I'll start at the beginning.
During our enormous basement renovation last year, our dining room became the dumping room. Meaning, anything that didn't originally get storage status on the 3rd floor got thrown in a heap on the first floor. Since we lived through it (in the kitchen and livingroom mostly), ground zero was the dining room.
It was bad.
<a picture should go here - but it was so bad, no pictures exist>
When the reno came to an end in October, we were very careful what went back down in the basement. No junk. Or chaos. Or what-do-we-do-with-this?
Hence, the dumping room continued to suffer. It's the room we'd avoid. It's not the kitchen. It's not the livingroom. It's a boxy passageway. With stuff still piled up everywhere. We don't spend time in there because we don't like it. We eat in the kitchen and watch TV in the livingroom. What do we do with this room in between?
It got to the point where Steve and I seriously talked about tearing down walls, eliminating the room and selling everything in it.
Enter my husband's co-worker/friend who moonlights as an interior decorator.
He encouraged us to reclaim the dining room. Embrace it. And embrace what we have. Get the table back in place - it belongs in the center of the room, not off to the side. And get the chairs out of the kitchen. They belong with the table.
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| Yes. |
He gave us other homework. Paint the room white, get a new sideboard (ours is too big for the room & functions as a change table) and find a new light fixture....something sparkly. Yes, sir.
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| View from the livingroom |
Yup. Those are a few reno-related items in the back corner there, waiting for garbage day. But for the most part, we've re-established the dining room. With an action plan in place. And it feels really good. There's something about embracing the layout of an old house instead of daydreaming change. It feels right.
And waaaaay cheaper.
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| View from the kitchen |
Now, instead of walking through it and cringing, I smile a little bit. I can't wait to finish purging and begin painting.
So you're probably wondering...if the chairs found a new home, what's in the kitchen?
That's the something new...
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| Before |
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| After |
Crazy, right? We took advantage of our weekend babysitters and went out to "look" at new chairs.
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| From dining room |
I'd have walked right by these chairs if it hadn't been for our moonlighter.
I love them.
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| Before |
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| After |
They look amazing with the new grey & white palette. Their smaller size (compared to the dining room chairs) makes the kitchen look bigger. And believe it or not, they are so comfortable!
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| White seat/chrome bottom |
An unexpected purchase, but definitely a good one. The right one.
*Thank you Mr. K!!!!!*
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