Kitchen/Dining Room Updates

Ready for a house update? I hope so because that's the topic of the day! If you only stop by for pictures of Easton feel free to skip this one :)

Our main room has seen a lot of change over the last few months and that's not a bad thing because it's where we spend most of our time! While there are definitely some bigger changes I eventually want to make, like changing up the upper kitchen cabinets, I knew there were some easy things we could do to make the space fit our style and our needs.

First up was a table update. Our dining table and benches were built by the previous owners with wood they reclaimed from the house when they were doing renovations. It made for a beautiful rustic look that I love but wasn't really practical for us. The main issue was that the table top was a little uneven causing more than one fatality to a misplaced glasses of wine. I really didn't want to replace the table since it was literally a piece of the house so we looked into different ideas for correcting the problem like floating a piece of glass over the top or having a professional wood worker plane the wood, but for various reasons those didn't work out. Plan B: make a new table top and keep the base. I decided I wanted to try my hand at DIYing a concrete table top and I'm so glad I did because I love the way it turned out!

The table before


First step was to decide on the size - we chose to make the top a little wider and a little longer so we could comfortable accommodate 8 people (although I'm kicking myself for not sizing it up to hold 10). We headed to Home Depot and picked up two 3/4" thick pieces of plywood and a box of Henry's Feather Finish Concrete. We screwed the two pieces of plywood together and then layer by layer I covered it with thin layers of the concrete.

We attached the two pieces with 1" Spax screws and sanded the edges flush

Between layers, I would sand it smooth and after applying 7 layers of concrete, I progressively sanded it to a super smooth finish. Thank goodness we bought an electric sander!


Lastly, Branch assisted me in spreading out multiple layers of food-safe epoxy to prevent any water marks. We attached it to the legs and boom! New table! Here she is now!



Once the table was finished, it was time to work on the seating. Branch wasn't crazy about having to sit on a bench so I set out to find alternatives. Originally, I thought I wanted an eclectic mix of upholstered hostess chairs, metal chairs and a bench, like this:

Original source: Southern Living

But after looking at more inspiration pictures I began to realize that I really wanted to be the table to be the star and the chairs to kind of fade into the background. That's how we ended up with this set of black Eames style chairs. I love that they don't steal the table's show and that they don't visually clutter the space (which is important when you see the whole room when you walk in through the door) but that they still have interesting legs. They were also pretty inexpensive (a plus when you have to buy 8 at one time) and comfortable to sit in!



In keeping with the trend of visual decluttering, I decided I wanted something more simple above the island. I love the chandeliers but blame it on my ADD, I just felt like they were too busy for the clean lines of the space. I found these Restoration Hardware knockoffs at World Market and saved myself ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS (I'm not exaggerating folks. It was a $500 savings per pendant)

 vs 

Our kitchen went from this:
Pre-move in pic

To this!


Have no fear, those chandeliers were moved to new homes in the house. I used them to replace our simple track lights in the master bedroom closet and laundry room where they provide more light and more character!

Last up was a quick fix. Our island was finished off using the original siding from the exterior of the house. I love the look, and the history, and have no intentions of changing it, but the tannins from the wood were starting to show through.



It was beginning to look little too "authentic" for my taste...


A couple of coats of white paint later and she looks all spiffed up and ready for some new bar stools!


It's not a huge difference because of the roughness of the wood but it definitely looks a lot cleaner.

Our living room has also seen a lot of updates since Christmas. I'm trying to get the last couple projects in there done before sharing all the changes. Stay tuned!

Love y'all!



Comments

  1. Oh my...love, Love, LOVE it all! I am so impressed with your concrete tabletop skills! That is one thing I have never worked with before and I'm not sure I could get it that smooth. Awesome job, lady! I dig the chairs with it too. Have you considered putting a rug underneath? Might make it all stand out from the floor a little?? Those new light fixtures are gorg! Love the clean lines of them. Now I can't wait to see your other updates!!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts