Dining Room Table & Chairs- Before

When we were looking at houses in North Carolina and trying to decide if this was the house that we wanted, one of the factors we kept thinking about was our furniture. This house is about 200 sq ft smaller than our house in Nashville which isn't a huge difference, but the layout makes the rooms a lot smaller. We knew that a lot of our furniture wouldn't fit. 

Someone gave us a good piece of advice and said, "Don't buy a house based on your furniture. The investment of furniture doesn't compare to the investment of a house." True story. But we had only had our furniture (that we bought brand new) for 5 years so it felt a little painful to get rid of.  

Obviously we ended up buying this house, so we had to figure out what we were going to do. 

The was our old dining room table & chairs in Nashville. 

The chairs (that were a gift) are from Pottery Barn. 

We found this table at Rooms to Go. We loved it but it is honkin. 

Clearly these weren't going to fit in our dining area in our new house:

We put them on Craig's List and they sold quickly. I was happier to part with them when I found out the wife had been looking for months and made her husband drive down from Kentucky to get them, AND they were huge UK fans. 

Once we moved here, it was time to look for a new set. I knew that we didn't want to buy something brand new again. Good thing refinishing old furniture is "in."

We looked at Shelton's- a huge furniture warehouse in downtown Raleigh. It's the same place where we found our TV Stand. 

Amidst a jungle of furniture, we found this set..... 

We knew we had to see past the finish & upholstery to try to find the right shape & size, knowing that we were going to refinish everything ourselves. This set was the perfect size for our little dining area so we took it.  

This upholstery was something for sure. 

One we got everything home I realized how much I loved these chairs. 

I love the details on the spindles. 

It came with 6 chairs but only 4 fit well at the table.  

While it fits well in the space, clearly there was lots of work to be done. 

And lots of work I did with a lot of help from other people.  

I turned to Pinterest for inspiration on what I was going to do. 

For the table, I knew that I wanted to stain the top and pain the bottom like these:

Source: Brittany Makes

Source: Design Stash

This picture convinced me that I really did want to stain the chairs- as daunting as that sounded (and believe me daunting it was). 

Source: Houzz

For the color, I wanted to use green chalk paint. 

I really liked this color:

Source: Simply Seleta

Source: Copper Roof Interiors

I wanted to use Annie Sloan and had originally thought that using a lighter version of Antibes Green would give me what I want but from everything I found on Pinterest, it goes on much brighter than I wanted. 

The Annie Sloan seller here has pieces that she has painted in different colors, and I was really surprised when I asked what color something that looked like this was:

Source: Oliver and Rust

It was Chateau grey without any Old White added. 

The paint chips for Cateau Grey look like this:

 I was really surprised at how green it went on. 

So I went with that and it was exactly what I was looking for. 

So that's the "before" and I will share the "after" soon with the daunting process that it took to get there.  I'm excited to share more of our home with you! 

New House=Clean Slate

Now that we've moved, we have get to start all over with a new house. It seems like yesterday that we completely remodeled our old house. I can't express how thankful I am that we don't have to do any of that again. We feel so blessed.... it's not everyday that you buy a bungalow that was built in 1940 and not have to do any work on it because it was just completely redone.

We really do love our cute little home with the red shutters & doors, and I'm sure will love it more and more as we get settled in (and the boxes all disappear). 

Here are some pictures of our "clean slate" before we moved in.....

Our cute little front porch just asking for a porch swing and bistro table!

The front door opens right into the little living room. We are still waiting on doors for our fire place. If you know Adam, it has killed him this winter to not be able to burn the mountain of firewood that is just hanging out in our back yard. It is taller than it is wide, so we had to have them custom made which has taken a lot longer than it should've due to some inaccurate measurements. One more week. 

The little hallway- notice the grate in the floor. Most old houses have a big metal grate in the floor for their air intake, but when the previous owners repaired & re-stained the hardwoods, they put a wood grate that fits flush with the floor in. Such a great idea. So thankful they thought to do this!

Then you come into the dining area, and huge kitchen with brand new everything. I LOVE it and have had so much fun organizing & "settling into" it. 

The dining area from the kitchen

The guest bathroom. They put in a jacuzzi tub in the guest shower. Again, thankful for the thoughtfulness on that one since there certainly isn't room for on in the master bath. 

This is one of the 2 extra bedrooms. For an old house, the original closets are surprisingly big. 

The beam that runs in from the front of that alcove marks the edge of the original house. The back half, including the kitchen, master & back living area are all an addition. 

There are 2 doors into the master.... one from the middle bedroom.... 

.....and one from the back living area.

Part of the master bath

The back "living area"

It's a really long room.... with a lot of potential. 

And for a little glimpse of our reality right now....

That "potential" is cluttered with boxes. 

I can't wait until the visions of a lovely little sitting area with a bench seat in this area take shape.....

......with a built in mini-office workspace in that corner by the back door. 

The downside of buying an old house- no basement OR garage (or driveway for that matter). So you can imagine my delight that all of THIS.......

is going into the shed that is going to be built TOMORROW! PTL. I'm ready for the yard tools, bike, and other manly things to be OUT of here, and to begin to turn this area into a workspace/office area.

My head is constantly spinning with visions of how I want this area to take shape. 

Next step.... painting the whole house.... since it's all currently "real estate beige." We learned about 9 years ago, that we don't paint walls ourselves. Neither of us has the patience it takes to do so.... especially when it's your whole house. Keeping my fingers crossed that the painting process will start ASAP! 

And here's a little glimpse of our WONDERFUL back yard with a 3-tiered back deck WITH a built in fire pit and a giant magnolia tree. Love. It. 

So that's our big blank slate. I look forward to sharing more with you as time goes on!