{Our Cottage} Dining Room

Here is the dining room before & after. Remember in the kitchen b&a, there was a single doorway into the kitchen? Well, we took that wall out. We now spend a lot of time at the dining room table, since it is so open to the kitchen. {Only had a before picture that was taken during the progress!}

Here's one thing I learned about renovations. If you live in the space for awhile, you have time to think and go over different options. Charles and I discussed this for a long time, and we have been so happy with the result. There isn't any detail we would change!

small project update

There's nothing like having a nice work weekend to get your house in order! Charles has been working so hard in the yard. I am so impressed and happy with how our little place is looking. Meanwhile, I cleaned, did laundry, and finished a few projects. One that I worked on, was painting our interior doors. Earlier this year, I started painting our doors an olive color. I painted all the sides you see, just not the backs. So, I worked on that Saturday.

Yesterday, I finished the backs of our bookcase in the dining room. See my original post here.

I will be taking a blogging vacation this week. See you after the 4th!

ikea & scotts

Don't try to do Ikea & Scott's in one day....It's tough. Good exercise though. We hit Ikea first, then went by Scott's on the way home. Could not go to two places that are more opposite. Ikea is shiny, new, and mod, while Scott's is, well... old, antique, and definitely not mod.

After spending approximately 3 hours of my life in Ikea, I have decided we need the Henriksdal dining chairs. They are so comfortable {for a dining room chair}. They have white covers that velcro under the seat. They would also be perfect for a short, custom, skirted slipcover. They definitely aren't too bad for $59! The legs come in different finishes, but I would most likely paint them anyway.


One or two little finds of the day. Cute horse cake pans. They now reside in our kitchen. If your birthday is coming up, you may get a horse cake.

The best impulse buy. Note to retailers~put tons of stuff by check-out line. I couldn't resist these kitchen dish towels. I only splurged and bought 2. They were a whopping $.49.

I am sad to say we came home empty handed from Scott's. It's just so overwhelming!

Hope your weekend was great! It was frigid here. Today it's a little better. Ready for our normal Georgia weather to return. I did make my first table skirt yesterday, will post pics on that soon.

hobby lobby rocks!!

First of all, if you live in Griffin, there are not a lot of shopping options in general. There are definitely not many options for fabric. Our Wal-mart closed down it's little fabric department. Yesterday around 5:45pm, I decided I needed white twill for my dining room chairs. I have been having trouble deciding what to do with them, paint, cover, etc. The only thing I know for sure is that we are not buying new chairs!

Thank goodness for the new Hobby Lobby just north of us in Mcdonough!! It stays open til 8, so Christine and I drove up. I think I have been in the old Hobby Lobby in Fayetteville, but this one is BRAND new and AWESOME!! I can't believe I have been missing out. I found my white twill for $6/yd. Also found some wide ribbon. All ribbon rolls are 50% off right now! {It doesn't take a lot to excite me}

I cut and pinned one last night to see what it would look like. Still debating on the trim. The one shown is a light green and white stripe on an angle. It's cute up close, but not real dramatic far away.
I also bought some teal grosgrain, but it doesn't really match the curtains.

I am so lucky to always have helpers.

These are some trim options I found online yesterday. They helped spur this spontaneous trip to the Hob Lob. I was trying to find cheaper options in ribbon. The ribbon above is similar to this. Italian Jacquard from here. The next pic is my $2 5yd spool of ribbon.

I really like this, just not wide enough. It's vintage country from here. One of my favorites is the greek key design from mjtrimmings.


Last but not least, alchemy aquamarine from interior mall.
Charles thinks I will get tired of sewing before I finish 6 slipcovers....I can't disagree. Also, I need to line the back portion because you can see through the twill. I would like to attach the trim in a way that I can change it when I want. Charles calls me the beaver. They are always rebuilding their dams. I am always recovering, repainting, rearranging, etc. our dam.

Organization leads to a New Shed

Charles says that I have taught him, if there is a place for everything, it's much easier to be organized. I probably learned that from my parents. Don't leave shoes in the middle of the floor, etc.

We live in a small house with small closets, but have a HUGE basement & a pretty big attic too. Our house is not lacking in storage space. That being said, I keep the main floor as well organized as I can, but the basement is our own personal landfill. I open the door to the basement, and chunk stuff down there. The basement is a finished basement, it's just not pretty. We need new flooring, and paint to dress it up. There is a full bathroom, and a small kitchenette area. Renovating the basement will be further down the road. Stay tuned for that!

This purpose of all of this is, we have decided to at least clean up the basement. Get all lawn equipment, paint, etc. out! As you see below, we have one cute little shed that matches the house. It is packed full. Charles is having a new, twin shed built today. I am showing the before pictures, and will have more pictures of the progress and finished product when we get there.

One shed will be for tools, paint, woodworking supplies, etc. The other shed will be for lawn equipment. We are still deciding which shed gets to house the Vespa. This is our backyard.

When the new shed is painted, we will have the doors on the first shed painted the new teal color on our front door.

The guy is here to start building, I hope it really does end up matching the other shed exactly!!!

I also wanted to show the before pictures of our dining room. I have decided that I am taking a break from black painted furniture for awhile. Here is a current picture of our table and chairs. This table came from my parents {I love It}, and the chairs are from my grandmother's dining room set.

This is one chair I painted Monday evening. I wanted to brighten them up, since I am going with a bright coastal theme in our little middle Georgia cottage. I am liking it so far. Will either cover the seats, or make a slipcover. More on that too...

All things chevron

We have old stackable, barrister bookcases in our dining room. Charles' mom gave me the idea, of putting fabric or something else to line the backs. She is planning to put fabric on the backs of hers in their family room to lighten things up. Since our book cases are an antique, and from my grandfather, I don't want to paint or wallpaper. I have thought about taping wallpaper or even wrapping paper up, if I could find a design I like. Last week, I meet my Newnan friends in Peachtree City. Before dinner, I ran into Swoozies. If you don't have a Swoozies near you, find one!! It is the cutest store with invitations, bags, paper goods, and basically anything you can monogram. I love cute, paper cocktail napkins anyway, but on this trip I had to buy a pack of napkins that matched my living room decor perfecto!! I now wish I could turn them into fabric to cover my dining room chairs. Well, when I got home and stared at my new napkins, the idea hit me to tape them into the backs of my book cases. I taped 3 cocktail size to get an idea. If I decide to stick with this, I will buy the luncheon size to fill up the space better.




Also have a piece of living room fabric pinned up on second case down, I think the print is too big.


My obsession with these cute, chevron style napkins has spurred me to check into actual chevron fabrics. Here are a few things I like. I know that chevron is not a new trend, but for me it is! My dining room chairs need a face lift, and I think a chevron fabric would be a little more fun than a stripe.

This is the closest fabric to my napkins. Has the color of my living room. Just may have a little too much brown for my taste.....

This could work, I have teal Pottery Barn, dupioni, curtains in my dining room. This fabric is from a seller on Ebay.

I think this color will conflict with my curtains, but I like it!

These cute pillows are from Twinkle Living. I think Erin @ Elements of Style blogged about these a few weeks ago. http://www.elementsofstyleblog.com/

These pillows are from Bella Studio Home.

While we're on chevron fabric, I LOVE these chevron painted wood floors. I have been wanting to re-paint mine in our kitchen, maybe..... {this picture came from a post a few days ago on House of Turquoise blog, http://www.houseofturqoise.com/ }

These Pottery Barn floors in the kids catalog completely inspired my marble floors in my new bathroom. This is more of a herringbone pattern, than a chevron, but I guess they are close. Love these floors!!! {www.potterybarnkids.com }

Another similar look in hardwood. {www.wideopenspaces.com }

Let me know what you think about the napkins in the bookcases!