Need some Americana ideas for my dining room

[ajrsmom]

We are finally getting settled into the new place...now the decorating begins. Since Im trying to be frugal and use most of the decorations that I had from before BUT want to give them a new look, Im here to get more ideas from all of you wonderful decorators!!

My whole house has a "country" feel to it. The living room is kinda floral, shabby chic & country.

The dining room is going to be Americana because I have a lot of burgundy and navy decorations plus I have burgundy curtains that I want to use so that I dont have to buy new ones. DS and DH hate the way the curtains look in there so heres what Im thinking......They are 84" now but Im going to shorten them to the end of the short windows --there are 2 wider and shorter windows in there. Next, Im going to buy some Americana print fabric and sewn to the back of the panels that way I can pull the fronts of the curtains back to the sides and reveal the back print ---does that make any sense? Im not sure what to do with the top of the curtains though....they used to be tab tops but I cut the tabs off of them and now they are just hanging from a regular rod. Any ideas? I thought maybe a wooden valance might look nice but Im trying to come up with other ideas too.

I have my grandmothers old hutch-type cabinet that will be going in there as soon as it gets a coat of paint. It will be navy with a crackle finish.

I have a wooden shelf to hold more junk-haha!

Guess Im just looking for some craft ideas for this room.

Cant wait to hear any ideas!

Thanks,
Tami

[ajrsmom]

So far I dont have any cushions on the chairs but I have been thinking of buying some. Good idea to mix a different matching pattern on them.

I do have some old lace and cotton doillies that I can tea dye and hang in there too!

Thanks Shawn!!

[P Sue]

If you like the tab tops, why couldn't you buy extra or coordinating fabric (the fabric you're going to use for the back panels) and sew the tabs back on using the Americana fabric? Then you could use some star-shaped buttons on the tabs. I think with all the star shaped architechtural stars I've been seeing around you could even find some small enough to use on the tabs. You could even use some larger stars in some way for tiebacks for your burgundy panels. This link will take you to a catalog that will show you the kind of stars I'm talking about: www.tenderheart.com enter item #60842 in the search box.

Or, if the wooden valance is the way you're going to go; why not paint the valances in a primitive flag design? I can see it with blue on the left side, maybe only one large star on the blue field, and red and white strips on the rest. You could crackle this or distress it by using some sandpaper and then antique it with a burnt umber color.

[cat lover]

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