Until he was born, I didn't know if I would have another niece or nephew and I'm SO glad it's a nephew because now I have the best reason there could be to start clearing out the basement of the boys' old stuff. Welcome to the world Holden! May a lifetime of hand-me-downs begin.
And now...our most newest completed project! As a refresher, you can click here to read the preview. We don't have a dining "room", it's more like an "area" in our big open living space and we really wanted to cozy it up. For the past year we've had our old dining set and rug, it just felt so blah. We took the plunge on a new table, new chairs, new rug...new everything really except chandelier, and it looks fantastic!
Before...
After!
Going way back, this was the night we moved in...
And this is now:
YAY! Let's talk about the project!
We began knowing that we were going to build a bench seat under the windows. It was a good space saver and gave us a guide for how big a table we needed (most days, we will just have three chairs on one side and the bench on the other- the armchairs on the ends will live in the basement). We also knew we wanted a pedestal or trestle table in order to avoid people hitting table legs as they slid in and out of the bench.
Ultimately we chose this table. We waited over 2 months to get it and I am in love. Here's a better shot of it by itself:
This table was selected for one very important reason: it is distressed. And since it is already imperfect, I cared slightly less when THE BOYS TOOK THEIR TOY TOOLS AND PRACTICED SAWING ON THE EDGE.
Yep, I barely batted an eye. See? It blends right in. *grits teeth*
Let's go over something that makes me much happier and that is my token DIY project: the faux roman shades.
The color is a green stripe, hard to tell. I followed this tutorial for the most part, but used hot glue for the seams. It was so simple! You basically cut your fabric, glue the sides, glue a loop at the top, and then glue the bottom to the loop to make one continuous piece.
(Jason intentionally made sure my wine glass was in that picture.)
Then, you put the whole thing up with tension rods (Target), adjust them as you go to get the drape how you want it. See how I have them in this picture? They are going across on the two little windows at the top.
Anyway, I unintentionally made things more complicated (don't I always?) by picking a fabric with stripes that needed to line up. So that was a big pain. In the end though I love the finished product.
Back to the actual building of everything, of course that goes to Jason. We special ordered the cabinets for the sides but he did the rest! The platforms, the faux walls on each end, the lights, the bench...
And then yesterday, paint paint paint. All the trim and windows were like a cream. If you recall the mudroom, you know I love me some nice white trim. See the difference?
Trust me it was big. After all the painting, Jason cleaned up all his tools, we vacuumed, put the cushions on...voila.
Left to do: hang artwork on the walls and fill the cabinets with all our glassware. I also can't wait to set the table for Thanksgiving, it is going to be beautiful!
General notes: we got pretty much everything from Pier 1 - the side chairs, arm chairs, cushions and rug. The bench cushion especially was a tough call for us because to have one custom made would have been $550+, including the cost of the fabric. Pier 1 made a great boxed cushion for $80, so we bought two and added a pillow to the ends to make up the extra inches we needed. I think it works! We also bought an extra side chair, we can technically seat 10 now with 4 on each side.
One last before...
and after!
So what's next...fireplace, I'm looking at you!
No comments:
Post a Comment