Fixer-Upper Room

This post is really for some girlfriends I was talking to, attempting to explain my vision for how I want to redecorate my dining room.  First of all, I want to take you on the typically convoluted thought process that got me to this point.  A few months ago I was bit pretty hard by the decorating bug.  I swapped the furniture in my living room and TV room (I love it!) and had plans for making purchases of curtains and a new rug.  Then we found out about Orion probably being canceled and the thought that we might move put all my purchasing plans on hold.  Why would I spend money on a house we might move out of in a few months?  But, it has been several months and what little news we've received has been encouraging.  We still have no idea whether we'll be here a year from now or not.  So in short, I've decided I don't just want to keep waiting for the ax to fall.  I'm going to keep living here like I live here.

Thus, I got inspired last week to redo my dining room.  We've used our formal dining room maybe 10 times for actual sit-down meals in the three-and-a-half years we've lived here.  I want to make the room more usable for us.  So, we started by swapping the furniture in our breakfast room and dining room.

Our "new" breakfast room.

There is still a table that seats six to eight in the "dining room" so, along with the breakfast room table that seats the same, we can still host a sit-down meal for up to sixteen.  However, by moving the china cabinet into the TV room (I know, that's weird, but there was nowhere else to put it), my plan is to convert my "dining room" into a sitting room / game room for use when we're not hosting formal meals (which doesn't happen very often!).  Thanks to all our Bible study guys who helped move it!

Let me know if you think the china cabinet is too weird here.

I think it looks fine, but I'm interested to see if any of you will speak up and tell me it's tacky.  I really don't have a knack for decorating!

My plan for the "dining" room is to use our mix-match furniture as best as I can and tie it together with new curtains, a rug, and probably a table cloth.  The theme is inspired by coordinating pieces I pulled from around the house.  I want to base the color scheme on these pieces that all have black, burnt orange, gold, and red:

I also want to add a funky-cool Southeast Asian-inspired feel to the room.  Think "Pier One" but with Walmart prices. These are some more pieces I'd like to use that I bought in hippie markets on my travels:

And I want to use this hand-carved chess set too, to go with the "game room" idea:

Lastly, as I gather my decorative accessories, I will settle on a color for the walls and perhaps change the lighting in the room too.  As always, I'm open for any ideas or tips!  I know some of you have amazing taste.