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

Recovering Cushions

As you recall I have a project up my sleeve with a bamboo/rattan dining table set I bought of Craigslist. As with anything on Craigslist, I generally redo the cushions just so they're fresh for me and I can make them the way I like. This table is no exception, actually it's definitely a requirement because the cushions were a bit naaaastaaay.

 

EWWWWW.

After we picked our fabric for the dining room, I picked a fabric that coordinated with the curtains for the dining cushions. It just so happened that the fabric I liked best that matched, was an indoor/outdoor fabric, which means it's a lot easier to clean and keep neat, you can wipe it down with water, etc. Anywho, we decided that we wanted to keep the design similar to the other cushion, in which it was pleated around the sides. So what we did was 1) cut a circle in the fabric the width of the cushion 2) cut a long strip 3) pinch pleat and pin the fabric so that it's little folds all the way around the circle 4) sew with a sewing machine around the edge of the pleated fabric with the pins in 5) pull the pins out and place over cushion 6) staple those suckers down and VIOLA a new cushion!

Oh, we also added a bit of extra padding to make the cushions a bit more comfortable. You don't have to do this but since we didn't know where these cushions had been, it was a bit of an extra layer.

So now the cushions are done and I can't wait to put them on the chairs. We actually just spray painted the chairs this past weekend so I wanted to give them some time to settle before putting the cushions on them. What do you think? Now you can try this at home too!

xoxo,
Amanda

Bamboo you say?

When we finally moved in all of our furniture into the house I did not like our rectangle table we already had. It just looks awkward in the space and it's a little over sized for the area. It's also hard to get around the corner and it really needs a piece of furniture on the wall (on the left). Then the rectangle table doesn't allow the table to be centered under the light, which is annoying too.

 

(I'm selling this on craigslist so please ignore the terrible iPhone quality and the rug I just laid down to have a rug.. Eek, I promise it'll look better soon! And hopefully someone buys it ASAP!)

I knew immediately I wanted a round table, and have for some time now, wanted a round table. I don't know why they appeal to me, but they sure do! I know I don't have a budget for a brand new table because a table and chair combo is a crazy expense! (Think at least $100 per chair, plus a table). I purchased the rectangle table on Craiglist, so I began a new search on Craigslist... and as crazy as it sounds, I began searching for a bamboo styled table! I happened to find one exactly like what I was looking for for $85 for four chairs and the table, so I couldn't pass up the option. It looks like the below table.

I know it doesn't look like much and looks very old school, but just remember there's always possibility in rejuvenating older pieces of furniture! Here are some of the ideas I took away to give my table inspiration.

 

via Better Homes and Garden

via Society Social

via Design Sponge

via Swoon Worthy

Johnathan Adler via Dream Design Live

via Carla Aston Design

I've already picked out my curtains and fabric for the cushions, which I'll follow up with soon. I know you're probably thinking I'm crazy for buying a table like this because it's not AS nice as the Chippendale chairs like some of the above images, but it's a start and I'm excited! We've decided on doing the chairs in a black lacquer so I'm quite excited to see how they turn out. I think they'll look quite fab and it'll be a fun update to a rather boring area of the house. Yippie!

xoxo,

Amanda