Erin's Madeover(ish) Dining Room

I can't believe that two months have passed since I enlisted the  help of you savvy readers in rearranging my dining room... It seems like I should have completed a lot more projects than just redoing one measly room, but my days are usually filled with picking up toys, cleaning rice cereal out of Ike's ears, and changing some increasingly odd diapers. (In case you should ever come to my house for dinner, rest assured that last thing never takes place in the dining room.) At any rate, it's done(ish). I say "ish" because you know me... nothing is ever really done. In other words, this place will probably look totally different next month. Let's take a trip down memory lane and check out its previous iterations: Super old:

Kinda old:

And right now -- today -- this is what I've got going on:

I took the suggestion a lot of you bandied about and bought some Ikea Aina curtains for my puny window. See? I listen(ish). HB hung them high and wide, and voila! Bigger window. The sexy 70s lucite chandelier came from Ebay.

I tried to reuse most of my old goodies, like this Curtis Jere(ish) brass tree, but the table and chairs had to take a hike. The old Danish table went to our office, and the Burke chairs went to Karly's dining room. Because, sharing means caring, right?

Our new (to us) 90" long reclaimed wood and stainless steel dining table came from craigslist, and the sellers even delivered it for no additional charge. Super score! The Marcel Breuer(ish) chairs came with Karly's glass table and I wasn't totally sure about them at first, but for $150, I've decided they're awesome. And comfy.

The brass sconces came from Ebay. I almost photoshopped out the fugly cords, but I decided to keep it real, yo. Ok, and I'm lazy. And busy. And I'd also like to know what to do about them. I think I should nail them to the wall and paint them black. Thoughts?

I already had the Karly Springer(ish) console table, but I added a few nick knacks, trying to keep the neutral vibe going. The Head came from Room Service, the mask and bronze hand were both made by art school buddies, and the faux bois tray is vintage. The cord is pissing me off.

Here's a view of the left side of the dining room/entry way. I didn't want the dining room pieces to compete with the ceiling, so I kept everything on the down low. Except for Doris.

Doris is my new David Hockney(ish) million color screenprint that I picked up for $4.99 while thrifting with the ladies. She's 100% hand pulled awesomeness.

Yet another view of the right side of the room... I may have gotten a bit carried away with the photos, but at least you can see that the vintage Drexel benches reverted to their original linen upholstery.

Beethoven is holding down the back corner. My friend Peter did the naughty etching above his head. It's a special surprise that you can only see up close and personal... real personal.

That's it for my home tour! Hope you dudes aren't disappointed that there aren't any trees growing out of the floor or poltergeists in the corners. I'll get to work on that, pronto.

Ish.

Erin's Dining Room Drama

In case you haven't already figured it out, I am a serial re-doer. No matter how good a job I do the first time around, I am always convinced that -- given one more shot -- I could do better. Problem is, one more shot turns into twenty really, really fast. I've repainted the guest bathroom three times, endlessly rearranged the living room, second fifth guessed myself while renovating the kitchen, and now I'm itching to redo my already redone dining room. Good thing paint is relatively cheap and I am the wizard of Craigslist, otherwise the Hunny would have divorced me long ago. Still, I'm a busy lady with a new baby and can't afford the time or expense of redecorating 500 hundred times. And so, friends, I am calling on you to help me make this one count. Problem: The table/chair combo is making me lose my appetite. And the chandelier ain't helping, either. I am like the furniture collecting equivalent of the quintessential crazy old cat lady. Mid century mod just keeps multiplying at my house... And while the hodegpodge kind of worked in our old dining room because it looks like a crazy old cat lady lived there:

I am not loving it with the new, more understated paint job that went in when we redid the kitchen:

So, I like the things on the black wall. The Karl Springer style console, benches and antique painting are a-ok by me. I'd like to add some sconces, but that's not a big deal right now. However, I think the table sticks out like a sore thumb. Or is the problem the chairs? I only have four of the Burke chairs, and I have six of the Danish chairs, but most are broken or need to be restrung. And does that chandelier make my ass look big, or is it just me? Help?!

If I move the table to the back office, I could replace it with something different. Something... longer? More oval? Glass or not glass? I actually own this table with an oval glass top, but it's kind of on the small side:

And this awesome set is currently available on Craigslist, but I'm afraid the proportions are wrong for my room:

Great pic, I know! I love the set, but my room is small and narrow, making me think I need a long, dark table and small chairs flanking the sides. Am I crazy to pass this up?

Oh, and please tell me that burlwood table wasn't the perfect thing for my room, since I found it and passed it on to a friend...

And here is where I paste in some random dining room eye candy to inspire you to leave witty comments and savvy advice for your old pal, Erin:

via the now defunct Domino. Love love love the chairs!

via Met Home. I like the idea of a long table with chairs on the sides, only. I also like the look of a legless table. Plinths please me.

via Living Etc. Hey all your breeders out there: is glass kid friendly?

Can't remember where this came from... one of the above sources. Mostly I just like the groovy mood in this one.

Ok, dear readers. Today I live for your comments. Thursday I shall follow up with more dining room pornspiration. Don't worry. It will be prettier than it sounds.

Erin's Extreme Kitchen Makeover: Panic Edition

I wish I had a cyber tour bus to drive in front of my kitchen, just so I could drive it off, thereby making the big reveal dramatic! and exciting! I would jump up and down -- propelled by the overwhelming spirit of joy and gratitude -- screaming and crying about how amazing it is, and about how getting a new kitchen has changed the very core of my being. But that would be untrue, because (let's face it) macaroni cooked over a bunsen burner in a dorm room is the same as macaroni cooked on a brand new stove in my pretty new kitchen. But that don't make it any less pretty.

Remember when I first enlisted your help with my junky kitchen a looooooooong ass time ago?

Yes, the red is very charming (unless you have to live with it), but everything else in the kitchen deserved to be burned in a pressure treated blaze of glory. Trust me, it was a LOT WORSE than it looks in my awesome picture. Well, a mere six months and 10k later -- with only one week to spare before the baby is due -- it looks like this:

I know, I know! You miss the tile and the bank of head bonking cabinets, the chipped almond formica and the spectacularly filthy appliances, but at least the rugs are cute, right? In all seriousness, this was crazy hard to shoot because the light was not cooperating and the paint wants to read as brown instead of gray, but hopefully you get the idea.

We still have a lot of trim issues to deal with and loads of accessorizing to do, but it's 95% done! Hooray! And despite what must be universal hatred of barstools, I love that we have some extra seating near the kitchen instead of wasted space on the living room side, like we had in our old kitchen. Plus, you have to admit that my vintage Thonet stools are pretty fly.

Hallelujah, you can even see into the living room without busting your head open on a fortress of low hanging cabinets! Downside: I have the sudden urge to replace those hideous ceiling fans, STAT! Any recommendations?

So, what did we do in here, anyway? I detailed the floor renovations a while ago, but you can read about them here. We yanked out all the old oak cabinets and mounted them in the garage (whee! extra storage), then replaced them with Ikea Abstrakt gloss white cabinets, and Ikea Applad black cabinets mounted to form a pantry wall.

So much better than the floating fridge situation we had before! Oh, and surprise! I am the kind of person who sticks stuff all over the refrigerator. Hunny Bunny hates it, but how else will I know where to find my Babies R Us coupons? What do you think of my crazy Moroccan brass tray up there? I know it's kind of passe to stack stuff on top of your cabinets, but because our room is vaulted, it felt really naked without something...

The peninsula was ripped out and HB built a new, taller wall for the bar to anchor the cabinets onto. He and Matty bear also tore out the old post and replaced it with a smaller, dry walled post. The counters are Ikea Numerar in oak, and the backsplash is soapstone, which Matt installed. Karly bought the vintage Danish pendant lights on Ebay and decided they didn't work for her. Bonus! They are perfect in my house. I got a new stove on sale at Lowes, the Datid hood for half price at Ikea, and I am unnaturally obsessed with our new Ikea spice rack. Now I just need three more spices to fill it...

On the sink wall, Matt installed a soapstone tile countertop in a very labor (and dust) intensive process so that the countertop looks like a slab. No grout, and half the price! He did a super excellent job, and if you live in Austin I highly recommend you contact him for all your handyman/renovation needs.

We bought a Kohler cast iron sink that has a very low divider, so it's kind of the best of the single/double sink worlds. Love it! The faucet is also Kohler, and the dishwasher was on sale at Lowes. I had the vintage light fixture already and it's ok (I like the brass), but I think I could do better. Someday. Maybe. Oh, and the reversible cotton rugs are from Ikea, of course.

The window wall feels a little unfinished, so we're planning on putting up a couple of shelves where I can display cute dishes and whatchamadoodles. What do you think: glossy white? black? or butcherblock? Who knows when we'll get to it, since we've only got a week until the baby is due and still need to clean renovation dust out from under the furniture, but we can dream, right?

So, that's it for my kitchen tour. We hatched a half baked plot in November of last year, started gutting in January, and "finished" just days ago. I think our original idea was to slap some paint on our ugly cabinets and call it a day, but I'm glad we took the advice that many of you gave us -- which was to rip it out and go for it. Including the appliances (except for the fridge), the floors, counters, sink, hardware, cabinets, lights, paint, and Matt's labor, we came in at around 10k, which was pretty close to my original estimate. It took the short side of forever to complete, but because Hunny did most of the work himself and Matt helped out a lot, we were able to spend most of our budget on materials instead of labor.

So far, we're super happy with it, but I'll be sure to let you know if any of the walls fall down...