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Friday, January 23, 2015

dining room...part II (building dining table & accessorizing)

we had built a dining table at for our last house.. and once we moved, we decided to sell it and design a new one. the new dining room was a lot larger, and needed a longer more substantial table. we actually came up with the planks by accident...sort of. we had planned a trip to bauer brothers, in mpls, to look for an antique/vintage sink for the half bath downstairs and some pieces for our radiators, an old front entry door with glass...and various other things we needed for the house. if you haven't been to this place....oh my word...GO! its so fun. you need hours of time though, to get through the whole building. with the basement, i think its 4 or 5 floors of everything you would ever need to restore a house. granted, they're a bit pricey on some things...so we had to get a little creative on what we wanted. anyways, we were walking around in the big yard outside and found these massive planks. they were 4x7x16ish'. not really sure what they were used for, but they were pretty cool. so we sat there out in the yard for almost an hour, designing our new dining table. figuring out how we could attach the planks, what sort of base, color..etc. we i wanted to do something somewhat industrial looking, with some paint and stain...but keep it somewhat 'old' looking.

this is what we came up with...





























this thing is massive...and super heavy! after the top was put together, we had our friend use his floor sander on it....using a hand or belt sander didnt even make a dent in it! after that, we built the base and assembled the table in the dining room. i painted the base in MMS color (which i sell at the shop), trophy. its a nice rich, warm grey. and stained the top in english chestnut. i wanted something that was only a few shades darker than the floors. if i would've gone any darker, it would've looked like a massive dark hole...

i found a set of 4 mid century chairs when i lived in mpls. so i decided to use them and reupholster the seats. i found a nice neutral print that worked well with everything else in the room. the head chairs are some mid century red curved ones, with cool nail head trim. those were a score i found over a year ago!


































































the buffet i decided to use was something i just found a few months ago. i had something else in mind..something larger and on legs. but this actually fits the space better. something grounded and not on such a large scale, like the table. i used MMS in trophy and grainsack to finish this piece. the original hardware was all in tact, so i used it again.


































the niche is something we want to design a little bit, at some point. we want to build a wine bar in that space. but for now i put an antique dresser in there to hold some of my dishes and to fill the space. it works..and see...i dont paint everything :) the room needed some wood tones in, so i left it natural.

 i started accessorizing a little bit...again, with a mix of different styles. i'm not a matchy-matchy kind of girl..i like to add some interest and really just things that catch my eye, that i love. the antique dresser has some vintage fiesta ware saucers and a set of mid century juice glasses...and a couple pieces of my 'china' set that i found...


 here are a few other things that i've found to use in there...a cool cup holder and some antique frames with vintage dished hung in them. a really cool antique english scale and some antique gravy boats. and a few silver plated silverware stored in an antique tea pot.







































the room isn't completely done...i keep moving things around and trying new things in there. my husband comes home quite often to things moved to another room or something completely different on the walls!

once the trim is up...its going to look amazing! give me another month or two for that :)

Thursday, January 22, 2015

dining room....part 1

i was going to try and fit the entire dining room post, in one...but there are too many fun things to show! so i'll start with some 'before' and 'after' photos of the room itself. its always so satisfying to look back at the house when we first got it...and now to see how far its come! its quite the transformation and i'm loving how everything is turning out. i just have to keep that in mind when i'm getting frustrated with the process...its painstakingly long...frustrating, monotonous and rewarding all at the same time. i'm a very visual person, and i see the 'end' result in my head and its hard sometimes to have the patience to get to that point! but we are SO close on the interior! the lower level is pretty much finished....we're going through the millions of trim pieces left, figuring out where they all go and then my job will start. the repairing, caulking, priming and painting. such a long process that is, in itself.

so i'll start with the dining room. this room has some really gorgeous, elaborate trim. we've got a few pieces of the window and door casing up now and the base will be next.

here's what it looked like when we first got the house...





































quite the room, huh! we decided to get rid of the two corner cabinets...they weren't original to the house...most likely from the 40's. they didn't fit the period of the house, and really, there was no need for them. the little niche is something that was original, so we kept that. there was actually one on the other side of the kitchen door, at one point as well. so its clear, the house was altered quite a bit at different points in time. oh how i wish i had photos throughout the years of this house!

like i said, this room is the one with the most elaborate trim. we're putting it all back up...as i absolutely love it...and it makes the room look so grand and 'finished'.  i'm still amazed at the craftsmanship it took to build this house and all the trim and details that went into it.

like the rest of the house...i want to keep the style of the house, and keep my colors and furnishings somewhat neutral, to show the beauty of the house itself. although, once things get settled a little, there will be some wallcovering back on a few of the walls....against the dismay of my husband! im really liking the sort of mish-mash of styles and furnishings...and i think thats what makes a home so interesting.


just finished the floors and got to 'move-in'





not having the corner cabinets really opened up the room




Friday, December 12, 2014

reclaimed wood dining table

just got a new dining table in the shop today! my dad actually built this one...and i asked him if he knew where the wood came from. its always nice to have a little story with a piece of furniture i make or sell here! he said that it came from his family farm, the maynard johnson farm. he thought that jack mulholland cut the trees down on grandpas land and milled them. he's saved the wood for more than 15 years...waiting to find a project to make out of it! so, needless to say, this table is sort of special to me....i love that it was built with the wood that grew on the land, that my grandpa johnson farmed!

i love the dark, warm stain color and the contrasting lighter wood pieces....with the metal accents! this would look amazing in any interior!

77w x 40d x 31h
$1950











Thursday, December 04, 2014

stunner....

take a look at this beauty! lovely antique dresser with a hanky drawer....painted in my most favorite color of the moment....artissimo. a deep dark navy MMS milk paint. she's for sale at the shop!





holiday open house!

the time is finally here for our open house! shared by adourn and candid joy photography!

























the shop is all decorated for the holiday's!






































and there are lots of gift items!