Dining Room Reveal

Welcome to our new home's first "tour". The formal dining is probably the most finished of all our spaces. There are some things I would like to tweak, as always. For sure I'm on the lookout for the perfect new light fixture, I just haven't found the one that says "I'm yours!!" So for the moment were sticking with the builder grade fixture the house came with.

Here is what we started with-White walls and no window coverings-brand spank-in new.

Now it looks like this-

I painted this room myself, I love the richness of the brown in a more formal room. I don't really see this room being used as a diningroom often. With kids I tend to avoid carpet combined with food. I think it will be more of a "have some wine and chat room" or "play board games room" or a "Daddy brought some work home and needs a spot to use his laptop room" The view from the kitchen.

Looking towards the kitchen at the nook space. I'm at a loss as to what exactly I'm doing with it. I think if we didn't have small kids, It would make a neat little bar space. Maybe come Christmas I'll tuck a Christmas tree in here.

The dining set is a Craigslist find. I painted and distressed the chairs using Anne Sloan Chalk Paint in Antique White. The table I had planned to do white legs and re stain the top a darker wood.. but I'm actually liking this color with the bamboo we put on the windows.

 Things purchased new-Bike canvas (TJ Max), Wall Mirror (HomeDepot) The wall greenery cones (Hobby Lobby 60%off) The two wood wall right of the kitchen entrance (ross, the candles (ross), Scentsy warmer, grain sack (Uberchic home via Farm Chicks Show)and the bamboo blinds (Lowes)The bird cage was from our wedding (don't remember what store)The decorative jars on the buffet (Real Deals)Candle holders in the two windows (Ross) and area rug (Ross)

 The table, buffet, black bookshelf, Vintage white curtains, wall candle holder, Glass candle holder on the table and various nic-naks in the black shelf including the garden box with the recently broken handle, lamp with shade and candle tray are secondhand finds.

Enjoy,
Kristina

Distressed Style Union Jack Dresser

In the spirit of the 2012 Olympics, I'm introducing my version of a Union Jack dresser. I have been wanting to done one for ages, ever since I spotted Miss Mustard Seed's HERE and then the others popping up on Pinterest. This dresser was a thrift store find a few years ago. I painted it black and added new pulls in antiqued brass.

Here is a shot of it in the old house in it's black form....

 

.....and now it looks like this.

Much better...
I'm loving the Anne Sloan Olive over the black. It distressed perfectly, letting that black come through.I also got a bit of a suprise, the cream that was under the black started showing up also. Bonus for me, and gives the dresser that old been around look.
 The tone matches my decor more than the traditional white, blue and red...as much as I love the looks of those dressers too.

Here it is in my entry, just for fun I added my London subway art canvas I picked up awhile ago at Ross. Though this wall is going to be my gallery wall eventually... It has already gotten a start on that, but that will have to wait for another post.

Linking up to:

New House, New Blog

Well, I know it's been a long time between posting on a blog. We have been a super busy family with moving into our brand new home and then just the usual summer activities and family gatherings.

We love our new neighborhood and had looked at the older area, close by, wistfully when house hunting over a year ago. Everything we saw however needed work and was priced at the top of our budget, and at the time we weren't sure if we would be living in the area long. So we bought the little house as a place to live in the area so hubby wouldn't have the long commute, and as an investment. A little elbow grease while living there and then try our hands being landlords. Then a new development started right in the area we wanted...we watched it grow and saw a couple of houses go up. Well we just had to do it.. as much as I love cottages with a bit of history, we couldn't turn down living just houses away from sports fields, dog park, splash park and bike trail. Not to mention the fact that our kids could go to school via a bike path. All within biking distance to grocery and Starbucks...

So with the major change and the planning of our new spaces, I haven't had much time for blogging. And speaking of which, I felt that along with the move I should move to a different blog. Something that fits the new house, with a new name and a fresh start. I moved my older posts here of course, though I'm far from having the posts all organized an a helpful manor. So now I will be blogging from The Sagebrush Cottage. Our new house is too big to be a "cottage", but I hope to give it a cozy cottage vibe. From our house you can see the hills surrounding our valley covered with sagebrush and the tang of it on rainy spring nights.
Best of all, I have some new projects to reveal here in the coming weeks...