Tag: Dining Room

Painting the Built-in Hutch

The baseboards and trim in the dining room have been painted white. The windows have been primed and painted, but are awaiting a second coat. The built-in hutch however, has only been partially primed.

I left the beadboard backing untouched because I thought it might be a nice contrast to the white (and nice to maintain just a touch of the original wood). I like it, and I think I’ll leave it, but what about the shelves? Do you think they should go white or stay natural? I can’t quite decide, and I would love to finish painting soon.

September 30, 2010
Let’s Hope

…that my dining room will be half as beautiful as this one when I’m finished painting the trim and the ceiling.

Isn’t it gorgeous? And see, I told you those Eames chairs with dowel legs get me every time.

Thank you, Kate, for telling me about that room!

September 14, 2010
Black Spindle Back Windsor Chairs
I’ve been hankering for a change in the dining room lately.

I’m going to paint the wood trim white (it’s on my 30 Before Thirty list), and I’d like to paint the ceiling too. The wallpaper is staying (I’m going to have to be very careful when painting the trim), and so is the rug. Now, while I do love my vintage dining set, I have been pining for new chairs.

I like Eames shell chairs (especially with the dowel legs), but doesn’t everyone? And I already have two Eames chairs elsewhere in the house. I still have eight stackable plywood chairs in the basement, though we should probably just go ahead and sell them on Craigslist. And I could just change out the pink fabric on the chair seats for something else (faux-leather?). Or there are always the cute oval back dining chairs that I’ve long admired. But do you know what I’m really into lately? Black spindle back chairs. Like these…
1. Family Chairs (available as a mixed set of four, or individually), MOMA
2. Salt Chair, DWR
3. Thatcher Side Chair, Room & Board
4. OLLE Chair, IKEA
I can sell my current dining room set on Craigslist, and then use the money toward new furniture. I know the OLLE chairs are affordable, but the other chairs all have more graceful lines. OK, or I could just see how my vintage set (which I do not want to alter other than seat fabric) looks in the room once the trim has gone white.

What would you do?
August 31, 2010
Feeling Slightly Blue in the Dining Room

Remember this? Our dining room FLOR is finally down (Feelin Groovy in Pewter).

I think it looks a little too blue.

We’re keeping it because I haven’t found anything better*, it was cheap, and we need a rug in the space. I like the bare wood floor, but our dog Murray would disagree. He has no traction and has already suffered the consequences of slipping badly (he’s fully recovered now). Oh, and he likes to eat his treats while standing on a carpet (he’s odd). When we had the bare floors he would go from the kitchen through the dining room and end up in the living room on the zigzag rug. We can’t have that, now can we?

* OK, there was one rug that I liked better: JORUN from IKEA. But it only comes in 5’x8′ and I don’t think two of them together would be as seamless as I’d like. Plus I don’t think it would be wise to add yet another pattern to the main area of our home… even though it would look excellent with the wallpaper.

August 20, 2009
Time for a New FLOR

The sisal rug in our dining room is about five years old, and it has a big threadbare spot on it that was just made much worse this weekend by vacuuming. Luckily, FLOR just opened a store in Chicago, so Brandon and I headed out to see what we could find.

image from Apartment Therapy

We went through, grabbing a sample of each carpet style and color that interested us. Then we started narrowing down the choices (too dark, too light, can’t withstand heavy foot traffic, and so on), until we ended up with our final selection: Feelin Groovy in Pewter.

Brandon and I also really liked the Be My Neighbor Rug.

Where could we use something so awesome? In Brandon’s office, of course. He’s going to feel like a giant.

June 23, 2009
The Wallpapered Dining Room

I love it. It’s exactly what I’ve wanted since we first decided to buy this house, and I even chose one of the wallpapers I was originally considering.

Here’s a completely empty ‘before’ shot:

And a nice ‘after’ to compare it to:

Wallpapering a house that’s almost 100 years old (while being five months pregnant) wasn’t exactly the easiest project we’ve done. I wouldn’t say that it was hard, just very time-consuming. It probably took us about 15 hours, but we’re so proud of the job we’ve done.

I had ordered 4 yards of pink upholstery fabric on eBay for $10, so I used that on the chairs and along the back of the built-in hutch.

I love the way the living and dining rooms work together.

So happy!

December 7, 2008