Dining Room Progress

I'm back y'all, sorry for the hiatus, I truly missed you all!!

So! As you might have remembered I purchased a bamboo/rattan dining set off Craigslist when we bought the house and I had big ideas on changing it for my own personal style and taking advantage of only paying $85 for a table to fit our space. My mom and I tackled the project of spray painting the table one weekend. Turns out you need a decent amount of spray paint for a table and four chairs, so stock up.. We ended up taking 3 trips to Lowe's.. whoops!

To spray paint any item really, you'll want to start out by sanding down all the rough spots on the chairs and paying close attention to where there is a lot of wear and tear or you know there is a lot of use (like the top of the chair). After sanding down the chairs it's best to wipe them down with some type of cleaner with alcohol in it to take off any extra dirt or residue and allow to dry. Then you'll spray paint the first layer in slow smooth strokes, allow to dry, and then paint the next coat.

 

Before.

 During.

Almost after!

All in all, it took about 8 cans of black lacquer spray paint to get these beauties up to par. The paint can definitely add up and give you quite the arm workout but they came out fabulous! I really love the shiny black. You may also remember I showed you how to recover the cushions for our newly painted chairs, and here's the final resort. (Sidenote: I wish I was a better photographer.. hopefully soon!)

So here's how the dining room looks now! We also installed our beautiful ikat curtains, compliments of my favorite fabric store, Premier Fabrics. I LOVE how dramatic the fabric is and I think it's just fun and different! (Oh and again the fabric on the chairs is from Premier Fabrics as well!)

 

An up close of the curtains. Fun turquoise, orange and black ikat!

 

Right now we (I mean my mom) is in the process of redoing a new piece of furniture for the wall next to the fridge. It's going to be a buffet that has been lacquered in white. Then I'll probably put a lamp on either side(?), perhaps a mirror or a really cool piece of art over it as well. That will be determined later. Until I get the piece, this is what is currently there.. I know it's a bit of hodge podge but I figured I'd be honest and show you the before.

So one more time, here's our somewhat finished project! That light STILL has to go, but I think we have something up our sleeve for that. I had purchased a rug but I think I'm against the rug for the time being. Once the new piece of furniture is here maybe I'll have a better idea of whether a rug will work or not, but I'm not dying to have one anyway.

Hope you all liked the finished project!
xoxo,
Amanda

Craigslist Barstools

I know I was complaining about finding bar stools in my last post, but that week I had been scouring Craigslist in hopes that I would find something acceptable to use as bar stools as we have officially announced our house warming party! (March 1st y'all!) The stools are decent and black, 30'' so a bit shorter than I wish we could find but they were $85 for FOUR bar stools. It actually turns out I really only needed 3 bar stools, but at least I have an extra just in case.

 

This is what the bar stool looked like when we first purchased them. We obviously knew we'd want to recover them so off to Premier Fabrics we went. I actually got hubs to come along with me this time so that we could consider fabric for the dining area too. He was not too excited to be at the fabric store so I let him have some decision in the fabric, mostly the bar stool fabric.

And this is what he chose. Record players in orange. At least it matches the curtains and it's a fun conversation piece! Hubs is a musician too, so at least it goes with his passion and we have created a small bar near the bar stools and counter so it's the man section of the room!

And viola! The finished product. Although, we desperately need to respray paint the stools, but it's been too cold to be able to do so, so that will come soon. Maybe this week now that all the snow is gone!

Rock on y'all.

xoxo,

Amanda

And the curtains parted

   

Y'all!!! We have curtains!! I can't tell you how excited I am to have privacy in our living room finally, but more importantly, I'm excited to have a fun and beautiful fabric to brighten up our town home! A big thanks to my Mom who sewed these babies herself. She did quite the beautiful job and we are lucky to have such a handy lady in our life to help with these projects. She said it was quite easy, but I doubt I could've done it! We used 6 yards of fabric and got 96 inch curtains out of it. They match up really nicely don't they?

I also have to thank Premier Fabrics of Raleigh for the beautiful fabric! Not only was it an amazing price ($63 for 6 yards of fabric!!!!! You can't even buy ONE panel of curtains at Pottery Barn for that price!). The fabric is beautiful and sturdy and the bold patterns that they have really suite my style. There will be more recaps of some beautiful fabrics we purchased for other projects around the house too from Premier Fabrics. For more photos of their fabric, check out my previous post.

 
We added the bamboo screen under neath the curtains to help add a bit more privacy so that we don't always have to touch the curtains and move them. I think it also adds a bit of an earthy feel to the living room. I'm so happy with the curtains and I really love the pop of color. Anyone who knows me also knows that I love orange so naturally that was the fabric I gravitated to. What do you guys think of the new curtains?!

Can't wait to show these bad boys off in real life to everyone but in the mean time, check out Premier Fabrics on Facebook and Instagram. Love to hear your thoughts, and know that we are still working on making this place home, but progress is progress and having curtains I think is GREAT progress!! They really help a room feel more complete and less naked.

xoxo,
Amanda

Fabric Finds

I'm still scheming on colors and patterns for the new digs and happened to come across a new fabric store in Raleigh that I'm totally head over heels for! All the fabrics are made in the USA and are between $9.99-$12.99 a yard. Yes please!! The store is called Premier Fabrics and I highly recommend you check them out ASAP! I'm currently cooking up an idea for the master bedroom to be in navy blue, like so:

But if navy isn't your thing, just have a peak at more of their fabrics!

 

Y'all know I have a thing for orange.. now how to incorporate... and this black and white, OMG!

 

How gorg is this combo above?! I didn't get to see this in person yet, but I can't wait to venture back!

I hope these fabrics give you some inspiration on this Monday, and if you're in the Raleigh area I highly recommend you all stop by Premier Fabrics and check out their awesome fabrics! I can't wait to finally pick some selections and get started on some pieces for the living room and bedroom. But first, deciding on my color combos.. 

xoxo,

Amanda