New Hutch For the Dining Room

This past weekend I spent most of my time resting on the couch and watching the NCAA Tournament on TV, but on Saturday Frank and I did head out to the Treasure Mart, which is a great furniture and house wares consignment shop in town.

Since we are getting married this summer we are making plans for Frank moving in with me. As part of figuring out merging households we need a bit more closet space in the master bedroom to fit all of our clothing so we were looking for a clothes armoire.

We struck out on the armoire front, but on the way out of the store this beautiful hutch caught our eye. It is a lovely antique with gorgeous wood and solid construction. It had been there for two months, so it was marked down twenty percent which was nice as well. Being a large piece I wasn't sure where it would fit in the house so I measured it (I carry a tape measure in my purse, of course!) and we headed home.

Back at home I measured the space on the dining room wall and it looked like a perfect fit. Frank and I talked about it and decided to get it. I called the Treasure Mart and paid for it over the phone and they arranged to deliver it to us on Monday.

Previously on that wall I had a bookshelf that I had built with bricks and bi-fold doors right when I moved back home from Japan. It's been four years so it was time for a change. Here are a few shots of what the wall used to look like.

Here is the view from the living room of the hutch in place. It fits the space perfectly and makes quite an impact. It's hard to tell from the photos but we have just shy of three feet clearance to the couch and about four feet to the dining table.

I'm excited to have the extra storage and can't wait to fill it up. I think maybe we'll put linens below and dishes up top. I have a bit of a problem with having too many sets of napkins and tablecloths...

My favorite part are the drawers which have hand sawn dovetail joints and birds eye maple fronts.

From afar the hutch looks great but it does need a little work. There are some scratches on it and I am thinking of trying Restore-A-Finish to see how that works. Also, the glass is only being held in by glazing points so I will need to add some glazing putty to keep the glass secure.

I'm really excited to get the hutch cleaned up and get it filled. I absolutely love it!

New Dining Room Table

Just a few short months ago my dining room had a $10 laminate table that I had picked up from the ReUse Center and some Ikea folding chairs. Not exactly classy, but it got the job done. 

In June I upgraded my chairs when I found an awesome deal on Craig's List for a set of eight Lowe Chocolate Leather Side Chairs from Crate and Barrel for $500. They were beautiful, super comfortable and such a great deal (normally $199 each) that I couldn't pass them up. After that my dining room looked like this:

I was ecstatic about the chairs but it made my table seem even worse. The table is laminate with some white paint spatters on top that required me to always keep it covered. On top of that, the table legs kept me from pushing the chairs at the head of the table in and even then, only six out of the eight chairs fit around it.

The last straw indicating that my junky old table needed to go was when I bought Super Couch. I have an open floor plan on my first floor so my dining room and living room are one big open space. Super Couch encroached into the dining space a little more than my old couch so I needed a table that wasn't as wide so people could still get around the table comfortably. Here is a picture of the sectional right after I bought it where you can see the dining area behind it a bit.

Being the logical engineer that I am, I had been thinking about the criteria I wanted in a table ever since I bought my new chairs back in June. I definitely wanted something that could seat eight people. I was also leaning toward getting a trestle table so I didn't have to worry about the legs limiting the chair locations. I also wanted something a bit narrower so that with the table centered under the dining room light (which is aligned with the bay windows) I would have three feet between the table and the sectional. My remaining item on my wish list was that the table would have leaves. I like to set up my Christmas tree in the bay window so having the flexibility to be able to make the table a little smaller to accommodate the tree is important to me.

I did some searching around and found a table that fit the bill perfectly. The Arcadia Extension Table at Cost Plus World Market was a trestle table (check!) and narrower than my old table at 36" wide (check!). It also had two leaves (check!) and extended to 96" to fit eight people (check!).

Being a cheapskate I had to think about it a while since it was $699. Last week I got a 25% coupon for furniture by email from Cost Plus World Market (making the table $525) so I decided that I couldn't pass the deal up and it was time to finally get it.

Frank helped me pick up the table (it wouldn't fit in my little hatchback) but with work being busy I didn't have time to set it up until last night. Frank is out of town, but being the stubborn person that I am I set it up by myself ignoring the instruction's warnings that it is a two person job. Luckily I'm pretty strong for a short girl and I managed to get it done. The only thing I had to do differently from the instructions was that after I built the base I put the top on and attached the bolts from under the table since I assessed the situation first and knew that building it upside down and flipping it over was not an option for me by myself.

In the past I have gotten into some scrapes by mistaking my determination for actual strength and ability which leads me to try to do things alone that I really shouldn't. Case in point: attempting to move a piece of 5/8" thick 4' x 8' sub-flooring into place over some joists by myself resulting in slipping and falling through the joists catching myself under the arm. I wasn't badly hurt but I had a huge red line running across my shoulder through my armpit and was a little sore for a while. Not my finest moment, but since then I've tried to be better about asking for help when I need it, although it is still hard for me since in my mind I am as tough as a 6' tall construction worker.

With the table built I couldn't wait to get the chairs around it to see how it looked together. I feel like a real adult now that I have proper dining table and chairs. The paint splattered laminate table has served me well, but there is something nice about a solid wood table.

I took some pictures this afternoon of the final arrangement. I have trouble taking pictures of the dining room because the bay windows and the pass through from the kitchen wash out everything near them and make the rest of the room look dark. It looks so much nicer in person.

I really like the contrast between the clean, tailored look of the leather parsons chairs and the rustic look of the table. I couldn't be happier about the table and it was worth the wait to get exactly what I wanted. I just need to make up an excuse to have a dinner party now...

From this angle it looks a little crowded but I actually have over three feet between the table and the sectional, just like I wanted.

Still on my to-do list in the dining room is to paint the trim white, maybe change the wall color, replace the free standing buffet with and a built-in and add a little artwork. It is definitely starting to come along, though!

What do you think about the new table? Have you made any fun furniture purchases lately? Did you wait until you were 35 to buy a proper dining table like me because you are a cheapskate? Have you ever accidentally injured yourself during a home improvement project? Do you have any suggestions about how to photograph a room with a window causing lighting issues?

P.S. If you are interested, check out some of my other dining room posts here: New Dining Room Chairs, Bamboo Blinds for my Dining Room, Dining Room Bookshelf Souvenir Collection and Dining Room Then & Now

Projects Revisited

Recently I've been out of town a lot (for fun and for work) plus with football season starting and a visit from my sister, I haven't had much chance to work on some new projects lately. Hopefully that will change this week, but for now I thought I would give a little rundown about how some of my projects are working out for me a few weeks or months down the line.

Fabric Organization
I used an Ikea Billy Bookcase with a CD insert for fabric storage in my craft room creating bolts out of foam core for the pieces that were at least half a yard long. The CD insert has the perfect sized cubbies for my fat quarters and my scraps are stored in baskets and jars I already had. I also used an antique Japanese soda crate to store my thread. I have really liked how this has turned out because it is really easy for my to see exactly what I have on hand and not have to go digging through things to find a fabric that I am looking for. My only problem is that I am starting to outgrow this solution, having acquired a few more fat quarters than will comfortably fit in my cubbies.  

Keeping Plants Watered During Vacation in the Bathtub
I tried a trick that I read online to keep my plants from dying while on vacation, namely putting them in the bathtub with a little water and then covering it with plastic wrap to effectively create a terrarium. I tried this while Frank and I were on vacation in Italy earlier this year. I have to say that it worked a little too well. The soil in the plants was very, very damp when I came home. Some of my plants, like the basil, did well with all the moisture but it was too much for my rosemary plant and it died. I think that I would try it again (it was definitely better than all of my plants dying while I was out of town!) but I would cut a lot more holes in the plastic wrap to let more of the water escape.

New Mailbox
The antique cast iron mailbox that I had been using was just too small and my mail was always overflowing and getting bent when it was delivered. After hunting on eBay for a while I found a larger orange vintage mailbox that I made over with some oil rubbed bronze spray paint and hung out front. I absolutely love that my mail doesn't get squished anymore but my problem is that I am too short for it. Because of the wood siding on my house I had to hang it between the angled slats such that there is space for the lid to swing open. One slat farther down would obstruct the door bell, but where it is currently placed makes it hard for me to reach the bottom of the mailbox since it is so deep. I need to get a thin piece of wood to mount on top of the siding and then mount my mailbox on top of that to fix it, but I haven't done it yet. Once I do that I think it will be perfect. Either that or I need to grow a few inches.

New Dining Room Chairs
After years of using some Ikea folding chairs that had seen better days in my dining room I scored a great deal on Craigslist on a set of eight dining room chairs from Crate and Barrel for only $500. I could not be happier with the chairs. Not only were they a super fabulous deal, but they are so comfortable and I love sitting in them. They are also in fabulous shape and you can't tell that they aren't new. I can't say enough about how happy I am with this purchase. I still need to do something about making or buying a bigger table so the chairs comfortably fit, but those things take time.

Front Porch Makeover
I did a few projects on my front porch this summer to spruce it up. First up was my self watering planter. I checked the water level once a week and it worked really well until I was an idiot and went to Japan and didn't check the water level before I left. Not surprisingly, if the water reservoir is empty the self watering doesn't work. It was working really well up until then so I would definitely do it again. I also joined two rugs together using duct tape to make a runner on my porch. It has held together really well and I have had no issues with it coming apart. My other little decor items on the porch, like the house silhouette art I made and my geisha vase, have stood up well being outside with no issues or damage. The teal spray paint on my table has also held up well with no fading of the fun, bright color so far.

I could keep going but I'll stop for now. If there are any of my other projects that you would like an update on, please let me know. I'd love to share. Also, how about your projects at home? What has worked out really well for you? Has anything gone not quite as well as planned?

Bamboo Blinds For My Dining Room

One of the to do items in my dining room has been to put up some blinds on my bay window. Being an old home, the windows are not a standard width but I am too impatient and too cheap to get custom blinds. Instead I bought some inexpensive bamboo blinds and tried trimming them down.

The middle window is 32.5" wide and the sides are 22.5" wide so I bought a 36" blind and two 30" blinds. On the smaller blinds I needed to remove 7.5" which meant 3.75" on each side. I wrapped painter's tape on the end of the blinds and then in the middle of where I needed to cut. The tape kept the pieces of bamboo together while I was cutting. I made a mark on the tape where I needed to trim and then used my chop saw to cut down the ends. It was a good idea in theory but the inexpensive bamboo chipped a lot on the ends and it looked really bad. The blind was only $15 so it wasn't a very expensive mistake and I am glad that I at least tried it.

I took the remaining blinds back to the store and looked around for another option. I found some bamboo blinds that are pricier but that the store will cut down for you. They were also a nicer quality and had a privacy backing. At a total of $128 for the three blinds it was way more than I wanted to spend but still a lot less than if I ordered custom blinds.

Luckily the store had exactly what I needed left in stock, one 36" wide blind and two 24" wide blinds. I brought them over to the cutting area, gave them my window measurements and did some other shopping while I waited.

Unfortunately when I came back the machine had screwed up one of the shades and didn't cut it all the way through. They weren't going to have restock for that blind for another week but they were able to call the other store across town to hold the one that they had left in stock.

After a jaunt across town I finally had all three shades and I crossed my fingers that everything would fit and be the correct size. Luckily the install was easy and I had the shades up in no time. I just measured where the brackets needed to go, marked the hole locations, pre-drilled the holes, screwed in the brackets and then attached the blinds.

Getting blinds for my dining room ended up being more of an ordeal than I thought it would be but I love how they look and I am so happy that I have this item checked off of my long to-do list. I think that when I eventually paint the trim white the bay window will really look phenomenal.

Are you working on any window treatments for your home? Have you ever had something you thought was going to be simple turn out to be more trouble than you thought?  

Dining Room Bookshelf Souvenir Collection

When I shared about my dining room previously Kathy had asked about what was to the left of the pictures that I had shared. Between being out of town in Japan and being quite sick since the middle of last week I haven't had a chance to post about it up until now.

That area is opposite from the dining room bay windows and features a small wall between my stairs and the hallway doorway to the side wing of my house. On that wall I can't have anything that sticks out from the wall very much or it would impede traffic from the living room to the kitchen. I always need to have more book storage so I built a bookshelf from bricks and bi-fold closet doors for the spot. I previously shared a tutorial about how to make the bookshelf here.

Above the bookshelf I have black and white 12x18 enlargements from pictures that I took. I framed the photos in some inexpensive 16x20 Ribba frames from Ikea. From left to right the pictures are Machu Picchu in Peru, Florianopolis in Brazil, the Great Wall in China and Banaue Rice Fields in the Philippines.

On top of the bookshelf I have arranged several of my souvenirs from various trips. The left side has a vignette arranged in some antique boxes that I bought in Japan at a flea market. I love the dove tails joints on the box and the embossed markings on the sides.

In my medium box on the left I have one of a pair of shisa (guardian lion dogs) from Okinawa in Japan. On top of the box is a little wooden carved container from the Carribean.

Inside the large box I have a rice god statue that I bought while hiking around Banaue in the Philipines. I picked that particular statue because I liked his dangling earrings. Behind the statue is a jade carving that I found at a market in Beijing which I had a lot of fun haggling over the price about.

Up in the top little box is a wood carving of a black bear from Hokkaido. To the right of the boxes are two carved coconut cups that I bought in Guatemala.  In front is an abacus that I bought at the flea market at Toji Temple in Kyoto.

On the right side I have a series of bowls perched on Japanese silk bobbins called itomaki (木製糸巻). The bowls from left to right are a hand carved redwood bowl from California and a bowl from South Africa carved with the big five African game animals. Following is a bowl that I made in Seto, Japan and a vase I got in New Zealand carved from a native tree fern, mamaku.  

Just to the left of the bowls I have a carved vessel with two birds perched on top that I bought in the Philippines on the same trip I bought the little rice god statue. To the left of that is a carved hanger for tapestries that I found at the Night Market in Luang Prabang in Laos.

Directly in front of the bowls is an African elephant calendar I bought in South Africa. The twelve miniature elephant carvings each represent one month of the year. Arranged in order by height, you flip the direction of one elephant for each month that has passed.

To the right of the bowls I have a bottle that I discovered in my house's walls, a little abacus and a rock I picked up while hiking Mt. Fuji. 

I know that the top of the bookcase is overcrowded and a bit cluttered looking, but each of these items is really special to me and can't imagine not displaying everything.

Dining Room Then & Now

Somedays I get overwhelmed with all of the things I need to finish up around my home. Since I got my new dining room chairs a few weeks ago I keep thinking about all the things left that still I want to do in there like get a larger table, make curtains, change the paint color, add some wall art and replace the buffet with a built-in. The list just goes on and on. Don't even get me started on other rooms in the house.

When I start to get discouraged it helps for me to reflect on how far I've come. When I first bought my house in September 2007 the dining area, like the rest of the house, was a nasty wreck. The floor was covered in green threadbare carpet riddled with stains. The crumbling plaster lathe walls original to the house had been covered up with faux wood paneling and wallpaper instead of being repaired. Likewise the crumbling ceiling had been hidden by a cardboard tile drop ceiling. The previous owners had been heavy smokers and everything reeked and was full of nicotine stains. The wallpaper which looked like it was yellow was discovered to be originally white based on the areas that had been hidden under the paneling. The whole place was in one word gross and everything needed to go.

After gutting everything to the studs, the situation got worse. Building practices in the late 1800s don't always meet modern building code. It turns out that the ceiling joists over the dining room and living room were huge beams about 8" x 8" spaced 48" apart. That is not anywhere even remotely up to code and so I ended up having to have the beams sistered with steel C-channel to give the proper support for the second floor load. On the bright side I discovered that the hardwood floor hiding under the carpet was in good enough shape to be saved.

With this part of the house in complete remodel I took the opportunity to rework the floor plan as well. Upon walking in the house a long wall created a strange hallway parallel to the dining room and living room. I had that pulled down which required moving some ductwork and electrical and enlarging the chase next to the bay window.  That really opened up the first floor, but the biggest change came from making a pass through into the kitchen. I love that I can see through to the back window of my house from my front door and the pass through is great for entertaining. Opening things up also made the bay window a focal point on the first floor instead of being hidden away.

With the structural changes done the walls were drywalled and painted and the hardwood floors were refinished. The original trim was too badly damaged to be reused but new trim to match the original profiles was put up around the windows and for the baseboards. My favorite part of the dining room remodel is the Hi-Lite two-light island pendant that I got on sale for $200. It has a beautiful finish and the price was a fraction of other similar fixtures.

Standing back and looking at the room as it is now, I still see the laundry list of items I want to complete to finish the space and give it some personality. But it is good for me to stop and take a moment to remember how far it has come and that the hard part is behind me.

New Dining Room Chairs

I am so excited that I got new dining room chairs yesterday. Well, they aren't brand, spanking new but they are new to me and I couldn't be more thrilled.

For the past several years I have been using Terje Folding Chairs from Ikea as my dining room chairs. I have also used the chairs outside and between exposure to the elements and the number of years they have been in service the chairs have been looking quite rough. I have wanted to get some nicer chairs that were more durable and comfortable, but everything that I liked seemed to be a minimum of $200 per chair. I wanted a set of eight and I couldn't justify the expense.

Yesterday morning as I was perusing Craigslist before work I found a posting for a set of eight Lowe Chocolate Leather Side Chairs from Crate and Barrel for $500. These chairs sell for $199 each so after tax the set would have been nearly $1700 for me if I bought them new. I quickly emailed the seller and anxiously awaited a response. I finally heard back that someone was going to stop by to look at them the next day but she would sell to the first offer.

As soon as I got out of work at seven yesterday evening I headed over to check out the chairs. They were in mint condition and the seller mentioned that they barely use their dining room. I was sold on them, but could only fit two of the chairs in my little hatchback. Luckily, Frank has an SUV so he helped me pick up the remaining six a bit later in the evening.

I love the chairs and they instantly made my dining area look nicer. They are also really comfortable and I just couldn't beat the price at over 70% off. The only issue is that the chairs don't fit well at the heads of my table with the way the table legs are angled. It is a junky laminate top table that I bought for $10 several years ago so this just gives me a good excuse to look around for a replacement.

So what do you think of the new chairs? Have you gotten any killer deals lately that you can't believe?