Wide Open Spaces

Just a quick Wednesday post to share that we finally ripped out the header cabinet in the kitchen.

It's amazing how much more open and airy the dining room and kitchen feel now. (Please excuse the mess. We are still on coat two of texturing the walls so the dining room is chaos right now.)

In case you forgot, here's what it looked like before.

With the header cabinet gone, it's also amazing how much more we notice the lovely t-bar ceiling.

I never liked it before and definitely wanted to do away with it, but the header cabinet hid it fairly well.
Now it's on the top of the list of things to get rid of. Of course, it will have to wait for the walls to be finished, but we are already dreaming of a combination of can and small pendant lights.

Speaking of pendant lights, I ordered a the Eden Pendant Lamp from CB2. We had to take the fan down to texture the walls and ceilings, and once it was gone I couldn't bear the thought of putting it back up.
I forgot to snap a picture of it in my haste to take it down, but it's not much better than this one in the master bedroom. (Please excuse the bad photos. The fog was not cooperating with my need to snap some pics this morning.)

Thanks to a gift certificate left over from our wedding, it was free for us, although the $49.00 price tag is not too shabby for a big pendant light!

I am hoping the simple shape won't block the newly expanded view and will allow other furniture, like the hutch, to steal the show. Plus the room could use a serious dose of curves with all those squares going on.

I'll be sharing how we brought the hutch back from the brink tomorrow, so stay tuned for that.

Gettin' Figgy With It

Sorry for the late post and being MIA yesterday; I am battling a migraine that is just starting to let up. I couldn't resist a quick post today because I am the proud owner of a fiddle leaf fig!

A big thank you goes out to my mother-in-law, who hunted one down for us and bought us the beautiful basket it is currently residing stylishly in!

I decided to place it next to the sideboard in the dining room. There was a sad looking corn plant on the opposite side of the piece before, but I decided to switch things up so the fiddle leaf fig can get access to more light. (They are light-loving plants.)

Here's a close up of the beauty, which I have affectionately named "Figgy" but somehow comes out "Fiddy" every time I say it...you know, like Fifty Cent. I guess I'm just trying to give my new greenery some street cred.

The deep green of the leaves looks great with the dark wood of the sideboard, and their curvy leaves echoes our Classic Century Dinnerware (what we registered for when we got hitched) that I like to display on the sideboard.

In case you are interested, the basket is the Basay Basket from Crate and Barrel. The texture and the handles on the outside are perfect, and the C&B version is half the price (at $69.95) of the same basket at other sites like Pottery Barn.

Go get one now! It's amazing how much some indoor greenery livens up a room.

Unpacking...Three Months In

It's great to be back! Blogger, the site that hosts this blog among others, was down on Thursday and Friday, making it impossible to post. In fact, for awhile my Thursday post was deleted, but now that's back and Blogger is back, so we're in business.

Our friends moved around the corner a couple of weekends ago, and this weekend we popped over to check out their new place and bring them a little welcome-to-the-neighborhood gift. (Their house is beautiful, but much like ours, they have a lot that they want to do to it. It's been fun to swap DIY stories!)

Seeing their room (yes, they only have one) full of boxes reminded me that we still have a few too many rooms in states of unpacking, and it's really time to get rid of those remaining boxes. I mean, we have been here for 3 months now.

Do you all remember this corner?

 
Well, as of yesterday morning we were down to two boxes; one full of china, and one full of crystal and other glassware.

Now the boxes are gone and the china is all washed, put away, and ready to use.

So is all of our stemware.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a spot I am happy with for the crystal, so I stashed it in a corner cabinet (with a lazy susan, no less), until I can find a better place to hopefully display it.

Now I just need to get rid of the horrible mini fridge that the hubs uses for his beer - it's a long story that deserves it's own post - and the dining room will be looking decent.

New Casa: Dining Room

The dining room in our new digs is coming together. Our table fits so much better in this space than it did in the old house.

There is room to maneuver around it, and if we host holidays, I think I will actually be able to use the leaf (cleverly hidden below the glass in the middle of the table). I love the simple, clean lines of the table. This guy - which the hubs got for free from a couple whose home he remodeled - is a keeper. It, like the rest of our furniture, just needs to be refinished. Add it to the list...

It's hard to see since my funky rattan chairs are blocking it from view, but the legs of the table have cool, Japanese-esque pagoda-like detail. I will try to remember to snap a pic. But this does bring me to my next point: I want to replace the chairs with home-made benches that run the length of the table. This would free up the view of the table's construction, which is quite cool. I am thinking something like this:

This one comes from Room and Board, but at $750 just for one, it's far out of our price range. Thankfully, we have a whole heap (literally) of teak and walnut wood in our garage just screaming to be used to make some furniture. Top it with a fun fabric cushion, and this bench could help break all that beige tile. 

Then I am hoping to score some midcentury modern chairs for the heads of the table. Preferably something curvy to contrast with the straight lines of the table and bench.

Source

Speaking of things hiding in our garage just waiting to be used, their is a Berber carpet remnant, also a score from one of Ryan's former jobs, that would help ground the dining area. Unfortunately, it's about the same color as the tile, but it is 100% wool, and it might look crisp if we take it to a local carpet store to get bordered. (Any recommendations?) 

I do want to get some stools for the dining-room side of the counter. 

I am just not sure what direction I want to go in yet. Wood or metal? Vintage or modern? But I figure anything has got to look better than these boxes. My plan is to stalk Craigslist till I find something.

Opposite the table is our sideboard with a makeshift bar. 

In addition to the bar (on the left), I have some of my favorite glass and china pieces on display, as well as some framed black and white photos. I plan to get a tray to demarcate the bar area from the other objects on display. (I found one at Pier 1 for $26 and I have a gift card there that would cover it. Score, right? Not so much. Evidently the gift card is 8 years old, which creates a big mess. Now I have to go in between 8-5 on a weekday. Not sure when that is going to happen...)

The rest of our china and glass pieces are in the two boxes pictured above. I had them on display in our old house on a built in bookshelf like the one in our living room, and all the pieces fit. No built ins to be found here; but we hope to make some floating shelves like these from Pottery Barn to display both our stemware and china. 

In addition, I want to put a couple floating shelves up behind the table to house the rest of our china and display other decorative objects. Ikea, here we come! I am hoping the finished product looks something akin to this:

Source

These items are low on the list right now. I am yearning to get some paint slapped up on the walls. The poor hubs just needs to stop working on the old house now (he's getting it ready for the new renters), so we can focus our attention on our new crib. (That's right, I just said "crib" like I've got some street cred.)