Price My Space Party #2

I am joining the Nester's second Price My Space party and showcasing my still unfinished dining room. My budget for this room was $500, but I think once it is completely finished, I will probably be over budget by about $200. Still not bad for a complete dining room that will seat 8.


1. I described the diamond wall technique here and the Styrofoam chair rail and shadow box molding here. Because this is an open room and only consists of one full wall (shown in the pic below) and another short wall which is almost entirely taken up by a window, I didn't need a lot of paint and molding. The total was about $117 for the Ralph Lauren Lush Brown paint (I only used half of the gallon) and molding. I already had the Sharpie paint pen in the craft supplies and the upholstery nail heads were left over from a previous re upholstery project. Total: $117.

2. The one major purchase in the room was the dining room set . I purchased this set off Craigslist for $300. It consists of six side chairs and two arm chairs and two leafs. For every day use, I am only using one leaf and six chairs. This is a Heritage set (an in Drexel Heritage - when they were two separate furniture lines years ago) and is in excellent condition (other than the yellowed finish on the painted chairs). I am in the process of repainting the chairs and the table base white, reupholstering the seat cushions, adding batting, silk velvet fabric and nail head trim to the caning of the arm chairs, painting the caning of the side chairs gold and highlighting the chair detail with this Antique Gold and Spanish Copper Rub n Buff. I think the finish on top of the table is beautiful, so I will probably just touch up spots and polish it well. This is taking me a good while to complete all of these pieces. The total for the dining set, spray paint, Rub n Buff and fabric, trim and Hobby Lobby candleholders ($3 each) is approximately $415 .

3. This piece was my fantastic bargain find. I purchased this 9 candle chandelier from my local Habitat for Humanity Restore for $45. I was originally planning to spray paint it an oil rubbed bronze color, but I think I will like the subtle gold finish better with the deep brown walls. I have yet to install it yet, because I have never worked with electricity. I know I should just get over it and do it and I will because I am refuse to pay someone $100 to install it for me and it only cost me $45 to purchase the fixture. I am looking for some inexpensive chandelier shades to recover and add it the bulbs once it is installed. Total: $45

4. I will eventually hang the striped silk curtains I made on these finials. The silk curtains are leftovers that I had made for my apartment window. I had to add an additional half yard of fabric to the bottom of each panel to make them long enough to reach the floor. I fell in love with the fabric when I saw it in the fabric store years ago, but I didn't love the $27.99/yd price. Since I needed a total of 6 yards, I would have spent $167 for two drapery panels. Since they were going on the sliding glass door in my apartment and I knew they were only going to be stationary and would not cover the actual door, I cut the width in half to make to panels from one length of fabric. So instead of two 54" panels, I have two 27" panels. So I got two panels for $84 dollars instead of $167. I found the finials and clips at a fabric store for 75% off. They were silver and I spray painted them brown. So my total for the window treatments is $13.50 for the finials and clips and $28 for the silk lined drapes (I only counted the additional fabric I bought to add length to the drapes because I just repurposed my left over apartment drapes). Total: $41.50.

So my running total so far is $618.50 and all of my major purchases are complete. Although, I am still undecided on whether I should put a piece of art or a mirror on the wall centered above the table. I almost consider the wall treatment a piece of art in itself and I don't want to cover it up, but I concerned that the wall may appear to be missing something if I just left it bare. I hope to see a clearer picture once the chandelier is installed. Let me know what do you think?