Saturday 15 June 2013

I ain't got no dining room.

BEFORE
Our house is one of those old country homes with four rooms off a hallway and then a kitchen, laundry and bathroom area out the back. It was built in 1905 and the kitchen, laundry and bathroom were all later additions. We use the four (equal sized) large rooms as a bedroom, lounge room, guest room and until recently dining room.  Our dining room table was fine; good condition, relatively nice but it just wasn't my style at all. We got it from some friends before moving to the country but I knew I wasn't going to keep it for ever.  We had some two lots of couple friends stay with us for the recent long weekend and I knew that if we didn't use the table at all when we had lots of weekend guests, then we probably just weren't going to use it. I just like eating in the kitchen so much more and my 1950's chrome table comfortable fits 6. I sold off the table on our local buy, swap, sell page and also a bookcase that just wasn't working in the room and was left with a whole lot of unused space.

here's my attempt at making a floorplan of the front rooms
While I haven't quite worked out what to do with the space, I am only placing things I love in it. This weekends garage sales helped me find a few new pieces. I  am thinking my ??? room will end up being a bit of a craft room/ treasure trove of fantastic items for our new house.
AFTER



This morning I simply had a blank wall and empty room except for two crates brimming with books. $16 later and I have cozy little reading area filled with some of my favourite items. I love the fabric on the chairs (which will be useful when extra guests come round and we need to fit more around the kitchen table) and they were $2.50 each. The white bookcase was $6, seems very sturdy and is the perfect home for my owl bookends. My mum's old singer also gets to be displayed. I wanted mosts of my books in the same area so I made extra shelving by turning two crates on their side and putting this gorgeous blanket over the top. It's such a handmade beauty and really special. I had to make it mine when I saw it at the op shop for $5 and it adds a little bit of extra character to the space. I was pretty stocked how quickly I could make the area lovely and all these items will be coming with us on our journey back to the city.
Have you snagged any bargain furniture items lately? Do you use a formal dining room or end up just eating in the kitchen?
Lisa x

4 comments:

  1. cute idea! I personally could never go with out a formal dinning room, my husband and I use it almost everyday!! we love entertaining too. but a craft room is always great too :)

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    1. Thanks for stopping by! I love entertaining too but we have a big patio and a large table in the kitchen so that seems to be all we need :)L x

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  2. Love those chairs. :) I converted my wee dining area in an apartment a few years ago to an additional living space as I never really used the dining table. It was cool. Then, when I thrifted a humongous wood dining room table, I used it as a desk and converted it to a table when I needed it.

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    1. Good idea. I need to get a new desk- a big one that could also be a dining room table would be great.
      Thanks L x

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