Phase II: Dining Room.d. (90% Complete)

Dining Room:
Where were we with this room? Oh yah.
Well... after returning to a catch-all/hallway for a fecking eternity spell, we burned some serious midnight oil & banged her out before the Supper of all Supperz this past Holiday Season. She's lookin' a'ight.

Elements of design:
The Dining Room: featuring a large footprint with no resting walls connected to the Library (East), Living Room (West), and Kitchen (South). Working with the original hardwood floors and trims, we beefed up the panelling to a plate height wainscoting & extended the crown along the ceiling (which is painted the most absorbingly beautiful ink black matte: pop that chandelier bling!), as well as adding the subtle texture of wallpaper (nicknamed "Grandma's doiles") to bump up the lineage of the room. But we're eclectically hip, so in addition to the black ceiling, the furniture & texture of the layered rugs dumbs all that stuffy-glam down to our looser disco-zen.

The furniture:
Redwood table: with our kid's name carved into the top (a haha funny story), was the first purchase the man made for the family... so it's in the sentimental/keeper category. One day we'll refinish.
The lucite chairs were re-found (not new IKEA... used IKEA!) on Kijiji (& were a spontaneous change-up to the Wegner's currently in the Kitchen Nook) as was the MCM credenza we love. Sourcing used materials/furniture has been priority on our mandate to rehab 619 (saving planetary resources hoorah!) and it's feeling better than any *new* stuff ever has. Be a goody-two-shoes & make the jump, folks!

The curtains:
Thick, rich, and taking up 92% of the North wall. By obscuring the window-frame & extending the curtains along the wall they make an undeniable statement, as well as providing extra insulation in our winter weather.
This velvet is more of the "forest" variety of green than the "emerald" we were aiming for... so will try again when not still busy bees with this and this, oh... and this too (stay in tune for more exiting news on that amazingly cool project). Curtains are an easy & inexpensive element to change (thanks to our mad sewing skillz!) so no sweat... and we can go back to our earlier visions of yellow/teal, or make up something new like hot pink flocked damask, all on a whim to change the whole mood.


The space wouldn't be the same if not for that construction way back forever ago of moving all those weird doorways (and subsequent ducting) and punching the double French doors through the South wall to the Kitchen. By making that very expensive and essential leap-of-faith a mere few months into inhabiting 619 (breaking rule #1: do not make any drastic changes for at least 6 months), we regained natural light and an easy circular flow to the entire main floor. Sock it to ya, rules!

For fun & preservation, here's the Realtor's *before* shot... hoo Nelly!

Future:
Paint/caulk touchups. There are still some stragglers...

Wall-art. We just can't decide yet where & what to do with our collection, so they are staying off the wall until we can decide in conjunction with the other rooms of the house what goes where... or a flash of inspiration moves us. After we settle into the space (since we moved in 2 years ago we have not been able to experience living on the main floor without construction/obstruction) we'll tweak and play with the space... changing it as we do. But the structure is there now, so ready set play!

Intermission: Still life in 619

Wintersleep is seeping into the house life... with the major reno's of our living spaces at a bearable comfortable level of not stripped down to studs completion, we're taking a break to enjoy each others' company, appreciating just how far we've busted ass to get exactly where we are today, and enjoying some well-deserved afterglow.
Hello neighbours! Hello previously-in-storage vinyl collection! Hello 6 precious hours of daylight! Hello reading! Hello nog! We are so pleased to see you again after what seems like a year of the solid-house-grind jitterbug...

Stay in tune... we will continue the journey of house-stuff in the near future (beginning the last "major" living-space project of the Family Bath, finishing the Master Bedroom to resemble human beings living in it, and planning a garden). We've let the Dining Room plans slide, and watched other things we thought we'd want to do over the winter break degrade into meh in favour of loving our life together a little deeper... good for us! Bring on Lou Reed and a teenagers newfound appreciation of vinyl, ubiquitous mimosas + morning snuggles, snowshoes and horror frost, studio organization & fabric lust, the man's island craftsmanship in walnut, late nights of heady philosophy & RISK!... it's on.

Intermission: In da House!

Projects on the-go:
Master Bedroom:
Remaining decor to resemble a living-space. It's kinda like a beige-tainted carpeted cave with AMAZING luxurious flocked velvet pooling teal curtains right now... difficult to sleep in without personal effects smattered about. There's an echo. Seriously.

South West Bedroom:
As a guest-dwelling for the Holiday influx of jet-setter pals, we are rushing to slap this one together! Giddyup.

Kitchen:
Island construction & lighting on the way! One step closer to completion of our hub. Then, we be done Kitchen construction (but not decor, as we're already craftily brewing "Changes: Phase III").

We're in the kitchen... a lot. With Winter break coming up, this is only to increase with cometh of the foodie.

We're enlightened bah humbug folk, who hate don't like appreciate Christmas et al. Perhaps due to the culture of disposable materialism destroying our planet? Or maybe because our birth-family relationships are annoyingly difficult laden with bullying emotional baggage due to us being so exceptionally different from them awesome. But we LOVE anyway, so embarked upon finding ways in expressing our time-off-work-and-school-in-Winter together that did not involve over-consumption of material goods to express familial guilt love. We settled to run parallel the trend, and initiate over-consumption of perishable goods to fill the emotional hole of not being unconditionally supported by our birth-families. It sounds terribly sad... but shed not a tear for us dear sensitive reader... we eat bacon wrapped lobster and drink Starbucks until we are at the speed of hummingbirds... there is no room for sadness.

My OCD (depicted above) in action, creating digital menu's for the gastronomical festivities. We splurge on local delicacies (wild boar-ham, northern pike, farm-eggs, local wines) in tandum with the exotic (like seafood! we are miles + a mountain range away from the ocean), with Starbucks (ode to the culture gods) at the helm.

This will be our third annual celebration, and FIRST in the Kitchen we built together... with an Island. Exiting!

Dining Room:
Oh yeah bitches. Wallpapered and trimmed and painted... yet. This beauty is supposed to be ready for the festivities. Keep fingers crossed.

Later:
Updates and visuals forthcoming.
Until then... here's some random eye candy.

Phase II: Dining Room.c.

 Remember this weirdness? Still in an embarrassing state & I really didn't want to post like this... messy girl! But... it's about the journey, and it's winter, I'm full of excuses, and I'm being too hard on us from lack of sleep because we're working.

Progress:

It is very nice to not have this room as a catch-all hallway as it has been over the past almost-year. Although walls, trims, etc. are still in progress, this is now a functioning space for us.  

Isn't is fun how things change? We think so. 

Those Wegner chairs ended up (for now) in the Kitchen nook, as a happy surprise. It dumbs down the decor: the ghost chairs play off the chrome & crystal of the chandelier... and makes us feel badass. This is the motorcycle of our house brrrrwrnnnnnn brrrwrnnnnnmm MMM MM mm!

Luxuries:

Cowhide: 

Homage to the man's roots. Layered over a hemp 12x9 for a warm style.

Danish Teak Credenza:

Another thrifted find, for a fabulous price ($70!). I have become a bargain-hunter thrill-seeker. It is perfect. We love.

Sacrifices:

Tweaked design because of time & money (I sense a theme developing?). But, more so than in other rooms, I'm pleased with the restraints.

Original Wood:

Original wood trims will be painted-over if they can't be salvaged and restored. I know, we are awful people disgracing your 1980's aesthetic values. Hey... you don't get to judge us.

Up Next:

More Yellow:
Searching for crushed yellow velvet for the curtains to span the entire north wall. Anyone got a lead on some for our miniscule budget? This crappy baby-poo yellow curtain will be a stand-in until we are blessed with said yellow. Please, close your eyes for a moment & bless us with yellow. Thankyouverymuch.

Walls/Ceiling: 

Removing that gawdawful Hummel-shelf over the Library door; wallpaper & paint on the walls (white on white on white); heavy crowns, trim, and wainscoting; and black glossy ceiling. It'll be a stunner.

Patience:
Yes. please. 

Phase I. Dining Room.b.

Dreams:

My design "challenge" room so far, but it is coming together. Originally we were thinking dark & moody... but things have turned and I've reneged upon a "white walls are bad" attitude. Surprise! 

Searching for inspiration... revisiting Wright's Falling Water until dreaming strictly in Bauhaus, something clicked for me yesterday while contemplating the Panton chair.  

Wegner's wishbone chair. Paired with our cherry dining table (a sentimental piece being our first "real" furniture together as a couple) upon a natural fibre (hemp weave) rug, and sourcing out a mid-modern credenza (fingers crossed!) are now the jumping-off point(s). 

Next Up:

Locating some of the actual furniture pieces without breaking the bank, completing the construction of walls & architectural elements. Painting... ah yes... still struggling with the aspect of colour in this room (though it's obvious how I feel about Teal)... we'll have to see what develops once the Kitchen, Library, and Living room (all adjacent to the Dining Room) are well on their way... (still waiting on the Kitchen btw).

Phase I: Dining Room.a.

Dining Room:
Situated off the Kitchen, Living Room, Library, and hallway to the main floor Bath & Bedroom, the Dining Room was more like a hallway (says wear in hardwood floor).

Features:
Original hardwood floors, mouldings, and baseboards, North facing window (view to neighbours), sparkly chandelier (the man loves it's internal geometry, but I'm not in love with it's kitch...).

Natural lighting is limited: so doorway from Kitchen will be reconfigured to become across from S facing Kitchen window, doubling the natural light in the space.

Deconstruction:

Access to and from the Dining Room was rearranged & traffic flow has been altered, creating a more purposeful space as a Dining Room alone, with access to the Library.

Ducts were re-routed to create the double doorway from Kitchen: structural had to be engineered (this is the supporting wall of the house).

Celebration:
The Dining Room opened up immediately once we removed the wall to the Kitchen... natural light! Huzzah! Reconfiguration of the many awkward doorways was a huge project for Mark, but well worth the effort. The Dining Room is now a Dining Room! Imagine that.

Next Up:

Walls, French doors, baseboards and trims, chair rail will provide the base for the custom wainscoting, and a thicker more decorative crown moulding added... then paint!