Musical Chairs

Update on the dining room seating arrangements. We were able to define the actual eating area after receiving our FLOR order. We decided to go with FLOR because, for starters, I have always had a fascination with this company and now I feel like I've joined the cool crowd. OK, that's not THE reason, but it is like checking off a box on my interior to-do list, y'know? The real, initial reason we started looking for unconventional floor coverings is because the space required something that was about 6'x11'. -Very nontraditional. FLOR allowed us the flexibility to work with that.

With the "rug" in place, I scooted our beautiful long bench along the back wall and gave it a spin. It's perfect! I then brought in the white chairs (Tolix knock-offs from Overstock) that were intended for the eat-in kitchen area just to get a sense for seating capacity (oh, baby, we're talking TEN) and, golly, I think I like them here! I love it when that happens. Things just fall into place. That's kind of a rare thing when you're going through a remodel.

Of course this begs the question, what chairs are going to go in their place for the eat-in kitchen area? Don't ask. Let me just enjoy this moment.

Goodbye First Home: Kitchen

Prep area and tiny eat-in

Window + sink = important

Brown, tangerine, and gray.
We made it work.

When we moved in, the walls were covered in gingham-style (heyyyy, sexy ladies!) wallpaper that was incredibly difficult to remove. If you're wondering why we got rid of it, you might be imagining J. Crew prep when, in reality, it was more country charm (think geese with bonnets, instead). Once we got all that off, we selected a warm gray to go on the walls. From there, we repainted the cabinets, changed up the hardware, and switched out the counter tops. Eventually, we went stainless with the appliances (January is a good time to buy).

We also reconfigured the room where we could. It wasn't a classic, functional kitchen setup before. It was somewhere between L-shape and galley, without the desirable 'triangle' of work stations. Now the pantry and prep area are much closer to the fridge and sink. We made that stainless steel table by drilling an IKEA counter top to two Elfa shelving units. You'll note the neon green clip on the mesh shelves therein, this is to keep the kids from pulling them out or, worse, getting their heads caught underneath. (This is not mommy-doctor approved!) I will say that the nice thing about this contraption is it has wheels, so it can actually be moved to the middle of the kitchen and act as an island and put back afterwards. We also made good use of wall space, which is always critical in a small, heavily trafficked area. 

Seating for the Dining Room

Currently I am obsessing over seating for the dining room. I'm actually fixated on getting chairs in general because there's no place to sit currently.

Right now we have two tables, a round one that will eventually go downstairs in the basement and will get lots of use from the kids (hence we bought it on Craigslist) and the Oslo table from Crate and Barrel that will be used for daily dining. I recently ordered and received (Overstock is so prompt) these chairs in white for the round table. I plan on spray-painting them a more complimentary color to the espresso in the table:

Tabouret Chairs via O.Co

The tricky beast in all of this is seating for the long, I'm talking 98", dining table. Sure, we could pull out the leaf and make it shorter, but I feel that a long table brings so much joy to the home it's best to let it be what it was meant to be. So with that goal in mind, I started looking at aesthetics. I came to find that I really, really like a mix of chairs at the table because too much of the same thing looks heavy to me.

Pinspiration. Three different types of seating at one table. 

Ideally, we would have two really nice leather chairs like this one at the ends:

WE's Curved Leather Chair

Some light and airy chairs in the front (the table is such a heavy piece that multiple, large, opaque pieces would weigh it all down, methinks):

O.co Honour Clear Acrylic Chairs

And a super long bench, banquet arrangement in the back. I like the look of a bench because it wouldn't add to the business of having three different types of seating, and I also like the idea of scooting the kids along the back wall. -Pretty much locking them in encouraging them to stay for the whole meal, and not having to worry about them playing with their chairs. Sizing and price are proving to be most tricky, though.

For starters, I'm not going to find something that is about 94" wide in one piece. So I got to thinking about buying two 48" benches and went on the hunt.

West Elm's Emerson Bench 58" $499 

Alas, most of what I'm seeing is 58"-74", which would then necessitate purchasing additional seating in the form of chairs on either or both sides. --There goes the streamlined aesthetic. Also, look at those prices. I'm cringing at the thought of having to buy ONE of these, which is why when I finally found a good 48 incher at Crate & Barrel for $899 it stung quite a bit.

C&B Big Sur Bench 48" $899

I paused my search until after the holidays. Surely the sales would make this goal more achievable. That's when I spotted this beauty from World Market during their 50% off all furniture sale:

Hayden Dining Banquet $249.99, 67"

This made me forget about the bench for the moment. I started looking at things differently. Hot dang, that's a handsome piece at a reasonable price! I began to salivate for a little bit, but was reminded that, at 67", I'm running into the same problem with needing additional seating to make the length of the table. I also managed to temporarily forget that a large reason for why I had looked into bench seating to begin with was to make things "light and airy," and Mr. Hayden here is not about that.

Taking the time to re-imagine things is helpful, though. I broadened my search and found these lovelies:

Modern Love Seats design by New York Furniture And Accessories Kelly Donovan

Holly Hunt Velin Bench via Houzz

Machine Age Extra-Long Swedish Sofa

Beautiful indeed, but I didn't even want to look at the price tags. Just as I was about to convince myself that this is the route I should take, reality came crashing down on me and suddenly I had visions of Cheerio crumbs in the cushions, grape juice on the fabric, etc. I could maybe, maybe rationalize this if I scored a super deal at a resale shop. -But even then I question whether or not I want to be vacuuming furniture crevices each day after meals.

So where are we now? I went back to the drawing viewing-board and stared at Pinterest and Houzz for a while. I told myself that a unique arrangement requires a unique solution. In medicine, we don't have the time and resources to keep trying the same approach with the same less-than-optimal results, so it's always important to keep moving on and try something new. I applied that technique in this case and now I'm looking at IKEA hacks! (Can you tell I'm excited?)

Mondo Cherry

IKEA Hackers

Two things I'm learning about this way of doing things is you have to look at safety issues since these pieces of furniture were not intended for these purposes (think load bearing potential, stability) and this must actually be a booming business for people who want to find something between store-bought and DIY:

Look what popped up on my screen. Who knew?

I bet this is more than you hoped to know about Dining Table/Chair Saga 2012. (I fear that this will seep into 2013, in fact, I know it will.) Nevertheless, I hope that by sharing this zany thought-process of mine you can see how I take painstaking measures to find the right items for my household and, hopefully, save time, money, and ourselves from a few headaches down the road. *phew* This post was so exhausting I'd better sit down. . . DOH.