Dining Room Revamp & Other Swaps

Robert and I were very fortunate to receive a lot of furniture from family when we bought our house in 2009. Over the past two years we’ve been able to settle into our house without breaking the bank on furniture, buying everything at Ikea, or having a bunch of empty rooms. It’s also been very comforting to be surrounded by familiar furniture.

Having said that, we’re starting to get to the point with our house where we want to swap out a few pieces to make our home fit our style better.

If you follow me on Pinterest you may have noticed me pining for a set of metal Tolix style chairs. I thought they’d look great with our existing table that I bought with my grandma years ago. I finally found two reproduction chairs I thought were perfect, but I could never pull the trigger on them (I even missed a sale on the chairs on the left – $79/each with free shipping).

left from Home Decorators, right from Industry-West

After seeing Kara Paslay’s new Eames chairs the idea of mid-century modern chairs with a farmhouse table was planted in the back of my mind. Our table is very much like the one Kara has, though the base of our table is dark green instead of white.

 Kara Paslay’s dining room

I came up with this design board for our dining room. The room is already painted (I’ve been a bad blogger and haven’t shared any daytime shots of the green below the chairrail), the light was a DIY about a year ago, you saw the chairs here, and the rug will be moved from the living room. As for the other bits, I’ve been lusting after that vase for quite a while, and I’ve been toying with the idea of adding french doors & a faux transom between the living room and dining room.

Here’s how it turned out:

yes, the Christmas decorations are still up

Since we swiped the living room rug, we picked up a replacement from RugsUSA.com. It was 50% off, and with some Paypal money from Etsy and eBay sales we only spent $49.

Morroccan Trellis Rug Navy

please ignore the squished couch cushions

I’d love to add some better lighting behind the couch and over the round table (which has taken the place of the rectangular one in front of the birch trees), but we have some things to take care of first (you know, the bathroom, and our Pinterest Partayy project).

What have y’all been up to?

Pinterest Partayy!

If you read What The Graham (and if you don’t, you should!) you might have heard a little something about the Pinterest Partayy Jami is spearheading. Robert & I aren’t typically big on resolutions, but we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to start the year off right with a completed project (and maybe a chance to check another thing off my 25-before-25 list).

Here’s a little preview of what we’re going to be tackling.

from BHG

from Our Midcentury

seen on YHL

If you’d like to join us, we’re going to be linking our Pinterest inspired projects up on the 15th (two weeks from now). You can either come back here, visit one of the other lovely ladies’ blogs (Baby Gators Den, Design Build Love, Merrypad, Mrs Priss, The Stucco Bungalow and of course What the Graham) to link up, or both!

Happy New Year, y’all! Did anyone make resolutions?

Risk Taking

I’ve touched on the subject of mixing colors and patterns before, and most of y’all agreed that you aren’t scared to mix patterns. Hopefully you will also agree with what I’m about to show you.

Yes, I did just mix a farmhouse table, (knock off) midcentury modern chairs, and a Craigslist Italian provincial china cabinet. I loved all three pieces, and I think it just might be crazy enough to work. I would say Pinterest made me do it, but we all know I’m one who doesn’t really care what other people think.

I’ll be back soon with another post about the dining room, as well as some other updates we’re working on.

A Tale of Two China Cabinets

Or: How I Spent my Christmas Vacation

Over my long weekend I decided two things: 1) I want a new china cabinet because the bookcase + secretary (below, before I painted it) that we’ve been using isn’t cutting it anymore. The two above are less than $100 on Craigslist, and Robert is going to look at one of them today. 2) My husband has serious opinions about wildlife china cabinets.

Holiday Amnesia

I think I might have holiday amnesia. When I wake up in the morning it feels like July. Or maybe October (seeing as we have the flannel sheets and down comforter on the bed). As the day goes on I remember that Christmas is looming, but the house remains undecorated. The next morning I wake up thinking it’s summer or fall again.

Last year I had our wreath hung up, I added snowflakes to the front windows (using Gel Gloss since Gold Seal Glass Wax is impossible to find), and decorated the (incredibly expensive) tree while listening to the soundtracks of A Charlie Brown Christmas and the Nutcracker.

I have about 8 more of these snowflake stencils, anyone want one?

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A month or so ago I tried to prod myself into the Christmas spirit by decorating the mantel. I called it a winter mantel, to fool myself into thinking it was ok that I didn’t feel very festive. I broke out lots of blue, mercury glass, and used Sara’s flameless candle insulator trick. Halfway through I gave up, plunked my garnet & gold Bowden flakes on the right hand side, and went to Home Depot. I figured we’d replace it with something more festive when the inspiration came. They’re still there.

We worship the church of football, so that makes it ok, right?

While writing this You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch came on my Nat King Cole (Holiday) Pandora station. I gave it a thumbs up.

I mentioned earlier that we finally brought our Christmas tree inside, but it’s not decorated yet. Fortunately this year’s tree was about half the cost of last year’s, so that part makes me feel a bit better.

As for why I’m not in the holiday mood… Let’s just say it’s been a tough year. Some of my Twitter friends know part of the story, and I talked a little about part of it in veiled terms here. Mostly it’s a combination of factors.

Here’s hoping the new year is merry & bright.

In Which Our Tree is Still Not Decorated a Week Before Christmas

Or: In Which Our Tree Enjoys a Refreshing Glass of Sprite*

You mean the tree is supposed to have things on it six days before Christmas? You people and your deadlines.

*Sprite because when we Googled tree preservative recipes it suggested a tad of chlorine-free bleach, caffeine-free lemon-lime soda, or epsom salts in addition to warm water. So we used all of the above.

Wordless Week – Day 4 & 5: The Good Old Days

Wordless Week – Day 3: Darn Good Coffee

Wordless Week – Day 2: Letters to Santa

Wordless Week – Day 1: Vintage Christmas