Life in Navy and White: Dining room wish list

I hope my last post didn't come across as super whiny and bratty. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE this house and feel so lucky that something like this even fell within our budget. I just know it can be so much better. Do you ever feel that way about your own home? Maybe I'm crazy or perhaps I'm home too much, but I am constantly looking around and brainstorming how I can make things look magazine worthy for very little money. Thank God I'm 15 minutes from an IKEA ;)

Anyway, the next space I want to share with you is the dining room. I was immediately drawn to the built in buffet that spans the width of the space. It has leaded glass just like the living room built ins and lots of drawers for storage. You can never have too much storage!

Sorry for the crappy pictures. The dogs and Isla were in the other room, so I was scrambling to get a few pics without them. I just noticed one of the lights in the ugly chandelier is burned out too. Get it together, Garland! This is my life, you guys.

This room is open to the living room, something we really loved. A lot of old homes are pretty choppy, but ours has a relatively open floor plan. It's great for entertaining, and Isla loves running laps around the dining table. Speaking of entertaining, we have dinner parties (thanks to our friend Jon, who suggested the idea, and comes over to prepare all the amazing food) fairly often, so I would be so so so happy to finally get this room decorated. I found an antique chandelier on Craiglist that I am in love with, but it's been listed since we moved in and the seller has only dropped the price $100. I did email to ask if there was any flexibility in the pricing, got an immediate "Yes, what are you thinking?" response, emailed back a low ball offer, and haven't heard anything since. That was back in December and it's still listed. Guess he or she isn't really that motivated. Bummer for me because it's gorgeous and would look perfect in the space.

I like making lists, so here's what we need to do:

/ / replace chandlier (Craigslist seller, please please please if you're out there, COUNTER ME!)

/ / replace way-too-small rug (maybe living room rug??)

/ / wallpaper (yes, MORE wallpaper!)

/ / scrape popcorn ceiling and coffer (I just made that a verb)

/ / add roman shades to windows

/ / either replace or paint/reupholster chairs (or maybe even replace the table all together if I find something I like better?)

/ / paint all the trim white except the buffet, allowing that piece to really stand out (a big if on this one since Sam is team dark trim), or maybe even paint the buffet too (but I pretty much know Sam will never go for that)

Here's the listing photo of the CL chandy I so badly want in the room:

Unfortunately, I haven't really found any pictures to serve as inspiration. I do love this dining room, from an amazing home listing my sister-in-law sent me:

How amazing is the coffered ceiling, wallpaper, wainscoting, those white chairs…basically everything in the room? I search for Chippendale chairs nearly every day on Craigslist, but nothing ever pops up. I'm thinking maybe something like this would be more affordable (maybe I can find a rental supply company going out of business?) and would achieve a similar look:

The table in the picture below reminds me of ours, and I love the upholstered chairs they paired with it. Not to mention that wallpaper…swoon.

I'll end with some dining rooms I adore; hopefully I can add the elements I find attractive about each of these to our room. It'll be interesting to see where we end up. You know I'll keep you posted.