Evolution of the Breakfast Nook

I've kept a secret.  Rusty and I have been working away on the kitchen and breakfast nook redo.  My perfectionist side is begging me not to post this since it is not "done", but EVERYONE knows that before and during pictures rock almost as much as after pictures.  Let me start at the beginning:

 These are the pictures from the MLS listing when we found our house.

When we moved in, we put the only table we owned in the "breakfast nook" and had an empty dining room.

 Then we added wainscotting (see that post here).

Then our great friend, Rylee, came and painted for us...again (he painted our kitchen, dining room and master bedroom hours after we moved in as well).  He turned our DIY wainscoting job into a piece of art.  The color really opened up the room and brightened it up.  We chose Pearly White by Sherwin Williams.

After moving the table back in and putting the PB Knock-Off light fixture back up, we have our "during" breakfast nook redo!

Here are some other shots of the kitchen.

 Here is a before and during shot to see the difference side by side

What's next?  Curtains, wall decor and color!  I am stuck on the curtains, though.  Any ideas of what I should do? 

Updated Photos:

You can read my tutorial for the stenciled curtains here.

Linking Up:

Breakfast Nook Redo - During

This weekend, my dad delivered my free Craiglist table to add to my breakfast nook redo.  I was so excited to see if the ideas from some of my inspiration tables would work.  Rusty and I set it up in the breakfast nook to check on size.  It is a 48" table, and we needed to still be able to open a pantry and back door in the nook.

The size is PERFECT!  However, there is one small problem.  {And I say small because how big could a problem be when the goods are FREE?}  The only problem is that the table top itself is not wood.  In order for us to be able to stain it to match the chairs we already have, we need to be able to strip it.  Here are some close up pictures of each of the pieces for you to see.

Wood pedestal

Salvageable wooden trim 

Wood veneer top

Here is our inspiration photo.  We already have the four walnut stained chairs.  We will need to paint the pedestal and trim white and stain the table top.

How will we press on?  We called up our friends at Black Mountain Furniture {who also made our custom office built-ins} to build us a table top.  They are able to cut it to size and leave it natural for us to stain to match our chairs!


I am still working on getting that room painted, hanging some curtains, getting a drum shade and putting some plates on the wall.  We are very much in the "during" stage.


What's the best free item you ever scored?

Breakfast Nook Redo - Before & During

Everyone loves a good before and after, but today I am here to show you a pretty good before and during!  Here is how our breakfast nook looked on Monday:

(Isn't it crazy how using a flash or no flash completely changes the look of my wall color!?)


After about 6 hours of work spread over two days, our breakfast nook looks like this:

Here's a breakdown of the process that got us this far:

Score all trim before removing the baseboards.

Gently remove all baseboards.  To save money, you will reinstall these at the end.  (Key word gently - that's why you see ME doing this step!)

This is the product we chose.  It is actually a kit that you are supposed to buy with an interlocking baseboard and chair rail.  However, the baseboard that came with the kit was much smaller than our current baseboard, and everyone wants the chunkiest baseboards as possible, right?!  Also, our living room, dining room and hallway is already upgraded with a chair rail, and the chair rail in the kit was not a matching design.  In the end, we just bought these already primed, composite wainscoting panels, used our old baseboards and installed matching chair rail molding.

Here are how the wainscoting panels work:

Interlocking panel make instillation a cinch.

After putting a few panels together, we located a stud.  This was super easy.  We new that one of the electrical outlets was secured to a stud, so I just measured up the wall and marked above the panels every 16 inches.  The mark won't matter since the chair rail will cover it up.

(These pictures might look staged, but I swear they are action shots....can't you tell?!)


After installing all panels, we reattached the baseboards.

(I know the "we" looks a lot like Rusty, but I did remove all baseboards and run the nail gun.  Someone has to document our work!)

Next, we measured, cut and installed the chair molding.

Here's what's left to finish the project:

1. Caulk all trim and seams
2. Paint trim, wainscoting and chair rail a high gloss white

I'm not even sure I have any readers left considering I showed the "During" picture at the beginning of the post, but if I do, here is my list of what to do to finish the kitchen/breakfast area completely:

1. Paint the kitchen either a creamy off white or a white grey
2. Purchase (and possibly paint) a 42" or 48" round table and four chairs off of Craigslist (I check every day and have about 10 e-mail negotiations going.  My budget is $100-$150 dollars depending on the size and current color)
3. Find a drum shade light fixture to hang over the table

The total cost in materials for installing the wainscoting is around $125.00 since we were able to salvage our current baseboards and my labor only charged me for lunch both days!  We love the results and feel it adds so much to the space that it lacked before.

If you had $125.00 and a few hours to complete a project around home, what would you tackle?

Table Talk

http://www.katjarimmi.com

Today was a very exciting day.  Rusty and I did our first home project outside of painting a room or hanging a shelf.  We tackled wainscoting.  In the breakfast nook.  Doesn't that sound elegant?  It is much less elegant after hearing why we jumped on making it our first project.  There is a very practical reason behind it.  Two reasons actually.  Those reasons are Hank and Dagny, my hounds.  More than once this winter, our temps in the mountains have stayed in the teens for several days in a row.  That means our little ones come inside for the night and sleep in the kitchen.  It also means that they hound up the drywall in the breakfast nook.


While I can't wait to write my post on the wainscoting and show you some before and after shots, this post is about getting some much needed advice. I need to buy a breakfast table, so I can move my dining room table out of my kitchen and into my dining room.  I know I want a round pedestal table with 4 chairs, and I don't care if the table comes with a leaf.  After we paint the kitchen, it will be a light neutral color with lots of natural lighting.  Our dining room table will be in the room beside it, and it is a dark walnut stain.


Look at some of these beautiful pictures I found out there for inspiration:


To add the most amount of light to the kitchen, I could go for an all white look to tie in with the trim:

I could go with a black table and chairs to tie into my black granite counter tops:

diningsets.guidestobuy.com

This brown table is just a shade lighter than my dining room table and will tie in nicely with my cabinets:

thefurniture.com

My eyes are also loving some two toned looks:

furniturefromhome.com (with 4 matching all white chairs)

http://www.thefurniture.com

No matter what I choose, I will try to snag a deal on Craigslist and paint it after one of my inspiration photos!  (I'm kind of bummed because Reginia over at The Not So Modern Family found me a FREE table today on Craiglist, but it was claimed moments before I called).


So what do you guys think?  I'm torn.  Should I go for a solid table/chair?  If so, which one?  What do you think of the two toned look?  They are pretty hot right now....