Dining Room Update- 2 Tables

Here is our dining room set for Rosh Hashanah dinner (the Jewish New Year). We pushed both tables together and it was the perfect fit for 12 of us. As you can see, we only bought white chairs, and only 8 of them, so we had to fill in with some black ones. Not ideal, but the layout works so wonderfully day-to-day that I'm willing to overlook a few design issues for now:)

A few more pictures to show you how it's working:

The last 2 were from our 3 year old's Frozen birthday party!

Jessica

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Master Bedroom Tweaking

For some reason, my master bedroom has never fully lived up to my expectations I think it might just be too gray, too dark, something, but I am blessed with a husband who actually cares about the aesthetics of our house, and he is adamant that we keep the wall color. And the gray roman shades. And the gray velvet curtains... So I'm imagining a few tweaks to make it a little more cheerful. 

I'd like to add bedside lamps in a larger scale. These navy ones from Target look good (similar ones here), although I'm also open to these clear disc ones from West Elm.

I'm loving the collage wall from Young House Love. I'm happy with our existing yellow prints from Little Brown Pen of Paris in a yellow color story, but maybe if I brought in more photos of our family, the wall would fill in nicely.

I've already pulled the trigger on these mirror collage frames from West Elm. Plus the 4 prints from Minted: & Bricks, Golden Mums, Sundrop, and Hexagon Cluster.

The corner with the chaise (from Wisteria) could use a little pop of color. Maybe a side table, a lamp, a throw and a new pillow?

Any other ideas for me? I'm not sure how much I will actually implement, but it's always fun to dream!

Jessica

No affiliate links were used in this post, just fyi:)

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A Mid-Century Dining Room Update

It's been at least 4 years that we've had this Bjursta table from Ikea, and it has served out family well, but it's time for an upgrade. Nothing crazy, we still have 4 kids under 8, so spills and sticky messes area  twice-daily occurrence.

Here's my master plan:

The main changes are switching to 2 tables and swapping out the chairs for something wipeable. Here's the rundown of our dining room before. We are keeping the striped rug (Flor tiles) for now, and the linen and paper artwork.

Now that we think our family is complete with 4 kids, I'd like to have a table where we fit perfectly as a family of 6. We don't have a breakfast room (or a table in the kitchen at all), so the dining room is where we eat breakfast together everyday at 7am, and dinner together each night at 5pm (small children eat early). Lunch for the baby and preschooler is eaten at the kitchen counter, or out at a park or with grandparents.

So, with the idea of a smaller table, but not wanting to lose the functionality of the large table, I started thinking about having a pair of tables. These West Elm Expandable Mid-century tables fit the bill. We can push them together into an almost-square when we entertain, which easily seats 12 (3 per side), or extend each table and push them together to seat 14-18 (big square versus end-to-end).

The chairs, Becca linen stripe from Overstock, were very comfortable, but got super dirty over the last 3 years of constant use. Even though I stain-treated them, after 2 years they started to look a tiny bit dingy, and by this summer I couldn't take it anymore. It might also have something to do with our tastes shifting to a more modern, or mid-century modern aesthetic. In "fantasy life" we adore this table and formal chairs, but real life and little kids prevent us from spending over $10,000 on a table alone!

We went for the knockoff chairs from EModernDecor, since again, almost $400 per chair for the real version seemed excessive, and the $75 versions work well for us. Each time we buy things that need assembly, my husband and I look at each other and ask, "when will be be grown-up enough to stop buying furniture that needs to be put together"? But then we just do it all over again, since for 8 chairs, the cost saving was over $2500!

Since I'm getting back into the blogging swing of things, I'll have to snap a picture and post the results soon!

Jessica

No affiliate links in this post, just letting you know where to find things:) Pin It

Polka Dot Big Girl Bedroom Reveal

We had our baby! He arrived last week, and when I can come out of the sleep deprivation coma I promise to post about him! In the meantime, enjoy the fact that our 2.5 year old has a room all her own and doesn't at all feel displaced:) Here's the "reveal".



And by reveal, I mean, here are the pictures I took and that's as much as I can do in my present condition:)

I actually broke out the spray paint to redo this lamp, massive DIY points for that:)

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Adding another bathroom to our house

Because once we finish a project we get antsy for more...




And the vacation house is done...


And we've moved our daughter into the guest bedroom, so we needed somewhere for guests (read my mother in law) to sleep.

We are adding a bathroom to our downstairs gym/basement along with a murphy bed (or wall bed depending on where in the country you come from).

We are still deep in the construction process, but I have to admit to loving the smell of drywall mud and the sound of hammering, so comforting to me!

We purchased everything we needed ahead of time (always a good plan), so we have the vanity, tile, sconces, bathtub, plumbing fixtures, toilet, mirror... Oh, this is the "before".

Jessica

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Big Girl Bedroom, and now it begins...

Our 2 year old is big enough to transfer to our old guest room.




Clearly she's the third child since the only picture I have of her in 2014 is this one while she and her brother are each watching shows in their Kindle Fires before preschool. #lowerexpectations

Thankfully when I added the pink and white polka dot wall treatment 2 years ago I knew that eventually the little one would move in. The side table will be moved into my 6 year old's room to make way for a dresser.

Adding the pink and green chevron fabric to the bottom of the curtain panels was on the "to do" list all those years ago as well, but I just let it slide until now. I took the curtains (8 years old from Restoration Hardware) to a local dry cleaner along with fabric I bought on Etsy and voila!

I bought a new rocker from Land of Nod, which I'm hoping will be flanked by a little bookcase, a side table, and maybe a hot pink pouf.

Here's a quick "that it looked like before" reminder...

Another update soon!

Jessica

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Hannukah in August

Or some other title that explains why I was rummaging around our storage room in search of our dreidel collection when it was 75 degrees outside:)

You see, Lamps Plus and Hometalk partnered together to create a blogger holiday challenge. they offered bloggers a Lamps Plus fillable glass gourd lamp, like this:

and asked us how we would fill it for the "holidays".

Being Jewish, I immediately thought of the High Holidays which are right around the corner in September, but filling a lamp with apples and honey seemed really messy. Anyhow, they meant December holidays, of course. So I jumped on board with my desire to ring in Hannukah early this year, at least in terms of decoration. They will chose 3 winners to be featured in their holiday catalogue and potentially win a $500 gift card, so yay!

Note the metallic garland, sparkle dreidel garland, and collection of dreidels inside.

It tried my very best to keep our Curious George dreidel out, but that's what you get with a 4 year old helper:)

The process was so easy I'm thinking about doing this seasonally (oh, the big dreams I have when all the kids are asleep). Seriously, you just unscrew a nut from the bottom, slide the bottom stand off and fill. Re-screw and you are done.



Ignore all carpet stains, we do:)



When the 6 year old saw it she was super excited, although requests for a singing Hannukah stuffed animal that I only let out for the 8 nights, were quickly put down. There will be I Have a Little Dreidel stuck in my head for 4 months, no siree...

A beautiful lamp full of dreidels, good thing I didn't use chocolate gelt:)

Jessica

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It's Not Furniture, It's Ikea...

Even though I have a tried and true love for Ikea, some things just weren't meant to be.

Like this dresser that we call the "sunscreen cabinet", or the morning launching pad.

After opening and closing the drawers, mostly the top one, 20+ times a day for almost 2 years, it's over. The love is gone, and the top drawer won't close all the way. Boo.

When we moved I thought we would finally be grown up and only buy adult furniture, but the lure of Ikea got to us. It's so cheap! It's so close! It will only take a day and a half to go there, bribe kids with soft serve, buy the item, wait for it, load it into the car while not decapitating said children, schlep it home, unload kids, put kids to bed, unload items, and put together with a million wooden dowels:)



So I'm looking around, and ready to buy an *actual* piece of furniture that can withstand that many drawer movements. Any suggestions?

Jessica

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Succulents by the Mudroom Door

I keep killing any plants I try to get to grow, but I've heard great things about succulents, so I thought to try them out downstairs.

I love how they look,

and I especially love that I'm only supposed to water them occasionally  Which I take to mean "when you remember" :)

I got the kids in on the action, which I'm hoping makes them take ownership over the plants, invest in their safety, and remind me to water them!

You can see more about my love of labeling doors with vinyl here.

Jessica

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Hiding my "monthly supplies"

Just warning you, this is a post about how to contain those "monthly" supplies, not sure you (DAD), really need to keep on reading.

Just saying...

 sanitary supplies runneth over...

This "before" is not pretty. It's like a walk down the sanitary products aisle at your local drugstore.

Needless to say, my husband was not so happy to see this on the back of our toilet tank once a month:)

Enter, a lovely box from West Elm (not available anymore, but similar to these).

Everything is neatly corraled, including the tampons and pads,

a place for everything, everything in it's place, and *hidden* from view!

Problem solved!

Jessica

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Stacking Books on the Coffee Table

You all know that I'm not really one for styling spaces, but even I couldn't help but notice that my gorgeous, giant burlwood coffee table in my living room, just wasn't living up to expectations. I do believe that a room without books is a little soul-less, so enter a happy accident when I discovered this post from Oh Happy Day.

The thing is a massive 6 feet long, and the one little tray (that I got from Joss and Main), just wasn't filling the space, or making it feel homey. You can check out my new art additions here.

Thankfully, by adding four neat stacks of books to the table, the space is filled, and I'm actually encouraged to look at these coffee table books!

My favorite books can be found in this post of the gifts I bought myself.

Better, right?

Plus, with 3 kids under 6, there is no way I'm styling this sucker with anything breakable or precious:) Even those flowers were only a there-for-the-photos kind of thing.

Jessica

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New Living Room Art

To start at the end- I'm in love with Joss and Main, and my new artwork, tada!!!

Now, back to the beginning:)

First, there was this.

Then, we added this art.

So it looked like this...

Pretty, but then zoom out to the entire room.

Not so balanced, right?

Even though I love the texture and raised feel of the art (which we got from Crate and Barrel), I thought the other side was too dark and needed something else light, and white.

Enter, my beloved flash sale site, Joss and Main.

I adore a ton of their things, but this art print, by a California surfer artist  had all the right colors, and looks just right in the room!

Any other home decor sites you are loving?

Jessica

Linking up this week:

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