New Dining Room Chairs

Our dining room is taking shape, and I am in love! We took delivery of our dining room chairs and here is our  Dining room right now.... It is coming together perfectly. :)

I think the new chairs totally update the room. To remind you - we invested in new dining room chairs to update the table that was given to us my my parents. (To see the chairs that came with the table, click here)

The chairs are called the "Mia" and were custom made by Silva, who is a Canadian furniture manufacturer. If you recognize the name, they are who makes Sarah Richardsons furniture, but also her go to spot for re upholstery. (You can never go wrong with her sources)

I picked the chair style, fabric, nail head detail colour and even the leg stain and the chairs came out amazing. I walk by and run my hand over the curved back and smile. They are absolutely well worth the investment. These are our "forever" chairs. Classic, and will stand the test of time and changing styles in home decor. The neutral means it will survive changing colour trends, and the craftsmanship means they will likely be handed down to my children.

I also think that this is a pretty good example of how an old table can be instantly trasformed by changing out chairs. I'm often surprised at how much dining room tables cost, so I say buy a vintage table and invest in the seating. :)

Next up - Adding some art, and working with the light fixture. (No, I won't paint it) This is going to be budget as we used up our full budget on the chairs!

Dining Room Chairs

I was e-mailed some photos of my lovely Mia Dining Chairs. This is the 2nd step in the production, and the frames have been made. I'm seriously giddy about it, and equally terrified. I'm always terrified with custom orders, as you have to sometimes go with your gut. We went with a beautiful linen look that is similar to our Colette Bed. :) I chose a neutral for the 6 chairs, as it felt the most natural for our style. Can't wait!

Behind the Scenes at Silva

We just picked the fabric for the dining room chairs. You all know how awesome I am at making quick decisions when it comes to fabric. :) When I went to Silva, I got to have a sneak peek behind the scenes. Let me put this into perspective - A teenager would freak out being on a TV set of their favourite television show, I was flipping out seeing reupholstery. Maybe it's just me, but seeing a warehouse of upholstery, fabric options, and possibilities was pretty darn cool.



I would go Bananas for that couch. Ba-na-nas.



Here is a little fun fact - Love Sarah Richardson? Watch Sarah 101? Did you follow Design Inc or Sarahs House? You've seen her bring her furniture for re upholstery....this is the spot. And this is also where her line of furniture is made. So if you know Sarah loves it --- it's gotta be well made.


They showed me how their furniture is constructed.



Couch frames awaiting the fabric selection





As I got the tour, I was told of the beginnings of the company - Eugene Silva started the company in his garage in the 1980's recovering furniture. And when you walk through the factory, there was something strangely warm about the atmosphere, perhaps knowing it is still a family company. It just makes me really excited for our chairs, knowing they are coming from somewhere where each chair is made with such care.  I really enjoyed seeing behind the scenes so thought you would too.

Look who is joining us for dinner

As part of the Dining Room Makeover, I mentioned that I felt as though one of the biggest things we could do to update the room was switch out the chairs that matched the dining room table (see a photo of them in this photo). Things sold in sets (bedroom furniture sets are a perfect example) rarely look right to me.  So, I did a roundup of favourite dining chairs that I loved. Well, I really just loved one and we felt it was the perfect chair for us. Which one did we go with? My all time favourite, Mia.



The lines, and detailing remind me of our Master Bedroom bed, Colette, that I loved, and still love. The slight curve to the top, the nail head detailing. And we'll likely go with a fabric similar - a linen look. Here are some swatches of fabrics that give you an idea to my direction.



I got a tour of the Silva factory while there, to see how everything is constructed and hear about the history of this great Canadian Manufacturer. I'll post those later, as it deserves its own post. But for now, I couldn't resist showing you who is joining us for dinner. ;)

Dining Room Makeover - Trim complete!

I finished painting the trim! Whoop! It looks soooo awesome. Here is what I did.

Everything beneath the chair rail Chantilly Lace by Benjamin Moore. This is the trim colour throughout our house. After painting it all that colour it makes the original wall colour - Cloud White, by Benjamin Moore, stand out ---- Enough that I'm contemplating the wall colour as is. It is a beautiful buttery colour. The trim has not only made the wall colour pop - but it has also made our chandelier unfortunately stand out. Before I didn't mind it, but now I think we really need to switch it for something with a drum shade to make this room feel modern, not old ladyish.

Decisions, Decisions.

Dining Room Trim

So when I was watching Sarah 101, I was super excited to see that she did trim in the dining room.Although I didn't need confirmation that we were doing the right thing, it's nice to see someone whose taste I admire, do something similar. Although I'm not really a huge fan of what she did with the different colours of the trim, and then also inside the picture moulding, the overall project of trim was pretty much identical to what we are doing.

Above, the Dining Room she did, and below, our project on the go.

My job was to fill the gaps. Being an old house, and most walls plaster, the wall was wavy in some areas. Dap fills those gaps and it will be un noticeable when painted. I used wood filler to fill the holes where the nails went in.

There you have it! It's coming along nicely!

Dining Room Makeover - Dining Chairs

To truly transform the dining room I feel as though the dining chairs would have to be switched. Right now they are the chairs that came with the table and feel too heavy for the room. I don't want to paint them, as it (a) won't be the look I want and (b) I don't want to ruin the chairs. Ideally we'd add in some upholstered chairs like some of these...

Not sure which ones..We have to keep in mind that we need 6 chairs and that starts adding up!

Sources (1) Silva (2) Crate and Barrel (matches our bed!) (3) Chair Source (4) Crate and Barrel (5) Van Gogh (6) Sarah Richardson

Wall colour .. *gasp* I said colour

Thanks for your awesome feedback and high fives on our trim project. Nothing beats posting something to come back to find super nice comments. So thank you! We have to take a pause in our trim project as Aubrey has to go back to work. We hope to finish the trim by next Wednesday. In the meantime, I'm debating colour.  Ok, so I freely admit that my idea of colour is different than many people's...I enjoy soft muted colours. So let's tackle some inspirational photos. First up, Nate Berkus. Ok...so this is a colour. I could go bold and do this. (You are laughing over on your end of the computer at the fact that this would be considered bold for me...I know it) I think it is stunning.

via

And had I know Jen was going to go hang out with Nate, I would have told her to bring my Benjamin Moore paint deck to try to match the colour. (Kidding)

Photo Credit the Los Angeles Times

But again there is the original inspirational photo by Carol Reed. The photo on the left has a soft blue tone to it which is right up my alley as I'm much more drawn to the cooler colours than warm tones. (Remember the kitchen bench disaster - that was when I realized I always should stick to the blues and greens in the house)

via

Decisions, decisions. Maybe I'll find some inspiration at the Toronto Interior Design Show this weekend.

Adding some detailing to the Dining Room

"Decorating" has been postponed and we are tackling the Dining Room project of adding architectural interest to the room. All of the trim cost us $74 so budget wise, this was the best one to tackle right now.

Aubrey and my brother started on the trim today at noon, and six hours later they were 90% done. Aubrey has to finish off a few more pieces and then it is my turn to get out a paintbrush and paint the trim out. What else? We may possibly add a new colour above the chair rail (don't get too excited, likely a muted colour) and I'd love to also tackle new dining room chairs and a new chandelier ---- I feel that those would take the room to a whole new level of awesome.

The many uses of Green Tape

Project "Beautiful the Dining Room" is making some progress!

We decided to tape out our plans for the trim. We considered may variations. First we thought we'd do many boxes, but considering the size of the room, it was going to possibly look too busy. Then we considered the opposite extreme and though we'd do 1 long rectangular box beneath the chair rail. But Dad thought that it may then look like we essentially had NO trim. We we compromised and went with 2 long rectangular boxes on either wall.  So this is what we're looking at doing. 

I won't lie, the green tape is throwing me off so it's a little hard to invision but I am pretty happy with it.

And since I know some find it funny Aubrey's "Price is Right poses" he did this one for you...

For the record, we were cracking up over here. Why? Because he's actually pretending to be, for my amusement because of a school girl crush,  none other than Scott McGillivray from HGTV's Income Property. You know when he stands in a room and all of the sudden the plans for the new room pop up behind him? Now look at Aubrey again. Now picture Scott. Cracks me up. 
Gotta love a man that will do that for you. ;)

Trim Shopping for Dining Room

This is kind of a boring post. I would find it boring should I read it. But sometimes awesome projects involve boring steps. Consider this the boring step.

In our effort to makeover our Dining Room, we are going ahead with the first step of doing a chair rail and some picture trim. (Click here to see all Dining Room Posts) We headed to Central Fairbank to check out their wall of trim. Once you see some styles you like you mark down the number of it and go into the warehouse and can pick some samples to bring home. Genius if you ask me. 

We brought home some the samples we thought would work, when really, we should have brought home those .... plus some. Although the Chair Rail pick was fine, the picture moulding trim wasn't doing it for me. So in hindsight we should have grabbed a number of samples to save us a trip back a second time.

Erin popped over from across the street and helped me narrow it down to the following trim options. The top is the Chair rail, and the bottom is the Picture moulding.  

 

There we go. Boring post out of the way. ;)

Dining Room Thought Process, Do you need to know about art?

All this talk about art for the Living Room got me thinking that perhaps that we would have to figure out Art for in the Dining Room before we put a chair rail in. I worried as if this were the case, the project would be stalled indefinitely as we saved up for art (or rushed to figure out art.) I got Aubrey to  hold up a picture frame so I could study it.

Thankfully, I think we're safe to continue on with the trim even if we don't know if art will go or how big it will be.  (See my lines I've drawn in above) So even though it was a panic attack on my end, I thought I'd post about the thought process of the whole room.
And by the way...Carol Reed, the Designer behind the room inspiration popped by the blog and gave some awesome feedback on the height of the chair rail. See the comment section of the post!

PS., That isn't the art/frame that we would put up, I just gave Aubrey a frame that was lying around from the Living Room test shots. ;)

We are possibly moving forward with adding trim to the walls in our Dining Room. Since I feel that this a relatively inexpensive project, we are contemplating doing it. My inspirational moulding photo is from Carol Reed. (Left photo). She also has an awesome bathroom in her portfolio where again, the chair rail and picture mouldings are there (Right Photo). Stunning.

I have been sourcing information for how to indeed do this. Sara at Russet Street Reno's version here that I have bookmarked. Some websites say the chair rail should be 32-36 inches off the ground. Aubrey did this (photo 1) and I feel as though it's not as high as my inspirational photos, so rules may be broken. Out comes the painters tape to map it out. :)

Room Inspirational via Carol Reed

Dining Room

There are a few rooms I have not shown you. I stopped hiding my kitchen from you and showed you it in all it's uglyness (somewhat functional ugliness). Next up - our Dining Room. By the power of blogging you can nicely omit messy, dirty and unfinished rooms which is why it has never popped up on our blog..until now. So, wanna see it?



It is a white box o-nothing. All I have in it is my parents Dining Room table that they gifted us after redecorating their house. I love the dining room table, partially because it was the dining room table that we grew up with.  I feel as though updating the chairs would be a great way of updating this set. What about the rest of the room? I'd love a dining room that felt like this...



Not a fan of the chandelier, but the detailing on the wall, the colours for the room all stand out. I feel as though adding some wall detail like that in the photo above would make this room pop. So, here is what I think we'd need to do in order to complete this room. (1) Change wall colour (2) Add detailing to the wall like in the inspirational photo (3) New Chandelier and (4) New Chairs. Not sure if we will do this as come spring time I'll likely get back on my "new window" kick. But it's fun to dream!