I told you I have been working on a big project this summer. It’s taken a bit longer than expected, but then when you take an entire month and do nothing, that’s what happens I suppose.
I decided it was time to do something with my dining room. It needed a fresh update, but also to be more functional for when we are not entertaining guests; which these days isn’t as much as we’d like.
My dining room furniture is antique and survived my brothers and I, as well as, countless others who were provided with hospitality in my parent’s home. It was passed down to them and then passed on to me 11 years ago.
With no budget, only armed with creativity and a few extras, I set out to accomplish what seemed like an impossible task.
Having a spot that gets little use is a bit frustrating, especially when it is a fairly large part of the main living space. I wanted re-purpose the space and the furniture.
There is quite a bit of storage in the buffet and serving table. Before it was filled with entertaining items which only came out a few times a month. It made more sense to send them to storage and to bring in school project supplies. Since I am blessed with both a dining room and kitchen table using one for school projects made sense.
We normally spend “table time” (educating) around our kitchen table, but projects would need to pick up constantly for meals. The dining room table is huge, seriously, it extends out 12 feet, so larger projects can be worked on and left if need be! Also, having the sewing things up from the basement makes it a bit easier to teach Little Miss when we can grab a moment together.
I’m getting wordy, and I know you really want to see the pictures, which some of you will already have skipped down to anyway…but…one more thing:
To those antique buffs out there. Do not panic!
I know, I know what some of you will be thinking. This furniture “lost it’s value” long before my parents inherited it. Some one sloppily put a coat of stain over the original and there was a lot of damage to it before we got it.
I had always hoped and planned on stripping and staining it a beautiful cherry color, but for now I did the next best thing. AND one day, this too can be stripped right off with the other layers.
I LOVE IT!!!!! Take a look.
Here’s the dining room before:
The dining room after:
Sorry, Mom, you can’t have it back!
Another view before:
After:
Last view before:
Sorry, it’s a bit dark, but the idea was to show the windows. These curtains came with the house.
After:
This is just material tacked up and hung on clips. They are not curtains. It was one of the fun parts of this project!
I will show you more of the details in another post later this week.
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