Vintage Eclectic Chairs

Hello friends! I am back today after a month of being super busy with multiple projects happening at once (porch, pool, patio, etc. etc.) and the kids end of school year events.

While I have been busy with outdoor projects, I am always thinking about my decor indoors and what projects I hope to do when the weather gets cooler.  I would love to do some small updates in my kitchen and dining room.  Despite the fact that we just redid the dining room it could use a few tweaks.  I mean, let's face it, even when you try to plan everything there is always something you think of later once the room is really being used.

I would love to get some old/new dining room chairs.  I currently have 4 of a kind danish spindle chairs that I bought years ago unfinished and painted them myself.  The other two oak t-back chairs are from my great grandparents dining room set.  I would love a few more chairs to mix in when we extend our table for parties and holidays.  We can easily seat 10 people so we would need at least 4 more chairs.

Personally, I am not a fan of matchy-match furniture.  The more eclectic the better, so searching for vintage makes sense.  That's where Chairish comes in.  It's an online marketplace for vintage designer furniture and decor items!  You can find so many great items there, like these dining chairs.

Here are some of the chairs I found on Chairish:

This option is funky and I like the mid-century vibe.

I am not sure the color of these is quite right for my space, but how cool are they?!

These are similar to the chairs I have.

Super simple, yet funky.  These would be awesome reupholstered with mustard colored print fabric.

These feel like a sort of classic take on mid-century mod.  I would love to see these with dark 2 tone upholstery.

Love, love, love these old farmhouse chairs! The fact that each one is a different chippy paint color is just perfect!!

Another mid-century mod option.  These are so cool!

There are so many great choices available at Charish!  It really makes it hard to decide.

Here's some idea of what I envision:

Farmhouse Chairs  //  Valspar Pier 14 Paint  //  Atwell Pendant Light  //  Black Spindle Chair  //  Mali Tribal Indigo Blues Pillow  //  Kazak Fabric Pillow  //  Mulberry Tree Art  //  Taza Table Lamp

If you are in the market for anything cool and vintage check out Charish and I will hopefully be back in the next few days/weeks to post some long overdue updates on the many projects we have been working on outdoors!

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Our sitting room is finally done (and now it's a dining room)!

Our sitting room was a room in our house that never quite felt "right." I posted here about how I planned to brighten up the room and redecorate.

Here's a reminder of what the room looked like before:

It wasn't as "orange" as it looks in this photo...really.

Redecorating it was a slow going process from the white paint fail, to trying to move around the furniture to fit some other way.  Then, one day I was reading this book and I had the idea to switch my sitting room and my dining room area.  The previous owners had used this room as a dining room, but when we moved here we thought it would be good to have a more casual dining area with little kids so we put our dining room table and chairs in our kitchen.

So, I told Ken my idea and even though it meant moving some big furniture he was surprisingly on board.  We moved everything that night.  We loved it from the get go, but I needed to do a few more things to finish both spaces.  They are finally (almost) done so....

Here is our new dining room (that was a sitting room):

This is the only room in the house with the original bead board ceiling, which I love!

This shaker rocker was built from a kit.

In the end we really didn't have to do too much to transform this room and it wasn't too costly either.

Here's what we did:

- painted Valspar's "Pier 14."
- switched out our sitting room furniture with our dining table and chairs and added 2 antique oak T back chairs from my mom (which originally belonged to my great-grandparents).
- added new art (framed paintings by my daughter and photos by a friend).
- new light fixture from here.
- moved our vintage pine cupboard.
- new curtains from here.
- new shaker rocker (kit) from here.

That's it!  Geesh...It only took 6 months!  I will show the actual "new" sitting area next post!

Here's a last before and after:

Rugs for the Kitchen: Part 1

I have been trying to find a new rug for my kitchen for quite some time.  My kitchen colors are really neutral and I like that, but this time of year with the coming of spring and spring cleaning I was hoping to freshen things up and infuse some punches of color into the space.  However, I have been having a hard time deciding what kind of rug works well in a kitchen.

Here is some inspiration I have found:

I like the look of this ethnic looking design with the wood cabinets and dark countertops.

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This bright rug looks awesome with the minty green cabinets and farmers sink.

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I love how these striped runners add subtle color in an otherwise neutral kitchen.

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 This rug looks great with the stainless steel.

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Love this rug with the white cabinets.  I sort of wish my cabinets were white!

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This kitchen has a similar countertop to my kitchen but my cabinets are much lighter color.  This colorful floral rug really adds some fun.

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This rug is pretty traditional yet adds a cozy feeling to this white kitchen.

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I love the look of this navy and white rug, which looks great with the wood floor, white cabinets, and black hardware.

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I don't particularly like the "fanciness" of this kitchen, but I love the rug.

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I plan to do some rug shopping soon so I will be back next week to show you what I come up with!  I also plan to finish both my sitting area and dining room this weekend, so I will be back with the final photos of those spaces next week as well!

A place to rest

I hate clutter.  Clutter makes me feel sick and constricted and anxious.  However, I don't really want my house to feel sterile and devoid of feeling either.  So, how can I find the balance between crisp and organized and completely minimal?  I think the key is is "resting space."  That is - planned empty surfaces which create a place for your eyes to rest.  It's like the difference between a salon style art gallery and a modern one.  If you give the things you love space to breathe, I think they really show off.  

Here are some examples I found that seem to me the perfect blend between cozy and crisp/uncluttered.

This kitchen is perfect to me.  The colors and and crisp white counters make the space seem light and airy, while the wood beams and table and slip covered cocoa colored stools seem warm and cozy.  Tonal white dishes help the space feel uncluttered.

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This sofa area seems like a place I could sit down with a good book.  I like the muted color wall with the pops of red and brown and green.  The mirror collection seems carefully chosen and makes a simple gallery statement.  The rich colors in this space feel so much more cozy to me than bland grays and whites.

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Although this space is mostly white tones, the rich wood table, floors and railing really warm the space up.  Industrial style stools help give the space a not too serious feel.

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This bedroom has everything I love.  White-washed paneled walls, spool bed, beautiful cozy textures and patterns and muted tones. So perfect.

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More muted tones, carefully curated objects, pops of warm color all make this space seem both pristine and comfortable.  I also like the idea of bookcases that display other objects besides books.

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The more I find images like these, the more I realize what I truly want to feel when I walk into a room in my home.  I hope as I am working to de-clutter and simplify my own home I can use inspiration like these photos to help keep the coziness too.

Workspace - Office Makeover...

I have always been one to pick up my laptop and sit on the couch and work, so I never really needed an "office" area, but I do have a lot of files, etc. so it seemed like a nice idea to try and consolidate them into one location.

Before, this was just an empty corner near our staircase and a play area.  Now that the girls have outgrown their play kitchen it was a good place for me to "set up shop" so to speak and locate our desk and file storage.

Here's what it looked like before:

And here's what it looks like today:

The file cabinets are from Ikea and they store the files for all three businesses and our household files as well.  The bulletin board is where I hang anything I want to ponder.  Behind the blue door is our "art closet" where we keep all of our art supplies that can't live out in my studio.

This is a desk that was handed down to us from my husband's aunt and uncle.  I made it look a little more fun by adding yellow hexagon pulls from Anthropology and some wrapping paper and plexiglass for the top.  I put a few family photos underneath.  I keep my "ongoing" files here as well as my laptop so I can easily grab them and work anywhere.

The art is a notebook cover that I cut off the notebook when it was filled and put it in a frame. The black birds are repurposed from a photo hanger kit from Target.  The chair pad is vintage.

It's nice to have an organized place to put everything... even if I am still sitting on the couch while I type this!