Dining Room Painted

The dining room went from Benjamin Moore's Salisbury Green (a lovely soft sage) to Woodland White (the lightest sage I could find). It's a lovely whisper of sage. I love that the vibe of this room in green, but I needed something fresh. Lighter. Brighter. This is just right. 

This room was a pain to paint because we have BIG clunky furniture. We accidentally scratched the floor moving the big white cabinet. I had to pull out the roller to do this room, so I did most of the edging and brushwork at my own pace in small spurts, then blocked off a couple of hours to use the roller to finish it off. I'm really happy with the way it came out. 

The updated cabinet by the back door is still working well and looks good in the space: 

An Office Cabinet in the Dining Room

While both Mike and I made our peace with moving our office to the basement, we both knew that having everything office related down there wouldn’t work for us. We needed a place to sort mail, pay bills, keep important documents close by, and also have essential office supplies on-hand. We even decided we wanted to keep the printer close by (the wireless signal didn’t work as well in the basement).

I emptied the whole top portion of the white dining room cabinet. We moved the microwave to the kitchen counter in the corner - there was a lot of wasted space there so we didn’t lose as much counter space as we originally feared. It’s not ideal - we do have less room for food prep, washing dishes, etc…. but this was the easiest solution for now. At some point we still want to move the cabinets up and do an over the stove mounted microwave, but it’s a big job and we don’t want to bite off more than we can chew when the clock is ticking. More important to get the rest of the house and ourselves adjusted to baby’s impending arrival first. Plus when we first made the decision to put the microwave in the dining room, we didn’t have the kitchen island, which has made a HUGE difference for us in food prep and counter space.

I already really like having the cabinet set up this way. Instead of working at my desk in the office on projects I now just set up at the dining room table and use the cabinet for all the supplies. I have a ton of work to do organizing the basement, but we’ll get there. In the meantime this works really well for our day-to-day office replacement.

The rest of the cabinet is still kitchen storage - baking dishes, trays, glass jars, extra mugs, etc. I had to let a few things I rarely use go, put other things in the basement and move a few other things to the kitchen. Somehow it all balanced out (though I need to go through my kitchen basement storage tubs next and decide what I should keep and let go of down there next....).

A Few Things

I know I disappeared again. It wasn’t intentional and no one was even sick this time, but there were not enough hours in the day. My regular job was extra demanding, my two freelance projects were due at the same time on top of long work hours. I had a conference in New York City, we had Oliver’s first dentist appointment, cars to be inspected, car services appointments, doctor appointments. I’ve also been trying to make fresh air and exercise more of a priority, so my breaks have been spent away from the computer. Excuses, excuses.

Next week is going to be even worse, we have 3 different preschool interviews (for Fall enrollment), another car service appointment, new projects starting, busy days at work… I’m not sure how we’ll fit it all in. I am going to try to post more though and be a little more proactive, but I don’t think we’ll be back to a regular posting schedule for a little while.

Despite my lack of blogging, we have been working on house-related things...

Mike has been working on the electrical in the basement. The new light is in, though he needs to finish the wiring side of things.

I planted the tomato seeds for the garden (and the musk melon seeds as an experiment).

We’re patching the living room ceiling (in progress) from the radiator leak.

Oliver also officially stopped sitting in a high chair. He just woke up one day and completely refused to sit in a “baby seat” anymore. I had planned on using the high chair for as long as possible, since it converts to a junior chair without a tray at the table, but Oliver was having none of it. It took a ton of convincing to get him to even use the booster seat, he just wanted to be a big boy in a grown up chair.

Lastly we’re also planning our next big "finishing" project - the master bedroom - which I will share more about next week (hopefully).

Kitchen Plates

With new artwork in the dining room, it was time to make a new home for the peacock plate. The blank wall in the kitchen above the light switches was the perfect place. I’ve also had this other bird plate (a lovely gift from a lovely friend) in blues, greens and aquas that would pair so nicely with the peacock. It’s been living on our hutch for a long time.

I really like the way they look together on the wall.They both have gold rims, they both have birds, they both look nice with the living room wallpaper.The view gets even better when you include the plates and the new artwork in the dining room…

And then from the dining room…

I’m definitely happy with the fresh new look!

Dining Room Artwork

Our dining room wall looks a little different. It used to look like this:

And now it looks like this:

I inherited a new piece of art for our dining room, a framed watercolor print. It’s the perfect size and dimension for this little wall. I love it. It's bright and cheery. I also love how the green walls pull out the soft greens in the artwork.

New Dining Room Basket

By the back door in our dining room was a small basket on the floor below the hooks. Before we had a baby, this was a perfect solution for quick access to outdoor things we might need - a bottle of sunscreen, bug spray, pruners, twine, scissors, a citronella candle, etc. It functioned well but didn't look very good, so I was always careful to conceal it in photos. Check out that well placed curtain in the right corner.

Then Oliver came along and we suddenly had 15 different types of sunscreen, little hats, toys, and a dozen different possible things he might need outside. And then Oliver became mobile and suddenly everything was dangerous or messy and this solution stopped working for us. We had to put stuff in bags on the hooks or pile it on the chair. It grew overwhelming, cluttered, messy. It was time for a change.

At Target I hit the decorative storage isle, mulling over all of their basket options. They have a lot of really great stuff over there, but I had to be picky. The space is narrow so I couldn’t get anything too wide. Most narrow options were too small. A hamper was too tall, but I loved the idea of a lid. I also didn’t want to spend much.

Then I saw it - these canvas Bento boxes from Rubbermaid. They are so cool! And they happened to be very on sale (sorry the sale is over now, but the price is still pretty darn good for how great these are). Inside you can adjust the liners in different ways to hold stuff! The material is a durable plastic canvas. There are lids available that double as trays - perfect.

I love how the liners inside create cubbies to organize our stuff. And the lid hides everything away, making it much less tempting for Oliver to want to unroll the twine again (and of course anything dangerous like pruners and scissors still reside elsewhere).

I can also stack things on top of the tray now too, which is great because let's face it - there are just way too many toys to corral. As much as I want to believe we're going to live with the box neatly tucked away in the corner forever, really it's going to look more like this all summer long:

We tend to rotate bath and pool toys to keep things fresh, but I like to store them inside so they stay clean. At least the pool/water table bucket can stack neatly on top of the box when the weather warms up.

New Dining Room Doormat

Our dining room doormat bit the big one. The rubber underneath crumbled, then the vacuum wreaked havoc on the loose threads. Gone.

I don’t think it was ever meant to be a real doormat, it was more of a decorative jute rug meant for a kitchen or pretty laundry room. It didn't like water or dirt. It was badly stained. And it’s probably why it died so tragically - it wasn’t ever meant to handle the beating we gave it. But I loved how neutral it was and how it disappeared into the floor. The matching green one outside is actually even worse, but the rubber pieces are so stuck to the deck that it’s holding together… for now.

With all of the snow, rain and bad weather we’ve been having, our backyard is a snowy slushy messy swamp. Everyone tracks a lot of junk through this door, so it was time to upgrade to a real, heavy duty doormat that could handle the mud, snow, traffic and abuse. And of course we needed a new one right away since the snow melt was leaking through the big hole in the middle.

I went with this semi-ugly but neutral rubber backed one for utilitarian purposes. The wood floors are more important than the rug - it’s really what we needed for this spot. I ordered it off amazon because I’m kind of addicted to their prime service - I find what I need on my phone app, click and it arrives in 2 days. No shopping, no driving, no dragging a fussy toddler through a store and it arrives like magic on my doorstep.

What this rug lacks in beauty it makes up for in usefulness. It works way better than the old rug ever did. Those little grooves grab snow, grass and mud off shoes and hold the water in those valleys. Nothing leaks through that solid rubber backing. It doesn't seem to stain easily with the mottled brown color. It's also heavy enough that it doesn't shift easily and the vacuum doesn't want to suck it up. All good things.

Then & Now: Dining Room

(For the next two weeks we're celebrating our 3 year blog anniversary with a long overdue, fully updated house tour)

The dining room was a pink dead-end space that only offered views of the backyard behind ruffled pink curtains instead of much needed backyard access. Here’s the before:

Early on we painted the room salisbury green, and later had the double windows swapped out for a set of 6 ft sliding glass doors to the new deck, providing the backyard access we needed. We sprayed the chandelier antique bronze, added new window treatments and decorated. Here’s the after:

Dining Room Radiator Cover

Radiator cover #6 is finished and installed in our dining room. It’s beautiful, Mike did an excellent job. It makes the room finally look finished and I’m so glad I no longer have to look at the ugly, permanently dirty radiator. Plus it’s always nice to have another usable surface to put things on when company is over.

Mike made this cover wider than the actual radiator to center it under the window. We think it looks a lot nicer in more “formal” room like this. Like our first 5 covers, Mike followed the plans and instructions found on This Old House.

Trim Painting Part 1: Downstairs

It didn’t really show up much in the room-wide photos, but it was pretty obvious in real life: the trim needed painting.   Renovations and furniture moving had caused numerous dings and scratches all over the downstairs base molding and door frames.  There was a spot above the front door where we removed the nonsensically placed smoke alarm.  There were some much needed touch ups in the dining room.  And the biggest and worst offender of all - the carpeted stairs.

The ugly truth up close

We didn’t realize at the time when our carpet was installed that our low-profile berber would be slightly lower than the worn-down pink berber.  And the trim below that line hadn’t been painted in years.  We kept putting off the task of fixing this ugly line for so long because it was so difficult and slow to fix - painting a very slow careful line above the carpet with a teeny tiny brush.   With 10 emergency we paper towels on hand.   Even after painting, it still wasn’t perfect because the trim sustained some damage in different parts, but it was a million times better than before.   And I’m not about to replace the original trim - it’s half the charm of the house.

Clean freshly painted trim

I got the downstairs trim done and made it to the stairwell landing before stopping.   All this work took a lot longer than I thought it would, so I had to split the project into two weekends (confession: two weekends that were actually several weeks apart).  At least the downstairs looked a million times better (in person).

Chandelier Makeover

Our dining room chandelier didn’t go with anything else in our house.  I liked the idea of having a simple, classic, grown up light fixture in the dining room... but the brass finish clashed with everything.  The more we finished the room, the worse it looked.  But new chandeliers are expensive, and I liked the simple silhouette of the one we already had.

The old brass chandelier

The solution?  Spray paint in oil rubbed bronze!  I took the color from a candle-only chandelier we have stored in the basement that would be perfect... if it only had wiring.  The painting process was easy.  Mike detached the fixture from the ceiling (after turning off the power of course) and took it outside.  I removed all the bulbs and covered the wires with painters tape.  I sprayed the piece in several sessions at different angles, opting for multiple thin even coats to prevent drips.  We let it fully cure for 24 hours before re-hanging it, and I couldn’t be happier with the result.

Now it blends so much better with the house.  We have oil rubbed bronze finishes all over - our front doorknob and lock, the mirrors in the living and dining rooms, the hardware on the dining room hutch cabinets...  it even blends with the curtain rods.

Dining Room Curtain Rods & Curtains

Back in January when I hung up the curtain rod over the sliding glass doors, I knew I had made a mistake with the satin nickle finish.  The living room and dining room are too open to each other not to have matching hardware and it just looked weird.  Sometimes mismatched looks eclectic and charming, but this just looked lazy and unfinished.

However now the new matching rods from Ikea are up and it looks much better.   And I really like the crisp white curtains in here with the white trim and green paint - it really makes the windows pop.

Dining Room Hooks

My parents gave me these beautiful hooks from Anthropologie for my birthday last year.  They match the doorknobs around the house beautifully and really fit with the style of our home.  I love them so much that I've had a really hard time deciding where they should go.  Should they be hung together for maximum impact?  Or spread them out over two different rooms?  I didn't want to hide them away in utilitarian locations like behind a door in the bathroom or in the basement entryway stairwell - they are way too pretty for that.  There wasn't enough room by the front door in the living room... so finally I settled on the dining room.

We use our sliding doors to the backyard all the time so it was the perfect place.  Since the winter we've kept dog coats, human coats, even towels (for muddy paws and wet fur) on the chair next to the door.  It was a mess.  For months now I've been meaning to hang a couple of hooks here.  It took me way too long (a year!) to finally make a decision, but I'm really happy with their placement.  I love it when things are useful and stylish at the same time!