Dining Room Update

Greetings!  To continue with reveals for this week, I have a small one for you today.  I mentioned that I wanted to "Add round light bulbs to the light fixture (and maybe spray paint it) so that it can look similar to this"


credit

I ended up just replacing the light bulbs but haven't gotten around to spray painting it yet (if I even want to do that still).

This is the fixture before-

And this is after-

 

I enjoy the change, but I think I would still like to spray paint it.  Maybe next spring...

A Styling Course: Coffee Table, Sectional and Bar

Howdy!  In my last post I mentioned an online styling course that I have been taking.  It is being taught by Justina Blakeney, an amazing stylist that has worked with brands including Etsy, One Kings Lane, Uncommon Goods, Martha Stewart Weddings, Anthology Magazine and YouTube!  The course is being taught virtually through a website called Skill Share.  This site is amazing!  There are so many different classes being offered, and the best thing is that the prices are affordable and you have lifelong access to the content of the courses that you enroll in.  Oh, and what I mean by affordable is $20 for a two week styling course.  Yes, just $20!  If you are interested in taking the course at some point, I can send you an invite email that offers a discounted rate.  Just let me know if you're interested!

Anyway, the things that we have learned are the eight principals of styling, and with that knowledge we are supposed to style five key areas of our home- The couch, coffee table, credenza, bookshelves and bed.  So far we have completed our couch, coffee table and credenza.  Here are my before and afters.

Coffee Table before:

Coffee Table after:

Later on Simon suggested I try the runner straight down the table rather than diagonal.  I think I like it better like this.

Next project-

Sectional before:

Sectional after:

I was going to post my before and afters of my credenza (I chose the bar area), but I just posted recent shots of the dining room last week.  I made a few more changes since then because of the class, so I won't bore you with tons of shots...just a couple.

Before:

 

 After:

I am really enjoying this course!  I think you all would like it, too.  She has almost 500 students that signed up and this is her first course.  I'm sure she will be teaching more :)

Have any of you taken any courses on interior styling?

Dining Room Updates

I tell you, this dining room is always going through changes, no matter how big or small!  I realized that I haven't properly introduced you all to the dining room since we got our new table.  I briefly mentioned it during the Thanksgiving post, but it was not followed with a tour.  Here goes!

The cute little table before:

The nice long table after (and more shots of the dining room):

 

I hope your morning is coming off to a great start!

Bar Updates

The bar is one place in my home that will constantly be updated, not only because of the constant rotation of beverages, but also because I'm a sucker for beautiful bar ware.

Once again, when I was at Target I came across the most beautiful glasses and shaker that I've seen in a long time.  They were a part of the Neiman Marcus for Target collection and yes they were on clearance!  I also came across a large tray at Lowe's last weekend which prompted me to change up the bar area.

Here we are before-

And after-

 

 Enjoy your weekend!

A project that only took four years to complete

Yes, you read that right...four years.  Oops.  Well I actually had been working on it off and on over these years, but didn't finish until last week.  When you see what it is you're going to think I'm a serious slacker because it's something that could have been completed over a weekend.

Back in 2008 when Simon and I were living in our last apartment, I came home and saw two bar stools sitting in the living room.  I asked him what the deal was and he said that someone had placed them by the dumpster.

At first I though "Ew", then I thought "Upcycle".  Initially I wanted to stain the legs a light wood color and reupholster the cushions, but after a failed attempt (trying to strip off all of that black was virtually impossible) I ended up painting the legs white.  I also bought a yellow and gray fabric, but since I had waited so long to reupholster I didn't want to use that fabric anymore.  I bought a blue and goldish fabric instead.

Reupholstering.  Well, this was my first attempt.  I attempted some time last year and it looked horrible.  I didn't even try to finish this one, haha!

At that point I was tempted to trash the stools and act like I never knew them, but I kept them.  While working on the dining room updates I decided to give these one last shot.  Again, my reupholstering skills could use some work...okay, lots.  This is the process and how they turned out.

For the corners, I did a little tuck and fold to try to make the creases universal.  Working on a circle is difficult :-\

The verdict

Not too bad.  I'm an advocate for extra seating!

So there you have it; all of the dining room updates for now.  I'm still loving the dark walls, so that's a good sign!

Updates to the Adult Beverage Bar

Hey guys!  How was your weekend?  Great I hope.

According to my Spring Forward Project List, I was supposed to be re-styling our bar area.  Once I painted the dining room I was set on making a few changes to this area.

As a refresher, this is how the bar area looked shortly after moving in...

...then we did an upgrade...

 
...and now...

I only made a couple of changes.  I removed a lot of the glasses that weren't being used, added blue and green straws to a champagne glass, cleared a lot of the clutter, and added my wedding bouquet.  I like this layout much more because it's not as cluttered.  I have plans to switch the lamp out for two others that I got while thrifting a couple of years ago, I just have to find shades for them before I do that.  I also plan on moving the painting to a different location and replacing it with four huge prints.  Once these updates are complete, you will be the first to know!