dining room: hanging stuff

Now that the dining room walls are painted I've been thinking about hanging something on them.  I mean, why else do you paint a room off-white?  The only problem, I don't have much of a budget for new frames and art.  Thankfully, I've got a stash of things that I either haven't been able to find a place for in this house or took down from the original room before construction.  It's a pretty random collection of things but, I'm in a use-what-you've-got mode for this house.
 

I thought about winging the placement of all the frames once I had them all laid out on the dining room table, but decided against it last minute.  I dug a large cardboard box out of the basement, cut it open, and traced all of the frames onto it, then cut all the shapes out.  I then used painters tape to arrange them on the wall.  I remembered to move the plant back into place because I didn't want it to interfere with any of the frames.

I think that it would be fun to cover this wall with frames, art, and family photos.  There are a few more things that I already have that I'd like to add to the wall that didn't make it up in the first installation, largely because there didn't seem to be a good place for them without some additional frames (that I will have to purchase - I'm thinking a trip to the thrift store might be in order).  I also have a few little canvases in the mix that I have plans for but need to find the time to actually complete.  But for now, our walls don't seem so bare and I get to enjoy some of my favorite photos and art.  The painting on top was a gift from Ella to us for Christmas that she made at school!  I cried when I opened it!

dining room table + chairs

In the new rental house, with all the open space, I finally have a space for a grown up dining room table and chairs. I already have a table that's the perfect size for the space (not too big, not too small) that I acquired from Craigslist several years ago. The seller was moving out of state and originally posted it for $50. When I showed up to her house she ended up just giving it to me for FREE! It was one of her last items to go and several people had already come and gone without purchasing the table. Afraid I would do the same (since, in her words, it had a bunch of gum stuck to the bottom) she just needed to get rid of it and gave it to me and even helped me load into my truck. What luck!

At my old house I just didn't have room for a dining room set up with a table of this size. Instead, I used it as a desk in my office for awhile, and then it moved into the back room as a laundry folding table. I'm so glad I hung on to the table for the day I would actually have the space for it, but being an old farm-type wood table (with indeed a bunch of gum stuck all over the bottom) it needs some TLC, and I want to now refinish the top and paint the legs either a bright color (for a neutral room) or now I'm thinking I will paint them white since it will live against the yellow walls in this new house.

What has consumed me most over the last few weeks, seeing the table sit lonely in the dining area, is the subject of chairs. I've paged through many different sites, looking for chairs to pair with this big old table. At first I thought I wanted a mix of different modern type chairs or maybe a set up with a long bench on the one side. I especially love the juxtaposition of the older wood table and modern chairs below.

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I tend to waver over these decisions for quite awhile (the Libra in me) so I haven't made a purchase yet. In my search so far I have fallen in love with the Tolix cafe chairs. Designed by the French company Tolix in the 1930's, they’re still handcrafted in France. I've found several versions of the chair out there and different styles even. The only thing I am sure of is I love them in either white or steel.

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dining room: new curtains

I ordered new curtains for the dining room window last week after my post about whether to hang curtains or shades.  While sitting in the living room one night and staring into the dining room, I noticed that the window in question was not quite level, as is the status quo for this house.  And to mount shades on a window that isn't level worried me - the shades would inevitably look crooked.  So it was back to the curtain idea.  They could be hung straight and help conceal the wonky window condition.

I had already been looking for a red print curtain and finally decided to order these.  They arrived on Friday, so I quickly got to work re-installing the curtain rod (closer to the ceiling this time around).  And as soon as they were up, I realized that I had chickened out a bit (again).  Really bold, red print curtains would be so fantastic BUT I got scared and decided to go with a more toned down color palette and a messy print - I'm calling these the messy dot curtains.  I'm not sure it was the right decision.  These curtains are of a pretty nice quality for the price and they do add some nice color to the dining room.  But tonally, they just kind of blend in with everything else.  I'm still missing the pop.  But in all my searching for off-the-shelf curtains, finding something bold has proven difficult, so they will probably just stay because, really, why am I banging my head against the wall for curtains in a house I'll be moving out of soon.  For the life of me, I'm still not sure why such things keep me so occupied.

dining room: curtains vs. shades

Remember when I started thinking about tweaking some things in the dining room and then, surprise, the contractor was ready to start work on the kitchen?  Yea, I didn't think so.  It seems that long ago.  Well, now that the kitchen and dining room are pretty much complete, I've been thinking about all of the finishing touches.

We used to have dark wood blinds with to-the-floor curtains on the pair of windows facing the backyard.  The curtains and blinds were removed for construction and I've quite enjoyed having the window so open.  So much so that I have been reconsidering whether I should put the old blinds and curtains back up.  But we need something on the window.  They are old and drafty and having some type of covering gives us some privacy from the backyard neighbors and helps cut the drafts down substantially.

I've been thinking about shades, fabric shades, for all of the windows in the kitchen and dining room - one double window in the dining room, one window on the back door, and one small window in the kitchen.  Something a bit more minimal than the curtain/blind combo.  Something that won't extend all the way to the floor and weigh the room down, something to keep the space really airy and light.  I hit up my favorite site for shade browsing last week and found a few options.

Both of these are from The Shade Store.  The one on the left is a grey awning stripe tailored roman shade.  The one on the right is a taupe linen.  I love the bold, graphic aesthetic the stripes would provide.  Everything in the room is a little plain right now - the table is the same tone as the chairs, and there is a lot of wood.  But, though I like the idea of shades, I also find it hard to commit to shades in a bright color or bold pattern.  There's just something about the fact that you have to order then to size that makes them feel so permanent and that just frightens me.  And honestly, I love color and want to play with it a bit more.

Any thoughts on red?  Maybe not solid red, but a pattern.  Something like these:

I really loved these two rooms with red print to-the-floor curtains.  It really helps to warm up the rooms and makes them feel quite cozy.  I'd love to play with mixing pattern and texture in here while I still can.

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mid-century shadiness

I picked up this lamp shade at Target earlier this week.  Yay or nay?  I like the color - a greyish brown - but I'm not sure about the proportions.  The shade hides much of the wood piece at the top of the lamp base.  This might be simply solved with a new, longer harp.

It's amazing what a little lamp can do for a console, anyway.  I feel like it really helped to make the surface not feel so empty.  But now, it's time to pack it up!  We just got word yesterday that our contractors are ready to get moving on the kitchen right away.  Only two weeks ahead of schedule!!  I can't remember the last time I met a contractor ready to start a project ahead of schedule.  No arguing here.  Let demolition commence . . .

We'll pick this whole dining room project back up in, oh, about five weeks.

accessorize this: mid-century dining room console

I rarely accessorize.  I always forget about it.  I have the stuff - scarves, jewelry, belts, but it's not often I pull them out and figure out which of them to put on.  I tend to wear the same two pairs of earrings, or the same necklace, over and over again until I lose them or they break, and then I'm heartbroken because I have to acquaint myself with a new pair - you know, get used to looking at myself in the mirror wearing them without thinking they look ridiculous and like I'm trying to accessorize (I know, I'm crazy). 

My house is the same way.  I do have things that I've collected and love but I feel like I never know where to put them or how to display them.  I'll arrange my collection of white bud vases on the mantle only to pack them up a few weeks later because I fear the mantle has gotten too crowded.  I do not feel confident when it comes to accessorizing my space (or myself, obviously).  It's probably why I loved watching Emily Henderson in her HGTV show Secrets of a Stylist.  She could always make a room feel complete but collected at the same time.  So I've decided to try and start accessorizing (my home, not myself - yet).  Why not start with my mid-century dining room console since I've been obsessing over making some small tweaks in the dining room lately.

Here is the console as it exists now.  I've tried but I don't think that anything about the current arrangement is doing this gorgeous mid-century piece justice.  Sure, it doesn't help that we store toys next to it.  Perhaps a potted plant might look a bit nicer?  The silhouette of Ella is supposed to be hanging in her room.  It's still here from her birthday celebration in June (oops).  I definitely still need a place for a bar tray of some sort, or, on second thought, maybe these items can find a new home in the renovated kitchen.  I'm planning on this lamp finding a permanent home here, but I am still searching for a new shade.  In the meantime, I'll be digging out all of the items I've previously packed away to see what I can make of them in light of the fantastic images I've found.

Yes, these fantastic images . . . 

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I'm definitely missing a plant and hope a good friend who just happens to create some fantastic arrangements in even more spectacular containers can help me out!  I'm loving all of the offerings from Fern Studio right now.  Check out her website in the meantime!

dining room seating

While I was in Cincinnati this summer, I made the requisite trip to IKEA.  And, while there, I spotted these SIGURD chairs on sale and seized the opportunity to replace our current hand-me-down set.  I had nothing against our hand-me-downs.  They were quite comfortable actually; knock-offs of the tubular steel, cantilevered chair designed by Marcel Bruer in 1928 - the Cesca chair.  If I had been able to figure out how to reupholster the chairs without literally breaking the wood frames of the backs, I would have been more apt to keep them around (actually, I still can't bring myself to get rid of them entirely).  But multiple inspections and internet research came up empty.

I think these chairs are the perfect complement to the raw wood table top.   And there was far to much shiny chrome under there with the previous chairs.  I, unfortunately, only purchased four of these chairs without thinking about the capacity of our dining table and they are now discontinued.  Just my luck.

I'm wondering if I should add the matching SIGURD bench in white to the side of table adjacent the kitchen.  A bench might help keep this circulation route into the kitchen free of floating chairs that never got pushed in.  And the SIGURD bench dimensions fit perfectly with my table.

OR, maybe two accent side chairs might be nice.  I've always wanted a pair of these babies - Wishbone Chairs by Hans Wegner.  DWR has them in just about every single desirable color.  They have them in Mint!  But that just might be a little crazy and impractical.  I think I'd splurge for them in black.

mid-century love: our new lamp

Yes, I consider him to be a new member of our family.  I spotted this gem on Etsy last week and couldn't stop thinking about him.  He was sort of the impetus for my need to start tweaking things in the dining room (yea, he means that much to me).  The mid-century console has always felt a bit empty and I'm hoping this guy will help turn this around.  All I need to do now is re-wire him and find him a cool shade.

hello dining room

I've been a bit antsy waiting for prices from the contractors for the kitchen remodel so I've been revisiting thoughts on the dining room.  To be clear, I'm usually ALWAYS thinking about how I can tweak something or completely change a space to make it perfect.  But because this house is temporary, I try to remind myself not to invest too much time and money into these ideas.  The problem is that the thinking and idea-generating are just things I like to do and they never go away.   And why not use this place as a testing ground in a way for our future place, right?  So, say hello to my dining room.

This is the dining room in it's current state.  Not horrible but certainly not great.  This is our only eating space and this room connects the living room to the kitchen, so it's a primary part of the circulation through the house.  When we moved in we installed the light fixture you see and hung the curtains.  And that's about where the improvements stopped.  The yellow paint is left over from the previous renters and, while most of the trim is in it's original stained state, there is a small portion of white base moulding around the intrusive bump-out the previous owner created for the fridge.  You can see it in plan here (the dining room exists through the doorway to the right of the kitchen).

This room will be getting a coat of new paint sometime in the near future (kitchen renovation pending).  Before that happens, I'd like to start thinking about how to change things up a bit.  Perhaps some new curtains, re-work the styling of the console, add some table linens, and a rug.  I've also been in search of new ways to address the small amount of wall space in the room - a series of these architectural horizon photos by a good friend perhaps - to help give the room a more concrete focal point.  The bright blue skies might just be the pop of color this room needs.