Living/Dining Room: Making Progress

As I’ve mentioned before, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do about my dining room chairs, but in the end, I figured since none of my furniture really goes together, and my Kivik is white, it would probably be best if all of my chairs were white.

This time, both chairs were packaged together, which was good because it eliminated a lot of the waste that I had the first time.

Please ignore the pictures on the wall, I haven’t quite figured this room out.

I have another round of musical furniture coming up soon, and that rug needs to be replaced. But I am making some progress. And it’s beginning to feel like Christmas around here. I even put a few presents under the tree.

My mom sent a few more ornaments, so my little one decided to decorate the bottom portion of the tree in red…at least they aren’t all on the same branch.

Wishing you and your family happy holidays!

My Dining Chair Dilemma

I only have 2 dining room chairs at the moment. I’ve been meaning to get 2  or 4 more, I just haven’t decided on what they should look like.

I like the idea of mismatched chairs. When they’re done right, and the style and scale are balanced and blend well with all of the other elements in the room, I think mismatched chairs are beautiful.

A quick Google search for “mismatched dining room chairs” presented me with a slew of beautifully decorated eclectic rooms.

The one below from allthingsthrifty.com, although not quite my style, is absolutely adorable.

The colors are different, but it’s well balanced, and cohesive, and it still looks like they belong together.

This one for HGTV.com I also think is done very well. 

The chairs are different, but the colors are the same, and they have an airiness that contrasts nicely with the darkness of the floor, window treatments and wall color.

The problem I have with mismatched chairs is that, it’s easy for it too look odd, unbalanced, and thrown together. Sometimes, it just doesn’t look cohesive and makes the room look too busy.

I don’t have a dedicated room for dining.

My little area needs to multitask, and already consists of other pieces of furniture that don’t quite match, so I have to be careful about going overboard.

I’ve been considering acrylic chairs. I like the way they almost disappear when they aren’t in use. My favorite is the Vapor Chair from CB2. I think its shape would compliment my current chairs…but I am still undecided.

I have to make a decision soon because my family will be visiting for Christmas and into the new year, and 2 chairs just won’t cut it.

Off to ponder…what do you think I should do?

Later!

Benjamin Moore Natura Meets Elle’s Dining Room Table

I’ve been exploring my zero VOC paint options lately. To date, I’ve only tried Mythic paint on my son’s bed and toybox, and the Benjamin Moore Natura range for my dining room table.

I have to say, of the 2, the Natura is my favorite. The consistency is thick, and I find that I don’t get the paint drips that I got with the Mythic paint, but it also spreads so nicely. There’s almost no odor at all. The brush strokes that I did see were minor.

I bought 3 pints. One pint of 3 colors; kendall charcoal, banana yellow, and chantilly lace. For the table I used the kendall charcoal.

My only complaint is that the sticker on the front of the can looks like something I could print out on a low quality desktop printer, and stick on with an Elmer's glue stick. But then, maybe that’s the company’s effort to be more “green.” But then again, it’s what’s on the inside that matters most, right? And inside, the stuff is good.

The picture above was taken after one coat of the Zinsser water based primer, and one coat of the paint. I followed up with a second second coat, and a two coats of Minwax polyacrylic. The color ended up being a rich, cool grey. I love it! And that is all, for now.

Talk to you in the next one!