Dining Room Revamp

I have been pretty unsatisfied with our dining room lately.  Which, probably has a lot to do with our chandelier, but I am going to take care of that later...hopefully soon.  But it also had something to do the furniture arrangement.  I made a few adjustments, and I'm much happier now.

Before:

 The back wall in this room is so large, and is such a focal point in the dining room, and from the living room.  Even though the hats are interesting, there was nothing strong and substantial on this wall.  Everything is little and choppy.  I think this is a common problem for us starter-outers, cause it's expensive to acquire large pieces of art.  

When I got this china cabinet, I knew it probably needed to be wear the other chest is.  I avoided making the switch because I didn't want to rehang my hats (it's a huge pain) and I wanted the hats to remain a focal point from the living room.  So I was sort of stuck about what to do with them.  So I just wedged the china cabinet in this corner here and lived with it for a while.  

Then when I hung these cafe curtains on this window, the space beneath the window looked so naked.  

I loved the way the window looked, but there were distracting elements on either side of it, and no real show piece beneath it.

I love this cross-stitch artwork, but it is so dark and brown, and so it wasn't really fitting with the colorfulness of the room.  

After:

Now the china cabinet provides the substance that I need on the wall.  Covering the wall with hats provides more of the statement I need across the whole wall, instead of just a vignette over the sideboard.

I can't take this chandelier any longer.  I have an idea for a diy chandelier, but I've gotta find the right time to get Chris to help me.  I have to be careful, because he sometimes feels like a slave in my master plan.  

Okay, I know I've had the same center piece for almost a year.  I really need to do something different!  

I love this bird pictures.  They were my grandmothers and they are made with real feathers.  I had to keep them somewhere in the room, because the feathers tie in so well with the feathery hats.

I have to vent...don't you love how they centered the alarm system perfectly on the wall so that nothing pretty can ever be hung there?  That was definitely the work of a man.    

So I didn't have to sacrifice my hat wall, after all!  It just got bigger.  

This piece still needs a little styling.  

BT-dub, the picture on the right is of the original deFuniak/Kelley/McGill house in Birmingham...basically the home of my ancestors.  I'm not sure exactly what that means, but it's a really cool old house.  It used to sit where City Hall is now.  

 I love having this piece of furniture against this fabric.  I have seen antique sideboards where instead of having a mirror as a "backsplash" board, they have a piece of fabric.  I can't find a picture.  But this reminds me of that.  I also like having all the color of the curtains up against the colorless silver and crystal.  (In real life, the crystal doesn't disappear like it does in this picture.)

Since I really wanted my window to be the feature, I was excited when I remembered I had this sconces in the attic from college.  I have always loved these sconces, but I haven't been able to figure out the right place for them.  

A little antecdote about these sconces.  When we were buying wired sconces for our bathroom, Chris turned to me and said..."Wait a minute!  Don't you already have those sconces from college!?", thinking he was about to save some money and secretly so proud he knew what a sconce was.  I was like, "Yes sweetie... but they are candlelight.  This is 2009."  

So, here's the recap...

Before:

After:

Thanks for reading.