Dining Room Progress & A GOOOOOD DEAL!

I feel like we have been working on our Patio Project F O R E V E R and as excited as I am for that space to really be taking shape, I'm literally itching for some progress INSIDE. Thankfully last weekend we happened upon a great deal and made some unexpected progress in our dining room!

Soooo let's recap for a minute, since introducing you all to the new house we have made some decisions/changes to how we will use the spaces. The room that was dubbed the dining room when we purchased the house is actually going to be our home office and the room that was the formal living room is now the dining room. A formal living room is just not practical for our needs, but another eating area is something we can always use, especially when we entertain.  This room sits at the front of the house, gets great natural light and because it opens up to the foyer, feels really long and open.

A few months ago we had a dining room table made by a guy Brent found on Craigslist. We happened upon this craftsman by inquiring about the size of another table he had listed. When that table wasn't the size we were looking for he let us know he could make us a table whatever size we wanted. So, we got our thoughts together and sent over our vision. He literally made the table in his garage to our exact specifications and we are SO happy with it. I think we paid $600 and it took him about a week to complete. Thankfully Brent's brother Phillip was in town when the table was ready for pick-up, because it took all three brothers to carry that beast in the house.

For months this side of the room has been empty with the exception of the table, that is until last weekend when we fell into some seriously good luck.  On Sunday we popped over to Scott's Antique around 2:00. For those unfamiliar, Scott's Antique Show comes to town (Atlanta) the second weekend of every month. Vendors from across the country wheel in to town with all kinds of furniture, decorative pieces, rugs, art, etc...Anyways, because it was the last day of the show and late in the day at that, a lot of the vendors were packing up. We perused around and while we weren't looking for anything in particular, we always have a list of certain items we are in need of in our head, and this time that list consisted of:

• Coffee table
• Sofa table 
• Dining Room Chairs

Randomly we came upon a booth that had a pair of really cool wing back chairs. We had long talked about the concept of having two nice, big chairs at the ends of the table, captain chairs if you will, with other chairs or a bench along each side. As we walked over to take a closer look we noticed the price tag said  $1200 dollars each...YIKES! We really loved the chairs...they are equal parts funky and classic and the blue color is literally our weakness. Brent and I are bad, we both love blue and if we don't watch ourselves we would have blue on every singe interior item we purchase! However, as much as we liked these chairs there was no way we were going to pay that price, but before we could walk away, one of the sales guys walked up and randomly told us he would sell us the chairs at $699 each. A better price, but still more than we were looking to spend on this particular trip.  We verbalized this and his response was "OK, how about $299 each? I really don't want to load them back on the truck." Umm.....We did love them and at that price, what could we do!? So, we pulled the trigger and took the chairs home.

And here they sit.

And happy we are. 

Oh, and the best part? This same chair retails for $1,650 (on sale for $1,237) at Restoration Hardware. GO US!!!!!!!!!!

Unless otherwise noted all images are my own. 

A New Direction for the Solarium

We move around this house like a bouncy ball. Up and down, here and there, in and out. It's like we have decorating A.D.D.  I'm not complaining, simply stating facts. To be honest, this process works for me and my brain. I need to execute one concept at a time, let it soak in and then go from there. If I try to bite off the whole thing at once, I often rush things and end up regretting decisions or purchases. So, a human bouncy ball it is.

One space we have really been taking our time with is the solarium. We have definitely rolled in and out of this room a few times. Since moving in we have painted the ceiling and stenciled the flooring, leaving us with this:

With the space looking better and better with each completed project the question continued to arise - what was the end game? When I initially thought about the future of this room I envisioned a proper sunroom - flowy drapes, a sisal rug and some wicker furniture, you know the usual. But the longer we lived in this house, the harder it was for me to picture a room filled with pretty furnishings that no one would ever use. Of course people would walk through the pretty room to and from the deck, but no one would ever actually hang out in there. Some might argue that we would read, have tea or just sit with friends and chat, but when your house is right under 2000 square feet, allotting that much space to an "every now and then" used room seemed wasteful.

When we let ourselves stop and think about the out-of-the-box possibilities we realized we had one big glaring need this room could easily fill - Organization. We have important papers, computers, chargers, notepads, bills, pens and other work related paraphernalia EVERYWHERE! It took us 30 minutes to locate our marriage license when I went to change my last name. We are constantly chasing our tails trying to remember where we put stamps, our passports, the checks... It's insane! Our "to shred" stack is huge and there are three of them. You get the point, our lives would be SO much....well... more organized if we had one central location to house the above items AKA an OFFICE!

So, we broke out the sketch pad and began dreaming about our perfect space. We wanted a place to store the printer and shredder, a drawer for files in addition to a separate knee space for each of us. After a few tweaks we landed on this:

CAD drawings by my favorite CAD wizard - Wanda. 

Once the idea slipped from our brains, into conversation and onto paper, the more and more we knew this was the perfect use of this space. The room is bright with tons of natural light - making it a great design work space. Plus there is an entrance from the outside. So, if I ever needed to work from home clients would have a straight path to my work zone that doesn't include coming through the front door.  Because this room is the bridge between the house and the back deck, it sees a lot of traffic when we entertain. This was the only negative for placing the office here, UNTIL we realized the desk will easily double as a buffet (with a table cloth over it of course) when we have parties. We also plan to keep some of the bar ware in the far right cabinet right next to the deck for easy access. We are all about Multi-functional spaces!

Once we ironed out all of the details, things really started coming together; we had the electrician out a few weeks ago to install outlets on the wall and the cabinetry should be ordered this week. Plus, we happened upon the world's cutest office chairs last weekend at Scott's Antique.

We've been on the lookout for chairs for some time, but everything we found fell short in one way or another. When we found these chairs WITH WHEELS, arms and cushions, it was love at first sight. The existing upholstery is pretty worn and will have to be replaced. I love the fact we have the opportunity to customize them to add another layer of cool to the space. I have no idea what upholstery treatment they will get but I'm excited to explore the options. I smell a whole blog dedicated to these chairs coming up, wink - wink :)

A room with a plan - I love it! I'm confident this is the right direction for this room and I can't wait to see it all come together. Stay tuned -  cabinetry should be installed in June and it's full steam ahead from there! 

All photos my own.