We are so excited because our dining room is officially complete!! Have I mentioned how awesome my dad is? He's so incredibly talented. He basically handcrafted our dining room table that we redid. I'm so excited to show off the results.
Before:
Our whole house was mostly renovated before it was put on the market. All of the floors were redone (except for the entry that my dad redid). They had a lot of the light fixtures replaced as well. The dining room had a brand new chandelier that we really love. The only thing we changed in here was the wall color. We had the ceilings smoothed too if you want to count that (which we had done all over the house as well). I repainted all of the furniture in here and sewed the burlap curtains. That was where the most change came in.
After:
Note that in most of the pics my table was set for my mother-in-law's birthday dinner. It doesn't always have fresh flowers on it.
We painted it Sandune by Benjamin Moore. I love this color. It's a nice neutral but it's warm and inviting. It's more on the brown side and looks really nice next to the white trim. We also painted it in our kitchen/laundry/half bath.
And here's a before pic of the room with my pre-redone furniture in it:
I definitely did a lot of painting in here. My furniture needed some lovin. Our last house had more greens, reds, and yellows. This house has more blues, whites, and grays. The last house had a lot of warm colors and this one has more cool colors.
The piece of furniture that was definitely the most work to change was the table. I first chalk painted it off white, added a wax finish, recovered the bottoms, had my dad make a new wooden topper for it, then stained and sealed the wood. It happened piece by piece over like 3 months. I love how it turned out! It was originally given to me by the Hedgepeths when I was a freshman in college. They used it to homeschool their kids on for years and it had been living in their attic. It was a yellowish wood. I painted it red and brown when it came to me the first time and it stayed like that for about 3 years. We love its sentimental value.
Before:
After:
We painted it Sandune by Benjamin Moore. I love this color. It's a nice neutral but it's warm and inviting. It's more on the brown side and looks really nice next to the white trim. We also painted it in our kitchen/laundry/half bath.
And here's a before pic of the room with my pre-redone furniture in it:
I definitely did a lot of painting in here. My furniture needed some lovin. Our last house had more greens, reds, and yellows. This house has more blues, whites, and grays. The last house had a lot of warm colors and this one has more cool colors.
The piece of furniture that was definitely the most work to change was the table. I first chalk painted it off white, added a wax finish, recovered the bottoms, had my dad make a new wooden topper for it, then stained and sealed the wood. It happened piece by piece over like 3 months. I love how it turned out! It was originally given to me by the Hedgepeths when I was a freshman in college. They used it to homeschool their kids on for years and it had been living in their attic. It was a yellowish wood. I painted it red and brown when it came to me the first time and it stayed like that for about 3 years. We love its sentimental value.
Before:
After:
So I tried chalk paint for the first time expecting to be obsessed with it. It didn't cover well like I thought. I did 2.5 coats and it still was kind of streaky. Not to mention a quart is $40 and I had just a little left after I finished the table and 6 chairs. I was told it'd go as far as a gallon if you put water in it. All the water did was make it thinner and harder to cover with. I was hoping to get my china cabinet painted with it as well. I wasn't about to spend $40 more on another quart so I had the color matched at Farrell Calhoun and painted the cabinet with half of an $8 quart of satin latex with no water added. I ended up using the other half of the quart to paint my 2 bedside tables with. I ended up putting the same wax finish on the bedside tables to see if it'd turn out the same and they look exactly like my dining table. The only difference is $32. I'm pretty cheap and for the same exact look I can't justify spending the extra money on the brand. I'm probably one of the only ones who hasn't fallen in love with the stuff. Maybe I'll try it again in the future and be proven wrong. Who knows.
Back to the table. So I chalk painted it off white then decided to put a wax finish on it that I saw on the internet somewhere. I got on Amazon (wasn't about to spend big bucks on the chalk paint brand) and ordered 2 MinWax waxes and a stencil brush. I got a clear wax and a dark wax. The waxes were about $20 for both and the brush was $7. Pretty sure you can get these at Home Depot or Lowes but I have Amazon Prime and got free 2 day shipping to save myself a trip. I read everywhere that you need both. If you put the dark wax on without putting the clear wax first it'll go cray cray on you. I didn't want to risk it.
First I used a cloth to rub the clear wax all over the whole surface.
(Ignore my dry hands. I had been painting for like a solid month)
Then use your brush to buff circles of the dark wax on top of the clear wax surface. You can make this as dark or as light as you want. I followed behind with a cloth for extra blending.
Back to the table. So I chalk painted it off white then decided to put a wax finish on it that I saw on the internet somewhere. I got on Amazon (wasn't about to spend big bucks on the chalk paint brand) and ordered 2 MinWax waxes and a stencil brush. I got a clear wax and a dark wax. The waxes were about $20 for both and the brush was $7. Pretty sure you can get these at Home Depot or Lowes but I have Amazon Prime and got free 2 day shipping to save myself a trip. I read everywhere that you need both. If you put the dark wax on without putting the clear wax first it'll go cray cray on you. I didn't want to risk it.
First I used a cloth to rub the clear wax all over the whole surface.
Then use your brush to buff circles of the dark wax on top of the clear wax surface. You can make this as dark or as light as you want. I followed behind with a cloth for extra blending.
Tada! The painting was finally finished.
I ordered the fabric from Joanne. I found it online and immediately fell in love. I ordered a 3x3 sample first just to make sure I liked it in person. It coordinated with my poppy painting that I already had perfectly. It's Waverly brand and called Carousel Check in Sorbet. It's a really nice fabric so of course it was the most expensive fabric I've ever purchased. Online it was $60 originally but 50% off. So $30 a yard and I needed 3.5 yards. I had a coupon for 20% off regular and sale items for in store purchases only. This fabric was only sold online and none of the online coupons worked for items on sale. I called the store and asked them if I could come into the store to place my order and use my in-store coupon. They said sure! So I saved $20 on top of the sale price, free shipping to the store, and online I would've had to order whole yards and in store I could order half yards. So what would've been over $120 if I had purchased online was less than $90 in the store. Always ask!
So the fabric took almost 2 months to come in and this project was a bit at a standstill. It finally came in and I put everything together except the top. I needed my daddy. He got some wood planks and nail gunned them in place. After they settled like that he then cut them to the right size and used a super fancy tool to go around the edges. I had no idea he could do that. It was better than I had imagined. Then he took his electric sander to sand down the surface all nice, even and smooth. Then I puttied the holes, stained the wood and sealed it with a Polyurethane and voila!! I love it so much. It made such a big difference in the room. I couldn't have done it with out my awesome woodworking dad.
Next I painted this white makeup dresser that I found at Habitat for Humanity Restore on Winchester. I saw it and just immediately loved it. The lady who worked there said a woman brought it in to donate it the day before and said she spent $600 on it originally. Not sure if that was true but it is a really nice piece of furniture. I got it for less than $100. The top opens up with a mirror on it like a vanity. Pretty cool! I wanted to do something fun with it so I decided to paint it coral. When I hate it in a few years I can just repaint it. No big deal. I chose Bay Coral from Farrell Calhoun. I used enamel so it wouldn't chip off. After it dried I sanded it a bit to give it a more rustic feel.
The last piece of furniture I redid was my china cabinet. This cabinet I got at an estate sale that I went to with my mom and grandma like 4 years ago. It was the last day this sale was open (it was a Monday) and everything was so cheap. No one had bought it and it was marked down to $160. I got my dining chairs at this sale as well for like $50 for all of them. I bought my things and then we went to another estate sale on the other side of town. While there, 2 ladies came up to me and asked if I had just bought the green china cabinet from the other sale. I said yes and they offered me $500 for it right there. They were at the previous sale and we said we wanted the cabinet right before they did I think. Pretty weird. I loved it too much and it was too good of a deal to part with at that point. Where else was I going to find a china cabinet like that for that price? I'm so glad I kept it.
This is where I used the matched chalk paint color. I painted the outside the off-white and the inside Big Spender by Farrell Calhoun. Love that color. Once everything was dry I sanded the white a bit.
Like the rest of the world I'm obsessed with burlap. I also recently became obsessed with sewing. So naturally I sewed myself some burlap curtains. Burlap is such a pain to sew with because it unravels so easily. It took a whole day but I did it. Just don't look too close because they're far from perfect. I lined them as well so they'd look more formal for the dining room.
Almost a year later I decided that they were missing something so I made a valence with leftover fabric from my chair seats. I made it out of foam core board and hung the burlap curtains with a simple $1.50 rod. You can't see it and it couldn't be bulky. It looks much more finished now. Having a valence also lets you create the illusion of a wider window which I really like.
I love hanging my curtains up really high. It definitely makes the room look much bigger.
One little thing I did was redo this picture frame. It was a super cheap from Michaels a few years ago. It was black with a white mat. I decided I didn't like it any more so I painted it off white (like the china cabinet) and re-matted it with paper from Michaels. I used a cardboardy-looking paper for the back and a linen paper for right around the pictures.
The rug that I have in there currently I found at Ross for $50. I wanted one exactly like it for this room so I was really excited when I found it at an obscure place. It's definitely a bit too small but it'll work for now. It'll eventually get replaced with a bigger one and we'll move that one to the kitchen or something.
We are so excited that things are coming together!! We were interviewed on Saturday to be in the Commercial Appeal. Matt, Elphie and I will be featured in the "Our New House" section on Easter Sunday. We are so excited! Keep an eye out for us ;)
This is kind of unrelated but while we're on the subject of tables and such I thought I'd share my tables I decorated this weekend. My husband's family came over on Sunday night to celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday. All of the in-town kids got together and made dinner at our house. I'm not a good cook so I mostly decorated. My mother-in-law is so bright and cheery so I wanted the tables to match her personality.
For dessert I made these little angel food cake jars. So simple and yummy. I used store-bought angel food cake, strawberries and homemade whip cream. I got the jars at Hobby Lobby. I got the idea here:
http://iowagirleats.com/2013/05/21/strawberry-angel-food-cake-jars/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+IowaGirlEats+(Iowa+Girl+Eats)
Hope you enjoyed!
2016 UPDATE:
http://katiehedge.blogspot.com/2016/01/house-update-2016.html
I ordered the fabric from Joanne. I found it online and immediately fell in love. I ordered a 3x3 sample first just to make sure I liked it in person. It coordinated with my poppy painting that I already had perfectly. It's Waverly brand and called Carousel Check in Sorbet. It's a really nice fabric so of course it was the most expensive fabric I've ever purchased. Online it was $60 originally but 50% off. So $30 a yard and I needed 3.5 yards. I had a coupon for 20% off regular and sale items for in store purchases only. This fabric was only sold online and none of the online coupons worked for items on sale. I called the store and asked them if I could come into the store to place my order and use my in-store coupon. They said sure! So I saved $20 on top of the sale price, free shipping to the store, and online I would've had to order whole yards and in store I could order half yards. So what would've been over $120 if I had purchased online was less than $90 in the store. Always ask!
So the fabric took almost 2 months to come in and this project was a bit at a standstill. It finally came in and I put everything together except the top. I needed my daddy. He got some wood planks and nail gunned them in place. After they settled like that he then cut them to the right size and used a super fancy tool to go around the edges. I had no idea he could do that. It was better than I had imagined. Then he took his electric sander to sand down the surface all nice, even and smooth. Then I puttied the holes, stained the wood and sealed it with a Polyurethane and voila!! I love it so much. It made such a big difference in the room. I couldn't have done it with out my awesome woodworking dad.
Next I painted this white makeup dresser that I found at Habitat for Humanity Restore on Winchester. I saw it and just immediately loved it. The lady who worked there said a woman brought it in to donate it the day before and said she spent $600 on it originally. Not sure if that was true but it is a really nice piece of furniture. I got it for less than $100. The top opens up with a mirror on it like a vanity. Pretty cool! I wanted to do something fun with it so I decided to paint it coral. When I hate it in a few years I can just repaint it. No big deal. I chose Bay Coral from Farrell Calhoun. I used enamel so it wouldn't chip off. After it dried I sanded it a bit to give it a more rustic feel.
The last piece of furniture I redid was my china cabinet. This cabinet I got at an estate sale that I went to with my mom and grandma like 4 years ago. It was the last day this sale was open (it was a Monday) and everything was so cheap. No one had bought it and it was marked down to $160. I got my dining chairs at this sale as well for like $50 for all of them. I bought my things and then we went to another estate sale on the other side of town. While there, 2 ladies came up to me and asked if I had just bought the green china cabinet from the other sale. I said yes and they offered me $500 for it right there. They were at the previous sale and we said we wanted the cabinet right before they did I think. Pretty weird. I loved it too much and it was too good of a deal to part with at that point. Where else was I going to find a china cabinet like that for that price? I'm so glad I kept it.
This is where I used the matched chalk paint color. I painted the outside the off-white and the inside Big Spender by Farrell Calhoun. Love that color. Once everything was dry I sanded the white a bit.
Like the rest of the world I'm obsessed with burlap. I also recently became obsessed with sewing. So naturally I sewed myself some burlap curtains. Burlap is such a pain to sew with because it unravels so easily. It took a whole day but I did it. Just don't look too close because they're far from perfect. I lined them as well so they'd look more formal for the dining room.
Almost a year later I decided that they were missing something so I made a valence with leftover fabric from my chair seats. I made it out of foam core board and hung the burlap curtains with a simple $1.50 rod. You can't see it and it couldn't be bulky. It looks much more finished now. Having a valence also lets you create the illusion of a wider window which I really like.
I love hanging my curtains up really high. It definitely makes the room look much bigger.
One little thing I did was redo this picture frame. It was a super cheap from Michaels a few years ago. It was black with a white mat. I decided I didn't like it any more so I painted it off white (like the china cabinet) and re-matted it with paper from Michaels. I used a cardboardy-looking paper for the back and a linen paper for right around the pictures.
The rug that I have in there currently I found at Ross for $50. I wanted one exactly like it for this room so I was really excited when I found it at an obscure place. It's definitely a bit too small but it'll work for now. It'll eventually get replaced with a bigger one and we'll move that one to the kitchen or something.
We are so excited that things are coming together!! We were interviewed on Saturday to be in the Commercial Appeal. Matt, Elphie and I will be featured in the "Our New House" section on Easter Sunday. We are so excited! Keep an eye out for us ;)
This is kind of unrelated but while we're on the subject of tables and such I thought I'd share my tables I decorated this weekend. My husband's family came over on Sunday night to celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday. All of the in-town kids got together and made dinner at our house. I'm not a good cook so I mostly decorated. My mother-in-law is so bright and cheery so I wanted the tables to match her personality.
For dessert I made these little angel food cake jars. So simple and yummy. I used store-bought angel food cake, strawberries and homemade whip cream. I got the jars at Hobby Lobby. I got the idea here:
http://iowagirleats.com/2013/05/21/strawberry-angel-food-cake-jars/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+IowaGirlEats+(Iowa+Girl+Eats)
Hope you enjoyed!
2016 UPDATE:
http://katiehedge.blogspot.com/2016/01/house-update-2016.html
