Michelle Morin Art for the Dining Room

I've been sharing with you the play by play of our dining room progress, and I'm back for another round. You may remember that I last left off here. After hanging lights, window treatments, and layering in a rug I was ready to add some art to that rear window wall.

I spent lots of time perusing art options on Etsy, but I always came back to works by Michelle Morin. I first spotted her work a few years ago, and had always book marked it as a possible future option for us. 

Last year, (the amazing!!!) Erika Powell of Urban Grace Interiors

used a whole collection of Michelle's artwork in one of her beach home designs.

You can find her works popping up for sale for big bucks on sites like One Kings Lane,

and Anthropologie features her art, transformed into different mediums.

I like the ethereal feeling of her work, and I thought it might be the perfect dose of color that our dining space needed. So I proceeded with ordering four prints from her Etsy shop, United Thread. While I waited for my prints to arrive, I decided to prep the frames. For a quick and affordable option I  decided to use Ikea Ribba frames, that I sprayed in a high gloss gray spray paint. I had toyed with gold, taupe, and military green for the frames, but I ended up liking the nice contrast of the gray on the white wall.

I hung my frames and they sat in waiting. Do you do that? I've found this is normal practice for me. I hang empty frames as a reminder to get some artwork for a certain spot (there are currently several empty frames on the walls in our master bedroom and Nolan's room!), because at least its progress in the right direction!

My prints arrived and I eagerly hung them up.

I'm still considering adding a third frame to each side of the window, or maybe several more for some drama and impact? And there are other prints of hers that I'm keeping my eyes on, so I may change them out as I wish, etc. The room is still feeling bare to me, so I'll need to continue to evolve it more. But, it's progress from where we were just about four to five months ago.

Dining Room Bidness

I've been quiet and I apologize. My day job has been kicking my butt.  Days off have been few and far between and long hours running around managing events have been leaving my feet feeling broken. Things haven't necessarily come to a halt at the house (Jon has made some great progress on our baseboards and door trim), but I've barely had the energy to shower, let alone blog. I'm coming out of my haze a bit now though, so hopefully we can get back to our regularly scheduled program.

Two weeks ago, I revealed our new dining room light fixtures, but the room was still looking quite…bare, you might say?

We didn't stop at the light fixtures, and things have been happening in there. For starters, our dining room window finally got it's own set of curtains to tie in with our living room treatments, and it greatly helped to soften up the space, and warm up our white walls.

With the curtains up, the space was SCREAMING to have its area rug finally set in place. So I broke down and ordered the Dash & Albert rug that I had been pining over for months. If you follow me on instagram, you may know that it arrived this past weekend (Happy Mothers Day to me) and I was dying to see it unveiled, so I moved that table and rolled it out all by my lonesome.

As for the baseboards I mentioned, we've decided to keep it clean and modern with a hearty 41/2" board that Jon cut for our house. They've yet to be filled, sanded, and painted, but its already making a difference (our white paint will warm up the flat white of the primer).

Next up, I'm dying to get some art up on those wall to break up all the white, and to add some color. I've been wavering on the color of the frames, and which artwork to choose, so I don't have any afters to show you just yet. 

Nonetheless, I think we've still made some progress since we closed on the place a year ago:

Dining Room Lighting

I've been quiet this past week. My day job is keeping me busy and we've spread ourselves thin with trying to tackle lots of projects at once. There is a big free neighborhood dumpster clean up day quickly approaching so we're doing some spring cleaning while also trying to get our yard back in gear for the warmer months. Yeah, and we're installing baseboards. But a couple of weeks ago, we did some upgrading, and I haven't shared it with you yet.

After checking off our list the replacement of our ceiling fan, updating our dining chandelier was high up on my list. When we purchased the home almost a year ago, I knew we would change out the dining fixture, so I started keeping my eyes open for possible options.

At first, I was set on the Eldridge Pendant from Ballard Designs. It was a popular choice, and I found many shots of it used in homes.

Houzz

I really gravitated towards it, however I wasn't sure if it was compatible with our sloped ceiling. After a call into their customer service department, and a look over the installation documents they emailed over to me, I realized it wouldn't work with our ceiling. Flat ceilings only. I was bummed, but I'm learning day by day, that another great option will always present itself. There's no crying in interior design.

Then, I became really obsessed with the idea of lanterns over our table. I loved them every time I spotted an inspiration image of them.

I especially loved them when I saw them sprayed in a color.

Milk and Honey Home

I knew I would need two for over our long expanse of dining table,

and I found this awesome option over at Wayfair, for only $113.00 a pop.

So my obsession and pondering continued.

But I wavered and then began considering the Ballard Designs single Eldridge pendant,

as opposed to the larger option shown above.

Anisa Darnell, of Milk and Honey Home used one in her home.

When I came across this picture

 it stopped me in my tracks.

Caitlin Creer Interiors

The warm wood flooring throughout and the white walls paired with dark hardware

was the direction I was headed in, and this image really sealed the deal for me.

So while on sale, I purchased two of the pendants in the medium size and shortly thereafter they arrived at our house.

I shared a peek of them on instagram.

One of the main reasons that I went with them, is that the glass doesn't take up a lot of visual space (ie. they would keep our small home feeling open and airy). However, when you're purchasing everything online, it can be hard to nail it on the scale of pieces. Even after measuring them out prior, when I opened up the boxes, I thought they might be a bit big for our dining space.

But it was no turning back at this point (I have real problems with the idea of paying for return shipping), so up they were going. A couple of weeks ago, Jon took a day to do the electrical work (at this point, I'm pretty much convinced he can tackle any kind of project) and get them hung just so. Here's a teaser he sent over to me while I was at work.

With the lights hung, we were eager to have our dining table back in our dining room. Go figure. It had been about two months since we were actually able to sit down to a meal in our home, and it was a luxury we were missing. A friend saved us, and came by to give us a hand with our way too heavy table. 

In case you forgot, here's how our dining room 

was looking in the real estate listing last year.

I recently found a few pictures of my phone of when we toured the house prior to buying.

This was the dining room I captured then.

Here's how life looked, just after move in

(do not even ask me how many times I bumped

my head on that chandelier).

And this remained our reality for several months.

If you popped over for dinner tonight, this is what you might find

(perfectly styled with the high chair, heh?).

We hung the lights high, to help keep the room open and lift your eyes. However, when all was said and done, Jon and I agreed that they should have been about 4"-5" lower.  

Now, if you're thinking the room is looking a little bare, I'd agree. There are about seven more things that need to happen in here to get it truly feeling homey, but it's a start. I'm all for starts. A couple of of those things should be taking place prettttyyy immediately, so stay tuned people. 

Put a Rug On It

*** I know I mentioned that we'd be installing some window treatments this past weekend but life happened. We took a day off to play. Jon's been working a bit extra. And then there was Easter to prepare for and lots of yard work to do. But I'll have that little reveal to show you soon. Promise.

I wish someone had told me when we decided to install hardwood floors, that I should set aside about 2k for purchasing area rugs immediately thereafter. Hardwood floors are kind of hard ya'll. And rugs are kind of expensive, ya'll.

I've been playing with a moodboard of area rugs for a few months now, trying to get my combination just so. I need several, to be rolled out in our dining room, kitchen, entry, and two for the living room. While I love a big statement rug, I definitely gravitate towards more neutral rugs (shocking, I know) for the long haul for our home. I don't want a pattern that I will tire of or is trendy. I want a collection of rugs in our home that will compliment one another and flow well. Rugs that will provide lots of texture and bring dimension.

I think after much editing, online browsing, and comparison shopping, I've come up with a plan I like (all is subject to change, mind you):

1/2/3/4/5

1) Along our plank wall:
This is the area rug that we've already purchased and set in place along our plank wall. Nailed it on the price and the look, if I do say so myself.

2) Kitchen:
With the beating that a kitchen floor takes and wanting to keep our floors pristine for as long as possible, we wanted a spacious indoor/outdoor option to cover lots of square footage near our sink area. I've loved Dash & Albert rugs for years, and I was so happy to finally bring this diamond patterned one home. I debated going with something with more color, but just. couldn't. do. it. It's working out super well, and I'm already feeling better about the protection that our kitchen floor is getting.

3) Dining room:
This is another beauty from Dash & Albert, and it's also an indoor/outdoor rug. I've read that they are the best in especially messy (read: kids) dining areas. I love this pattern and I haven't tired of it over the several months that I've been spying it (which is important to me). Really hope to purchase this baby sooner rather than later.

4) Entry:
Initially I was set on a vintage kilim rug in our entry, however I'm now leaning towards this indoor/outdoor Ballard Designs choice now. I only need a small 2' x 3' so its super affordable and can be swapped out easily.  After we finish our baseboards and get our new front door installed, I'm pretty sure I'm pulling the trigger on this bad boy.

5) Main Living Room:
This is the wild card. I need a large 9' x 12' option to go in our main seating area of the living room. I want something soft (that rules out natural fibers), something with some cushion (a flatweave probably wouldn't provide enough padded protection for the kiddos), and something affordable (duh). Currently, this diamond print wool blend rug is a front runner, and I think I can nab it for less then $500.00 which isn't bad considering its large size. But who knows, maybe I'll fall in love with something else.

Speaking of our main living room space, we may, may be getting our leather sofas sooner than I was expecting. But you'll have to stop back by in to hear more about that...

What do you think? Too neutral? Too much repetitive diamond/herringbone print?

Our Hardwood Floors: The Reveal

Last night we started moving furniture back into our dining and living room, and finally got our garage, workshop, and life back in order a bit. I'm so looking forward to having a functioning home again. We're dusting off every wall, windowsill, light fixture and counter surface, and trying to get tools put back in their rightful places. Our fridge is still in our mudroom, and our TV is not yet hung, so there is still lots of "moving back in" to do. But, I didn't want our slow pace of cleanup to delay me from finally showing you our floors.

After the floors were fully laid, here's how the home front was looking just after Jon finished sanding (vacuuming up remaining dust here). He sanded for about eleven hours, with four different grits of sand paper. Did you know it takes that many hours to sand a floor?

Immediately, the orange-ish pine trim around our windows

started sticking out like a soar thumb.

Add those to our project list.

We were overjoyed that they were finally all in place,

but we knew we wanted the tone to be a bit darker then their natural color.

So on went the sealer, and coat one of the water based poly finish.

We wanted as matte a finish as possible, 

and just as we hoped, the products we used helped to darken up the floors

and pull out the brown tones just a tad.

I haven't talked about our kitchen a whole ton, but I will. Someday.

It's in need of new light fixtures and lots of styling

(and yes, we've finally cleaned up the counters after taking this pic).

We had a few things going on this past week, what with work, a ceremony at Jon's department, doctor appointments, etc. so we stayed off of the floors for several more days giving them more time to dry and the sealer to harden further. Just to jog your memory, here's a look back at some before's again:

The real estate listing photos of the dining and living room, 

from about one year ago.

And then we moved in, and things looked like this for a while.

Dining room with our stuff parked there.

And finally, how it's all looking today.

Does it look like a different house? I hope so. That's kind of what we were going for.

In case you're considering a similar project, here are our floors by the numbers:
White Oak Character Grade Hardwood Flooring, 800 sq feet: $3,800.00
Plywood for subfloor: Approximately $600.00
Underlayment: Approximately $500.00
Bona Seal & Bona Traffic sealer and finishing system: $550.00
Miter Saw: $340.00
Floor Nailer: $250.00
Rental Sander: $80.00
Misc. supplies (Tack cloth, knee pads, etc.): $400.00
Misc. expenses (Including meals out, hotel room, additional gas): $250.00
Square Footage covered: Approximately 725-800 Square Feet
Days to complete: 12 days and nights of installation + 3 days of drying
Amount of fast/pre-packaged food consumed: far too much
Marital spats: 1 

It's estimated that we saved approximately $6,800+ by handling the demo, disposal of materials, install, sanding, and staining ourselves. That's about $6,800 that I desperately need to put towards new furnishings, so I'll take it.

We'll be taking a breather before we jump in to all of the finishing work that's to be done. Jon is in need of some fresh air (ie. time on his dirt bike) and some rest (ie. a few well deserved naps). There are baseboards to choose and install, walls to be patched and touched up, door trim to take care of, and now we have to figure out what to do with the too-orange-for-us window trim. So you might consider this a flooring progress post, instead of a full on reveal. It's already crazy for me to look back at the blue carpeting. I've already forgotten what it looked like.