Dining Room {Progress}

Hi Friends!  Happy Monday!
For those of you that follow me on Facebook or Twitter, then you already know that the hubs & I started a little makeover on our dining room this weekend!  Bless his heart, he came back from Las Vegas sick as a dog and I put him right to work!  Hehe.  Bless his heart.
We decided to paint {more on that later} and put up a chair rail in the dining area.  We’d like to also eventually paint the playroom, but you know us and our projects.  They take a while.  So the playroom will come after Christmas. 
We started yesterday with painting one wall.  The hubs rolled and I used that nifty little edger tool from Sure-Line to do the ceiling and around the door frame, etc.

I decided to go with Benjamin Moore’s “Tranquility”.  But I tweaked it a bit.  I took it to Lowe’s to be color matched and I had them take out 2 drops of blue, just like Kate did.  I wanted the color to be more gray and a little less blue to flow with the paint colors in the family room, breakfast nook, & kitchen.  I must say…..I LOVE IT!!!  I mean, I kinda felt like the paint color master when Scott started rolling it on.  I felt “victory”, ya know?   Lame, I know.  But I’m always so afraid of paint color.  I don’t know why.  I know what colors I like but they always look a tad different when you roll them on the wall and you’ve got a hugenormous wall with paint on it. 
Anywho….
We’re not done painting yet, but I did just finish up another wall while the babe was napping.

And in the spirit of “keepin’ it real, dawg” here is the current state of my dining room:

Oh Lordy!  Hopefully we’ll have it all finished and put back together by week’s end.  And yes, we are going to paint the wall on the right side of the room.  Just haven’t gotten to it yet.
Ok…let me ask you all a question.  I’m not 100% in love with all the dark furniture anymore.  There are so many things I want to do different in this room, but on a ridiculously tight budget (and by tight I mean $0)!  One of the things I want to do is paint that little buffet you see against the wall.

Here’s the problem…..it’s a piece that I inherited.  It is a hand-me-down from my mother-in-law.  I love the piece!  It provides great storage for some serving pieces and linens.  But, it doesn’t exactly match my table and china cabinet.  It’s also ONE MORE dark piece of furniture in that room.  I need something light against that wall to brighten it up.  I really don’t want to paint it because I want to preserve the originality of the piece.  Should I sew a cover for it?  Like a white or ivory slip cover of sorts that goes to the ground with ruffles or pleats at the bottom?  But then I’ll have issues accessing the drawers.  Although, I don’t go in those drawers often.  Argh!  I’m just not sure what to do.  HELP!
I also want to sew some slipcovers for those zebra chairs.  They’re cute, but just not the look I’m going for in here.  I also want to switch out that chandelier to something a little “lighter”  Maybe a burlap drum shade?  We’ll see. 
Well, wish me luck tonight as I try to finish the painting part of this project up.  For now,  I’m off to scour Pinterest for art ideas for above the buffet!
Thanks for stopping by!