Merry Christmas & Our Dining Room!

It is just after noon on a lovely Christmas day!  The family just finished watching our new copy of Guardians of the Galaxy…which I will frankly admit didn’t impress me that much when I saw it in the theater…so I decided to take a few pictures and blog! 
That *is* rest and relaxation for me!  I have been too bush (or distracted) to do much of it lately.  The holiday house tours have come and gone, but I thought I’d share a few pictures of my (mostly) COMPLETED dining room before the Christmas decorations come down.

Yes, you read that right…mostly completed!  That means I finally built a dining table that I intend to keep!  Maybe I’ll do a full “reveal” at another time, but I wouldn’t hold my breath…

I bought this set of eight chairs almost a year ago from Ruffles & Rust in Snohomish, WA.  They showed pictures of them on their Facebook page, and I think I was in at opening the next day.  I built the table to go with them, and I think I used something like seven different coats of five different stains to get the color right!

Here’s my Christmas centerpiece…and old shutter, an IKEA sheepskin, some wooden beads, and a pretty candle arrangement I got from my mother several years ago.  I texted a picture of it to my sister and asked, “Is this too weird or just weird enough?”  She responded, “Just weird enough!  It suits you!”

Still not sure how to take that….

In the background you can get a glimpse of my antique pie safe.  This is the wall where my suitcases used to be…

…but I moved them to the largest wall (painted in chalkboard paint!) and added a couple new additions (the gray suitcase on the bottom left and the little train case on the bottom right).

I have a small collection of reindeer that gets displayed on my suitcases every year.  I love how they look on the chalkboard wall.

This is another new addition…this beautiful old pine hutch.  I’ve wanted one for years, and I scooped this one up for $75 from Craigslist. 

My girls helped me glitter some paper mache stars to hang on this old ladder.  I’ve had the ladder for over two years, and it just barely got to come in the house!

I made the curtains out of my beloved ikat…I have ikat curtains in our vintage geek family room too!

It has made me happy to have a pretty dining room for the holidays this year, and it will make me happier still when we fill this table (as well as our kitchen table) up with friends and family in a few hours!
From the Red Hen’s Home to yours…we hope you are enjoying a wonderful Christmas holiday!

 

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The Scoop!

Black Beauty

Much to my dear husband’s delight, our dining room has a table in it again…although not for long!

I refinished this set for a client who had picked up this set for a song from a neighbor at a garage sale.  You can see that the finish on the top was pretty worn (it looked worse up close).  She had hopes of refurbishing it herself, but only got as far as replacing three of the seat covers (red instead of white) before losing interest!  I was happy to step in and help!

After removing the original finish, the top got several new coats of stain in a mix of Minwax Dark Walnut and Early American.

The chairs and the apron were painted in a DIY black chalk paint, and I distressed with a wet sponge to let some of the original finish show through.  I sealed the top with Minwax Wipe-on Polyurethane followed by a coat of DIY dark wax, and the painted parts were sealed with General Finishes High Performance TopCoat (satin finish) and DIY dark wax.

I recovered the chairs in this pretty dark fabric she brought me.  She has little ones, so DARK fabric was a must!

This set is HUGE!  The chairs are very generously sized and nicely padded, so it’s a very comfortable table to sit at.  There are two extra leaves for this table as well, so it’s perfect for large gatherings. 

I really love how it turned out…my dining room is moving up on my priority list of rooms to finish!

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My Repurposed Life	Elizabeth & Co.
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The Scoop!

Two-Tone Table, revisited

My love for farmhouse tables continues unabated, but I took a little break from that style this past week or so.

When I showed you the Wide Farmhouse Table I made for my friend Stacy, I mentioned that I had previously refinished another table for her, but it was looking a little worse for the wear after a few years with a family of boys!

My job was to make it beautiful again.  What do you think?

Here’s what it looked like when I got it:

And here’s what it looked like after the first re-finish job:

After some good hard family use, there were some real problems:

Not sure why my cell phone photos look a little blue!  Anyway, there was chipped paint, naturally.  And then the finish on the top of the table went very cloudy in places.  I blame an inferior polyurethane I got from Ace Hardware (sorry, Ace), as that is the only time I’ve ever used it, and I hated it even then!  I actually still had the same can in my stash…I have now gotten rid of it! 

I chose to use CitriStrip to get rid of the old poly, rather than sanding it down.  There really was no need to go back to bare wood, as I still liked the original colors underneath.

I did, however, refresh the color with a new coat of stain before putting on the polyurethane.  This time I used three coats of Minwax Hand-rubbed Polyurethane in Satin, followed by one coat of paste wax.

The chairs got a light sanding, and then I repainted with oil-based paint this time.  It tends to be a little more long-wearing, I think.  I recovered the seats in this pretty fabric.  You know I’m a sucker for typography!!

I love how the leaves on this table tuck away neatly underneath.  Pull them both out, and you have another 30” of table space!  Such a great feature.

I adore the legs on this piece…

I am so glad I got to be the one to give this set a THIRD life!

I have to say…it really looked gorgeous in my dining room!  It was hard to let it go…again!

What do you think??  Is there room in your life for both rustic farmhouse tables and beautiful antiques?  There is in mine!

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Knick of Time	Domestically Speaking
Common Ground	My Repurposed Life
	Mod Vintage Life

Grand Truss Table & Benches

This could be the one.

Really.

The number of tables that have come and gone in my dining room since the beginning of the year has become a little bit of a joke.

I think this makes seven.

And the funny part is…this one won’t be staying either!

I built this as a custom order for a woman I met at the October Market, but I’m not sure I want to let it go!

This thing is huge—8 feet long!  (That’s why it’s “Grand.”)

The benches are 80” each, and it easily seats 10 people with chairs at the ends—you could squeeze 12 in if they’re friendly!  The benches are an adaptation of Ana White’s Providence bench. 

The table…well, it was a bit of an adventure.  I started out looking at the Providence Table plans, but I knew I wanted a chunkier base…and the plan page directed me to Design Confidential plans.  Unfortunately, the plans from Design Confidential are not as well-written as Ana’s plans, plus some of the measurements are just plain…wrong.  I had to do a little “winging” of things as I went along.

After my table was done, I found that Ana White does have her own 4x4 truss table plans here.  Oh, how I wish I had realized that at the beginning; it would have saved me a grand headache!  But I guess I can say that mine is an “original!” 

The other big change for this table is the color.  I have been playing with light, old, weathered looks for all the others, and I loved them….

….but I think my heart really lies with dark.  My customer wanted a very dark Pottery Barn-esque finish, I think I achieved it, with FOUR coats of Minwax Antique Walnut, mixed with a little ebony here and there (not a separate coat) for depth of color.  The staining and finishing took FOR.EV.ER, but it was totally worth it in the end.

You can also get a glimpse of exposed hardware on this table.  Rather than use pocket holes (which is problematic on 4x4 lumber anyway), I used 5-inch lag screws to attach the beams together.  It just adds to the rustic quality, I think.

The only way I can reconcile myself to giving up this table is knowing that I can build another one…for me!  Plus, 8-feet is really too big for my dining room, darn it.

I’ll just enjoy looking at it until it goes to its new home!

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Knick of Time	Domestically Speaking
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Common Ground	My Repurposed Life
From My Front Porch to Yours	Mod Vintage Life A Little Knick Knack

Modified Breadboard Farm Table

My dining room is empty again.

I built another farmhouse-style table before the Barn Sale in August, but it didn’t sell there, nor at the October Market.  That didn’t bother me at all, as it looked very nice in my dining room!

I made this one a little smaller than usual; it was just 72 inches long rather than 78 inches.  But it would still seat eight, thanks to the narrow pressed-back chairs I found and painted black to go with it.

The other side got a bench (modified from Ana White).  I originally painted the bench a soft dill green, but I didn’t care for it much…so I painted black over the green, but used the Vaseline trick to give it a very chippy finish.

I call this table top a “modified breadboard.”  Breadboard ends extend across the whole width of a top, but in this case I only made them for the middle three boards of the table.  So the long side boards are the entire length of the table.

It just gives it a little different look, which I like.

I also played with a little white wash on this table.  It makes it look a little gray-er, in my opinion, and adds to the look of age.

This may sound silly…but I’m excited that it’s gone, because now I get to build another one    I am actually working on a HUGE custom table for someone right now, and it’s nice that I’ll have the space to photograph it before it goes to its new home!  But then…I get to figure out what to do next…for ME…

…at least for a little while!

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The Inspiration Exchange	Elizabeth & Co.
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Knick of Time	Domestically Speaking
Perfectly Imperfect	No Minimalist Here
Common Ground	My Repurposed Life
From My Front Porch to Yours	Mod Vintage Life A Little Knick Knack

For the Birds: a dining set

My dining room has been “full” for a little while again, and it has been so nice!  A friend of mine was moving and didn’t want to take her dining set with her…and I just happened to be willing to take it off her hands!

The sad part is that I canNOT find my “before” pictures.  I remember taking them…really I do!  But they are not to be found, either on my phone or my camera.

Suffice it to say that the finish on the top of the table was utterly shot, one of the chairs had a large hole in the caning, and the seat cushions were stained and dog-hairy.

This version, I think, is much better!

I will admit it took me a looonnnggg time to finish this project!  I got the table top stained and the body and chairs painted, and then they sat…and sat…and sat.  It was WEEKS before I replaced the caning (using my tried-true kitchen tools, as shown here)  put the poly on the top and glazed and distressed everything else.

I don’t know why I waited so long!

I love the pretty legs on this piece.

And I really love the seat fabric!  I ordered it from Fabric. com here (it’s called Richloom Birdwatcher Meadow).  I am such a sucker for birds, and I think the whole dining set re-do was just an excuse to use this fabric!  If you love the fabric like I do…they have a couple other color options.  I chose to go with the more “neutral” one, but my heart was really pulled toward the Meadow colorway. 

You can see my Milk & Cream lazy susan made an appearance on the newly finished table…it’s always fun to put a few new things together!

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Linking up here:

The Inspiration Exchange	Elizabeth & Co.
Primitive & Proper	Thrifty Décor Chick
Friday Remodelaholic	The Scoop!
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Knick of Time	Domestically Speaking
Perfectly Imperfect	No Minimalist Here
Common Ground	My Repurposed Life
From My Front Porch to Yours	A Little Knick Knack