Kitchen Table Makeover Ideas

So the other day I was showing you a table tutorial, and I mentioned the dilemma with our current table.  Well I've been going crazy thinking of a few ways to customize it, (or build a new one if all else fails!) to match our style which is more modern, colorful & bright.  I just can't say no to bright colors, so if we can't put bright on the walls (house is a little dark for that...) then you know we'll have some bright fun pieces.  Take a look at the table, check out that hutch while you're in there:

 

psst...you can kind of see our wall samples there, I think we have a winner! Three walls in the lighter one, and one accent in the darker. 

Sorry about the mess! Like I mentioned before, we're moving! Actually, it's been pretty clean. We've been packing up a truck of boxes, bringing them over, and unpacking.... surprisingly seamless so far.  Anyway, love this table - we just want to do something to it to make it more our own.  That hutch will definitely be getting the deep turquoise, almost peacock treatment.  Probably with a fun fabric background and some new knobs, but the table is undecided.  Maybe something like this old favorite I did a few years ago:

Striped Table Tutorial

Or this glass triangle paint job I featured a while back:

Painted Glass Tabletop

I'm imaging joining the two techniques, and having a pattern of triangles over the top with the wood grain showing through the edges. We'll see. We're going a new direction with the colors of our kitchen, leaning towards a teal, turquoise, orange, white sort of thing going on... sort of like this, but with teals and whites the more dominant color.

Actually the peaches in the bowl are the perfect example!  What's new in your home, any painting adventures on the horizon now that winter will be locking us indoors? Thanks for stoppin' by friends!

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How To: Dining Room Table

We are mid-move, so let me apologize in advance for my short & sweet posts!  I was at the new house yesterday thinking more about our dining table. I like it but the space can hold something a bit bigger.  I looked at a few tables, and nothing really spoke to me.  So I thought - hello!? - let's just make one! I shared this Live Edge Table a while back which I love...but also found a tutorial that shows the steps start to finish, I love it's simplicity:

It's beautiful and can be customized in so many ways. The tutorial is from the blog Our Vintage Home Love and is very detailed and user friendly.  I got a full lesson in table construction just buy skimming the pictures.

Nice and simple construction.  I never realized there were so many table legs available at the hardware store! Did you know that when you put new legs or parts on a piece of furniture that weren't originally intended, it's called marrying? Well now you do - just a little useless trivia for ya.  Like, "I married the legs from this table with the top of that table".  You learn something every day, so they say.  When furniture and marriage are in one of my sentences it's usually "I love that couch so much I want to marry it".  Ramble alert!

For the full tutorial, visit their blog here.  I would love to do a really long one of these someday, nothing beats a 12 seater table!  Now if only I could figure out the drop leaf action... hmm....

So, what kind of table do you have?

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Building a Couch

Whoah, what a weekend!  Thanksgiving was delicious, we celebrated my Mom's birthday on Saturday (Happy Birthday Mom!) - and Ralph and I battled the beast that is IKEA, on a Sunday! We may not have really thought that decision through, but we were fogged by the excitement of buying our first brand new couch. It's a big step!

Meet Karlstad! I love love love this green.  We both really wanted an "L" couch, and this living room is big enough to hold one.  But wow - getting this thing home was a real test of our patience.  IKEA has that special something that gets you to come into the store, only to find yourself trying to quickly get out.

We had a return to do (mistake #1), we pulled number "02" and they were on 70...  45 minutes later we were in, and starving! Surprise, guess what? It was a special eat-for-free day, and the lines were cra-aa-azy.  We'd already come that far, so we hopped in with the rest of 'em and loaded up on the (FREE!) meatballs, chicken tenders, and whatever else Sweden could throw at us.  Then it was on to pick out a couch!

Actually, the couch was already a 100% yes, so no in-store decisions necessary.  I gotta say, the rest was pretty easy and straightforward.  An IKEA worker was actually available, friendly and wrote our order up. We paid, and then went to furniture pick up where - oh that's right - what DOES a couches box look like? It looks like a pallet of 5 enormous boxes that they slap on a tiny baby cart and say "Have a nice day".  I am kicking myself for not taking a picture, it was hilarious.  Maybe it was the shock, but really, what was I expecting? Some flat packed miracle I could toss in the back seat? Yes, of course.  It was both funny and frightening in reality, and we got it into the truck with surprisingly few snags.  A  nervous ride home, and it was time to BUILD ourselves a couch..

It was 26 pieces in all, a lot of bolts, and a LOT of slipcover.  But it was easy! How often can you say that about IKEA assembly? I was shocked. Best couch ever, and it's soooo cozy. We sprang for a rug though, totally not in our plan or our budget, but I don't see my self getting to make this T-shirt rag rug that I want anytime soon.  (It would be SO worth it though...!)

 

Source: replayground.blogspot.com via Jesse on Pinterest

That one is great, but won't realistically get done for another 5 years. So, we had our eye on one just as shaggy, as we wanted a really cozy rug - and IKEA had plenty.  I haven't figured out how we'll be vacuuming this high pile beauty, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it... for now I can't get my toes out of this thing, I think the dark looks great with the green:

In other news, we are still slowly but surely brightening up that kitchen (from this post).  We added some under cabinet lights, that make an amazing difference in the work space:

I got excited and installed them, even though I haven't cleaned up all the wires yet, but what a difference! If you look closely you can see the 4 color samples on the right wall there, none of which we went with. Ha! SO glad we got samples..  Please forgive the quality of my pictures lately, all our things are between two houses so I'm usually only armed with the phone's camera - which is surprisingly good..

Hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving and weekend with the family & friends, here's to a new week!

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Gnocchi with Butternut Squash, Sage and Pine Nuts

There are so many recipes for side dishes for Thanksgiving that go beyond the traditional, I can't even tell you where to start. I will throw in my two cents however, on what I think you should definitely consider making to grace your Thanksgiving table this year.  This is the second time we've made this, it's a delicious gnocchi dish with roasted butternut squash, sauteed fresh sage, and pine nuts.  It is delicious!

We found this recipe last year, when we were going to a Thanksgiving Potluck, "Friends-giving" as it was called, and I believe it was the week before the big day.  We wanted something different.  So, using my favorite way to find recipes, we just knew a few ingredients we wanted to use and just plugged them into good ol' Googy.  In this case "Gnocchi with Butternut Squash" pulled up a ton of results, and we chose {and loved!} this one.  It's pretty easy, pretty affordable, and always a big hit.  So when you're browsing the thousands of recipes out there for something new this year, consider my advice and try this! Hop over to Savory Spicy Sweet where Liz will give you the step by step. Thanks Liz!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, have a wonderful day hopefully filled with great food, family & friends!

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How To: Wiring Pendant Lights

Hello again! I figured since yesterday I posted a DIY light fixture, that now would be as good a time as any to touch up our knowledge of some wiring tips and tricks.  Wiring up lamps & lights is one of those things that always intimidated me, but now thanks to the internet & actually trying it a few times, I'm no longer scared! Still though, when dealing with electricity it's always good to proceed with caution & get an expert if things don't seem right.  Otherwise, It's fairly straightforward.  One of the most helpful posts I've seen was over at The Ambitious Procrastinator, where they give a step by step on wiring up a set of decanter lights.

Aren't those things awesome?! Maybe I should just do a huge cluster of those in our kitchen, or maybe that Mason Jar Chandelier from a little bit ago. So many choices! Maybe I'll start collecting decanters just in case. Hop over to The Ambitious Procrastinator for the full scoop on not only wiring up those beauties, but how they made them in the first place. 

As for what I've been up to, things are getting crazy hectic with the moving, but I've had a few spare moments here and there to play with some new string art ideas.

I love that blue elephant! I had actually done a red one prior, then someone wrote me asking if I could do blue. Of course I can!   The "home" tablet was a really fun one, and has been on my  mind for a while. Not only the aspect of filling in the negative space vs. the letters, but finally tackling cursive. I think it came out pretty good, and would work with any word.  The modern ones are still my favorite, and that set of 3 was a custom order I was thrilled to do. I can't get enough of those circles lately.

If you are interested in a string art tablet, I'm still making them, but if you need them before Christmas get in touch with me ASAP.  Things get SO crazy during the holidays! Here's a link to my etsy shop to get started. 

Make it a good day!

-J

 

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