already so quaint, I didn't have to change much to make it really charming.

AFTER
I sanded and repainted the table with high gloss black paint, to give it a more glamorous feel. I splurged a little bit and bought new dining chairs (IKEA $50) and decided to go with upholstered chairs to make it look very comfortable.
The paint color I chose was "cigarillo" and was kind of a mixture of brown, grey, and purple, which paired very nicely with the black and white dining set. I think my favorite part of the new room has got to be the venetian mirror. I have been swooning over these mirrors on Horchow.com, but for $500 - 800 a pop, swooning was as far as it went. I was ECSTATIC to see this one at IKEA for $49! They don't have it on their website, but I swear it's gorgeous in person!
Now all I need to do is have a dinner party! Luckily my mom made me a recipe book for Christmas, so I will be spending a lot more time in my new glamorous dining room!