impulsive dining room tweaks

Last night at around six o'clock, I got a bee in my bonnet that the shelves in the dining room were too cluttered.  (Here's the old shelf on the left and old shelf on the right.)  This happens sometimes, where I love something and love something, and then all of a sudden, I've had it. (With things. Not people. ♥)

So I rearranged a bit and removed a lot and put more of my white dishes in them so they'd look calmer. It's weird how happy I felt doing this. I like arranging things. So this is how they look now.

Then I realized that I really wanted to finally get something up on the wall that is across from these shelves. It was blank for so long, and then I had a piece of scrapbook paper hanging there (from a thumbtack) just to hold the space. Ha. So I grabbed my chalkboard paint, because apparently I live by the idea that there is no such thing as too many chalkboards in one house.

First I used a level and drew a square. Then I taped off the square.

I gave it a couple coats of chalkboard paint and let it dry between coats. It dries very quickly.

Then I grabbed the Paper Source catalog to see if I could find a pattern in it to draw.  There was a simple tree I liked, so I drew a tree. :)  The whole thing took less than twenty minutes. 

I still want to color in the leaves and berries, but we're out of colored chalk.  It's nice because when I'm sick of it I can erase it and do something else.  It balances out the shelves on the other side of the room.  And it was free because I already had the paint. :)

I'm sorry about all these bad photos, but you know I have never taken a good picture in my dark dining room.