Updating the Morning Room…..Before and After

October 3, 2021January 18, 2022

It’s that time of year again! The leaves are changing, the birds are migrating, and the blogs are hopping. Join me for another great blog hop hosted by Grandma’s House DIY. As always, be sure to check out the great blogs by me fellow bloggers linked at the end of the page.

Do you ever just want to make some changes in your decor? The old look isn’t awful but a new look would be better…..LOL. I found some drapes at an Estate Sale that I thought would work for my Daughter. However, they were a shade off so decided to use them myself. This simple change……one thing….. led to a bit of a room makeover. Welcome, Friends. I’m delighted to share this change that occurred over a couple of days.

Here’s the old look. You can see that there is a shelf behind the table and in front of the windows. It was great space for display but the table blocked what was on the shelf.

A valance was over the window to give a bit of color and not block the light. Because the shelf was a bit wider in the center the table had to sit further towards the kitchen and so was not centered exactly under the light. None of these were major problems but they started to add up.

This is the old display that was on the wall to the left of the windows. Here’s a link for how the new wall display was put together.

https://www.thriftingwonderland.com/post/fall-wall-display

The first step was taking down the valance and moving out the shelf. Our plan was to install a narrower shelf in the same place but we decided to change that as we progressed through this mini remodel.

I’m attempting to use up the things that are in the garage and we had this oak board left from another project. It was just under seven feet long and 12″ wide. It would work perfectly in the new location. All that had to be done was to polyurethane the board and it would blend in with the floor.

The board was stretched across three wine crates to give it a sturdy base. It’s a pretty thick board so I don’t think it’s going anywhere. I didn’t want to screw or nail it into the crates because I know that I will make changes in the future and I wanted to keep my future options flexible. I reused the old crates for storage under the shelf. I might stain them eventually. We’ll see.

Additional wine crates with lids were stacked on top of the shelf and in the center. They hold candles for the table. I have a lot…lot…lot of candles. I located a recent lantern project in the opening of the center wine crate. I use the storage crates for napkins. I even have a couple of the crates empty.

On the left hand side I have a collection of wooden rolling pins in a box with a copper handle that my Hubby made. A happy pumpkin and some vegetable friends sit right next to the rolling pins with a Harvest Pumpkin in the open wine crate below.

The right hand side is used to display some ceramic pumpkins and a wooden candlestick with a Fall candle.

The new shelf arrangement really adds to the overall Fall ambience in this display. You can see the new wall display above the shelf. A fresh flower arrangement in autumnal tones sits on the central wine box.

I decided to add another wine box to the display wall and some deeper toned flowers for some additional color.

We put the additional two drapery panels on the door leading out to the screen porch. They were mounted so that the panels did not block the door or the light but just added some color and finished the look.

In this picture you can see how the drapes meet at the corner and kind of wrap the room in color.

To replace the old valance we bought a new drapery rod and hardware in a nickel finish. The drapes are custom made and use a Waverly fabric. They are completely lined and really nicely finished. (Remember they are from an estate sale.) These panels were very wide and 88″ long. I wanted them to add some color but not block the light. The table is now centered under the light fixture and the room looks much larger. I was really happy with how this room turned out. Once we had assembled everything the transformation only took a few hours. Now we’re out on the screened porch enjoying the day.