Just call me an interior decorator

My brother recently bought his first home...a really cute 1940's home in the downtown Redding area.  Being the bachelor type I wanted to make sure he didn't have that typical bachelor pad look for his decor!  I offered to decorate a room and he gave me the dining room (to start with?)

Here are the before pics (they are not the best...they were taken with a cell phone)...

This photo is taken from the living room looking into the dining room.  The entry beyond is the kitchen.

  This photo is taken from a corner of the room...the doorway to the right is looking back into the living room.  The little doorway on the left is the entrance to a little room that is going to be the office/art studio.

This photo is from the opposite corner of the one above.  The kitchen is to the right.

And now the after!!

This is looking in from the living room.  We painted the walls a gray color and the trim a pure white.  I found the table, chairs and mirror at a thrift store in town.  We painted the mirror black and the table and chairs will be painted black as well.  The blank wall will eventually have a large piece of artwork when Jeff finds just the right piece! 

The silver vase centerpiece I found at Ross and my Mom found and arranged the flowers...a combo of white flowers with some sparkley greeny thrown in for Christmas.  The candles and metal wall art were bought at Michaels-using a 40% off coupon-yeah baby.  A sheer curtain covers the office/studio yet still lets in light.

China cabinet was our Grandma's and right now has various silver pieces that were hand-me-downs from Grandma/Mom.  There is a tall plant to the right of the cabinet and I envision a funky chair being placed on the left. 

The start of the wall o' art.  We gathered various frames we had lying around and sprayed them all a gloss black.  I filled them with various prints I found on Etsy, trying to stay with a similar color scheme.  I looked for art that I thought would interest him.  There is a print with Radiohead lyrics, a cool print depicting Hunter S. Thompson, a bulldog printed on an old encyclopedia page and my fave...a zombie inkblot!  I also found an image on Google images of a series of video stills from his favorite artist, Jeremy Blake.  This wall will be a continued work in progress.

This was a really fun project and done on a tight budget.  Next up...I get to do the office/studio! 

While I'm sharing photos from my brother's place, meet his new puppy Emma!