Dining Room Makeover

Over the last six-plus years of home ownership, we've completed countless updates and decorating projects to make our house into our home. One room that I've long wanted to work on but continually moved to the bottom of the list is the dining room. This was because it was technically "done." By this, I mean that there was a full set of matching furniture. We purchased it as newlyweds through family friends because it was a great deal for an entire, matching set of dining room furniture, including a huge hutch. I wanted somewhere to store my china and such -- that's a rite of passage for newly-married women, right?? BUT, I never really loved the furniture. I didn't hate it (I mean it was nice quality), but definitely didn't love it.  I did hate the burgundy carpet that we lived with for six years, though (although not quite as much as the hunter green carpet upstairs) ;) Anyway, here is the room before:

It was dated, dark, and very traditional. This past March, we finally got new carpet downstairs (we had already replaced the green upstairs before Jacob was born) -- yay! Then, a couple of months later, we inherited a really cool 70-80 year old cabinet from hubby's grandma's estate and decided to make it into a wine cabinet (he did all the designing and work on that!). With the carpet and the spruced-up antique cabinet, I just got an itch to makeover the whole room! 

We agreed we wanted something eclectic (not an entire matching set as we had desired when we first bought the house) and we were going for a sort of shabby-chic/modern farmhouse style. We didn't want the dining room to be too formal or stuffy, where we'd only use it for holidays (as in the before picture!). We wanted family-friendly, but also stylish and classy. I scoured Pinterest for a couple of months, and then we found a great deal on furniture. We ordered pieces from three different collections (from Ashley Furniture) to achieve the eclectic look we were going for, and paired them with a DIY console table update and the wine cabinet we had already revamped. We also added two upholstered dining chairs from Overstock.com. Next, we added an accent wall with reclaimed paneling from hubby's parents' house (originally installed in the 1950's -- we stained the back of the boards). Finally, I got to arrange and accessorize! Here's the end result:

Ta da!!

And some other views. We're SO happy with it!
It is calm, inviting, casual, eclectic, and rustic yet chic...if I do say so myself ;)

Here are a bunch of close-ups of the details. We all know that decorating is all in the details! We decorated on a budget! The wine cabinet, Ball jars, and cast-iron pans are antiques from hubby's Grandma. The cute, personalized pillows were made by my mother-in-law. The wall wine rack was super-cheap from Kohls. The painting is from World Market. The console table was free from friends and revamped (see below)! I made the cork tray. The light fixture was a bit of a splurge (from Lowes), but much cheaper than similar versions we were eyeing (like one from Crate&Barrel). 

Here's a close-up of the cork tray -- it's a quick and easy project, if you have a lot of corks! Just buy a tray and use a hot glue gun to secure the corks! This tray (JoAnn) came white, so I painted it blue to coordinate with the chairs and add a pop of color. We thought it would be a fun way to display our many corks, including some of our favorites from Michigan, Indiana, and Napa wineries we have visited!

And here's a before & after of the console table. Dear friends gave us a table they weren't going to use (free is the perfect price!) and didn't mind if we painted it. I decided to keep the legs stained, since they tied in with the table and hutch, and paint the top. Hubby offered to build an extra shelf onto it, which turned out awesome:

As one more finishing touch, I wanted a table runner. I found this roll of burlap at Walmart for about five bucks and asked my MIL (who has an awesome sewing machine and is super talented) to embroider it for us -- it turned out really cute!

Serving our first meal in the new room :)

Toddler Truth Tuesday

Today's little gem:

Jacob was watching one of the Land Before Time movies (not sure which one, as there are about 10,000 of them), and the little dinos were frolicking among geysers. He goes, "Hey, mommy, that water like at splash pad!"

:)

I have another post coming up later today, so that's it for now!

Toddler Truths Tuesday

It's that time again! I have a few other posts brewing, too, but I have to share a couple of super cute toddler truths today:

Jacob was spending the day with his grandma and uncle last week, and he got his khaki shorts wet in the lake. When they came inside, Grandma threw his shorts in the dryer for a bit. They went together to get them, she pulled them out, and Jacob (noticing the shorts' color) exclaimed:
"What?!? The dryer turned my shorts brown!"
We're not sure what color he thought they were before ;)
---
At dinner time with Mommy and Daddy, we were discussing Jacob's friends.
"Who is your best friend?" I asked.
(puzzled look)
"Daddy has best friends," hubby explained. "I have three best friends (meaning Jacob, Mommy, and our dog, Avery)."
Jacob was thoughtful for a moment, then responded:
"What?!?! You have three Jacobs?!?"

You can tell he's on a "What?!?" kick. It's pretty funny.

Sidewalk Painting!

Summertime means lots of outdoor, often messy, fun when you have a toddler! Yesterday we tried a DIY idea that I have seen floating around Pinterest lately: sidewalk chalk paint. It's not an original idea by any means, but it was a success (as measured by Jacob's excitement!), so I want to share :)

Jacob LOVES to "do projects," which means to do anything that he sees Mommy & Daddy (especially Daddy) doing around the house. Painting is one of those things; we've painted several items lately, and he was SO excited to paint!

First, you need to make your chalk paint. There are many tutorials online for this (I like this one), but it's super easy. Basically, take some old sidewalk chalk, crush it up into a powder, add water, and stir. That's it. Chalk paint! They do sell chalk paint powder in containers resembling paint cans, but it's so easy and cheap to make it yourself, especially if you already have old, broken chalk pieces; I decided to save a few bucks on the paint and get Jacob some other supplies.

I will say that I didn't do the best job crushing it into a fine powder (I put the chalk in a plastic bag and pounded it with a meat tenderizer mallet -- a hammer might be better). Tiny lumps aren't a big deal, but our paint was a bit lumpier than I would have liked. Jacob didn't notice, though!

All ready to get started! I picked up the mini paint pan, brush, and set of textured rollers at Walmart for about $3.50 total, so that he could feel like a real painter! The pan and brush were with the painting supplies, and the rollers were in the kids' art supply aisle. I already had the little stencil sponge brush, which turned out to be perfect for making polka dots!

helping to stir the paint 

...and he's off! The textured rollers were really fun; he loved making "tracks."

You could always just use a plastic bowl and regular art brushes for this, but the paint pan and rollers were a huge hit with him because he felt like a grown up -- I highly recommend some "real" painting tools :) Later, after I washed everything, he used the dry rollers to "paint" the siding and windows of the house," so they were great for pretend, too! Additionally, you could put plain water in the paint pan and let kids "paint" with water. I plan to try this sometime when we don't have the time or energy for the chalk mess, as I imagine the textured sponge rollers will still make tracks with plain water.

"Stamping dots" was really fun.

"Look mom, blue hands!" Of course he had to paint himself, too ;) 

This activity was a bit messier than I expected (although I was naive to expect anything different with this boy!), so it may be smart to have your kids wear old clothes and washable shoes or bare feet ;) The good news is that chalk washes off pretty easily!

Toddler Truths Tuesday

A super-quick Toddler Truth for today!

We spent a great long-weekend at my parents', and Jacob got to have a sleepover with them while we celebrated our 6th Anniversary! His best line from this stay, according to my dad, was when he was talking about his family, and listing them:

"I have Grandma F...Grandma G...and A SNAPPING TURTLE!"

(He uses their full last names, just abbreviated here for privacy.)

I will do a non-toddler truth blog post soon, I promise, since I'm going on several weeks in a row of just these!

Toddler Truths Tuesday

A couple of gems from the past week:
---
I was washing dishes, and Jacob called me on his toy phone (from just a few feet away):
"Hi, Mommy, how you doing?"
"I'm good, honey; how are you?"
"I climbing mountain."
"Oh, okay. Well, be careful."
"You be careful doing dishes. Have good day!"
---
I had the Today show on and was watching Jason Mraz perform "I'm Yours." I told Jacob that Uncle Brent sang the song at Mommy & Daddy's wedding, and that I really like Jason Mraz. He said, "I like Jason Mwaazz, too," and proceeded to sing this song:
"Twinkle, twinkle, little star. How I wonder. I wuv you, I wuv you, I wuv you. Christmas Day!"
Hmm... :)

Toddler Truths Tuesday

I've been slacking on Toddler Truths, and the blog in general, this summer! Jacob is always saying the funniest things, but I forget to write them down! Note to self: must make a conscious effort to record and remember these things. I want to be able to look back at them when he's grown up and not nearly so candid ;)

I just have one actual story to share for today, but I also want to note that it is so interesting to watch a child learn the English language. Our language is tricky, and it's cool to see Jacob pick up on little nuances at such a young age. All toddlers make certain grammar mistakes as they're learning, and it's the cutest thing. I have to suspend my former-high-school-English-teacher, proper-grammar-loving attitude and enjoy watching his progression! Lately, when asked if he's doing something (whatever naughty/silly/crazy, sometimes cute, thing it may be), he responds: "I are" or "I is." I know the days are numbered until he realizes he should say "I am," so I enjoy the toddler language "slip ups" for now. :)

Speaking of the language progression, Jacob has been amazing us lately with his command of the comparative and superlative forms! I'm not sure when children usually pick up on this, but we were pretty impressed the other day when we he used the superlative (-est) form of a word when neither of us had said it (I can't remember the specifics of the conversation). Pretty neat.

Okay, here's the real story. Thanks for being patient with my ramblings! This one comes from my hubby, and here's how he described it:

While helping daddy in the kitchen on his ladder, this was the exchange:
Jacob:  “I do like you like Daddy.”
Daddy:  “You try to be like daddy?  Daddy’s not perfect, but you could probably do a lot worse.”
Jacob:  “You perfect daddy.  I not perfect, but daddy perfect.”
Priceless.