Time for a Change

I've posted about my dining room set probably 3,417 times, but it's one of my favorite finds...

But I have been pondering moving the table from the 1880s...

into the dining room (it has two leaves and could accommodate six people), and find a more rustic-style set for the kitchen... which means selling the original dining set. Tear.

For the kitchen, I am hunting for  a set with the same feel as this from Ethan Allen, but with a much smaller price...

The recipe for this is a farmhouse-style table, windsor chairs, and a hutch.  So far, I've found four Tell City chairs on Craigslist...

I've negotiated $80 for all four.  I've also found this mini-hutch...

It's not the size I was looking for, but it is solid oak, cheaper than every pie safe I've looked at, and nearby.

So, if you're in the Chattanooga area and want an awesome, blog-featured dining room set...

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A Creature of Habit

All of a sudden, I couldn't handle the pink room on the main floor.  I know, first world problem for sure, but it needed to go. This weekend.

Why, oh why, would anyone paint the formal living room (right by the front door) petal pink?

I went to Ace Hardware with the intention of buying Benjamin Moore "Glass Slipper," but it has a greenish tint. (It's a very pretty color! I just wanted a pure white or pale blue.)  I bought a sample (a rare occurrence!) of Benjamin Moore "First Snowfall" and slapped swatches on parts of the room with different amounts of light.  It was definitely pale in the can, but in a room with shutters and very little overhead lighting, it appeared more saturated and blue-purple.  Not what I had in mind.

I love the white-blue we used in my office...

which is Benjamin Moore "Wedding Veil."

I love how it looks against white trim and dark wood pieces...

I'm going to arrange some of these pieces to fill this room...

These guys will fit nicely into the bay window.

I felt like I was cheating a little bit by choosing a color I had used previously, but then I thought, "This is our house... I'm going to use what makes me happy, even if that means I didn't branch out." 

I can't seem to get away from light wall colors: I want the walls to feel like a backdrop to the room.  So maybe a whitish-blue is expected, but I like it. Grant likes it.  If you gravitate towards jewel tones predictably, use them; if you love mid-century furniture, cram as much as you want into your home.  

Happy making-your-home-with-what-you-love!

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In Place of a Mudrooom

The door we use most often is the door from the garage into the kitchen, which means we- and all of our stuff- land in the breakfast nook when we get home.  Keys got lost a lot, bags were on the floor, and jackets were never where I need them.

A night at Home Goods, World Market, and Hobby Lobby later, I had the beginnings of a makeshift mudroom.

I found a rustic shelf with hooks at Home Goods on sale for $40. Yes, please!

 

To dress it up a wee bit, I found these cute, little things at World Market...

A blackboard also seemed practical for leaving a message here and there.

I also found these hooks at Hobby Lobby thinking they might be a nice fit here. (Grant already wants to move my awesome shelf!)

I love how each one is a little different.

For now, the shelf is doing the trick, but a Craigslist buffet or sofa table placed by the door with the Hobby Lobby hooks over it might be nice.

Clearly, important decisions to be made on our homestead.

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Weekend Finds

I had thought I would peel wallpaper all weekend, but I might have gotten a little distracted by the thought of Home Goods and Joann. I really needed to look for curtains for a couple rooms, right? Eh, debatable, but fun nonetheless. 

Well, curtains didn't hold my attention long either.  I found these cute, little topiaries in white ceramic vases for $15 apiece.  I have been hunting for some of these for quite a while, but they're always too expensive for me to buy two of them.  They are flanking the fireplace in the den for now.

I think they make the room feel a little less 1980's and a little more classic.

Then I happened upon a set of four napkins that coordinate with the table runner my mom got me for Christmas.

For $6, I had to make them my own.

After Home Goods, my mom and I poked around at Joann in search of fabric for curtains: something for the formal living room and something for the guest bedroom.

This blue fabric for the living room curtains is almost canvas in texture...

It was on sale for $12.50/yard! I bought 2&2/3 yards because I will be making dummy panels.  (See my tutorial here.)

Ticking gets me every time, and it goes so nicely with the floral quilt in the guestroom...

Now I'll get to sewing!

Happy hunting for pretty things!

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Dining Room Part One

Why anyone would want to hang wallpaper, I'll never know. Especially when it looks like this...

Yes, that is cranberry-red, floral wallpaper. Ew.  I'm not sure I can handle that chandelier in its current state either. 

Anyway, first things first- wallpaper must go.  Evidently, other people think so, too: there are more tools at the store for removing wallpaper than for hanging it.  I had heard to buy a scorer and some remover, so I got both and also some wall scrapers.

My mom and I started a-peelin' away... well, sort of. We scored the wallpaper pretty heavily, then sprayed with this remover.  We found we could make the remover go further if we used a sponge soaked with warm water to spread it around. Once the paper appeared saturated (a few minutes- not the 15 minutes the bottle advises because the remover dries, and you're back to square one), we started scraping.  My mom used a putty knife, and I used a razor scraper.  

I think the razor scraper took the paper off better, but the putty knife did less damage to the drywall.  

After two walls, we decided that the scoring was doing more harm than good.

Those are wee, tiny holes caused by the scorer.

This is our progress after two people worked for about 4 hours...

Oy.

Grant came in for a few minutes to peel by the window, and he was lucky enough to pull huge pieces off...

 However, this is how my hours of work look...

I will never put wallpaper up because I never, ever, ever want to peel it again.  Maybe if I worked for the next week nonstop I could have it all gone.

Back to peelin'!

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