My favorite bloggers, YHL, featured our dining table today as a Reader Redesign! You seriously have no friggin’ idea how very excited I am right now! If I weren’t holding a baby I think I would have jumped about three feet off my chair, really. If you haven’t seen it already, head on over to Young House Love and check it, check it, check it ouuut.
Over the weekend, we decided to repaint our dining room, completing the transformation. We used the same color as the basement, which extends up the staircase and is visible from the living room, dining room, and kitchen.
I cleared the room and taped off the trim while Ben was at work. After removing the curtains, I decided that I liked how open the window looked. So, I took the outer curtain supports down, patched the holes and sanded it smooth.
I don’t have much time to paint with a three-year old and four-month old. Fortunately, Ben is a quick painter and the area is small. It literally took about eighteen minutes to repaint. Here he is, hard at work.
We had to do two coats. One on Saturday afternoon.
And another on Sunday morning.
Ben hung the curtain brackets about 5 inches from where they were. It’s really amazing how much more open the window seems now. I love it.
I did love the old, dark blue color (Benjamin Moore’s Hale Navy), but this definitely fits in with the rest of the house. The curtains are more fitting with the wall color, too. Sure, the plates don’t pop as much against the new wall color, but the dark table top was just too dark with the old wall color.
The room has come a long way in the past few years. Now it’s exactly as I had imagined. The plate rack is a nice feature, serving as art and storage.
We have some touch up paint to do, especially on the white, but it’s good enough for now. I’m a happy camper. Touch up paint can wait. Let’s take a trip down memory lane, shall we?
Here was the dining room as I received it, thanks to Ben’s decorating.
Then we added trim, a plate rack and repainted. We also bought a new rug and I made curtains. Then we had this:
We recently installed a new light fixture and Ben built an ah.maz.ing table for us, bringing us to this point:
And here we are today!
Do you have any projects to take on this weekend?
You may recall that we’ve recently built a new dining table.
After using it for a few weeks, I’m happy to report that it is still as fantastic as I hoped it would be. Most visitors don’t believe it was a DIY project, either. Score!
We were a little hesitant to get a marble top because marble can stain easily, but we haven’t had any problems so far. We actually poured a little grape juice on the sample and let it sit for a good 20 minutes. Then we wiped it off and we couldn’t see a stain or any sort of discoloration. A few coats of a nice quality wax will help prevent stains, too.
Our son also loves his new fort. He couldn’t play under our old table due to the pedestal design. Another benefit when dealing with small children: the steel was spray painted, so it will be super cheap and easy to touch up down the road. Simply remove the top, haul the base outside and give the table a coat or two of plain ol’ spray paint. Heck, we could change the color if we wanted to.
The World Market chairs we picked up are comfortable, too. The size is perfect for our table. I love the color and the slightly rustic finish is a great way to disguise future wear. The stacking Target chairs are so convenient to carry up and down the stairs and are easy to store.
When we planned to build a table, we knew we would not have the option to expand the table to add leaves, but most often, our old table was at the smallest size. Over the weekend, we had several guests and missed the larger table. Only for a minute, though. This table looks so much better than our old table and all the options we could find locally. We plan to buy a card table or two for future large gatherings.
Overall, we love the table, chairs and usability of the set. With that said, I’m curious to know what piece of furniture made your lives easier?
Before we could bring our new table in, we had to remove the old set. Then, I added a few more Flor tiles to the existing rug. Because our old table was round, the four square by four square rug was the perfect size. The rectangular table needed a rectangular rug. When I order Flor rugs, I always order a few extra squares of each design. This came in handy. I cut the dark brown squares to fit with the existing design. Then I taped them together because I didn’t have extra Flor dots. After about ten minutes, our ‘new’ rug was ready for the table.
Ben and I carried in the new table base, but the top was far too heavy for me to move. With a little help from a friend, we had a new table. Enough talk, here’s the completed table:
The overall size is 4 1/2 feet long by 3 feet wide, which fits perfectly in our dining room. The chairs tuck under neatly, fitting close the edge of the table, leaving two feet of walking space on all sides.
The apron is set in 1/2 inch from the legs, giving the base a polished look.
I love the clean, modern Parsons style legs paired with the more traditional marble top.
It’s a perfect balance of modern and traditional. The dark wooden chairs are comfortable and stylish, but still add warmth.
I wanted to show the marble off, so here’s an artsy shot:
I am 150% in love with our new table. What do you think? What is your proudest DIY project?
Some of our recent posts show changes we have made to our dining room. I have hated our dining table for the past year or so, but Ben loves our table. It’s solid oak and the price was great. The problem? The table measures in at a whopping 4 foot diameter. The pedestal base makes it impossible to push the large chairs within 6 inches of the table. Our small (9 foot wide by 10.5 foot long) dining room is even smaller.
After discussing a new table with Ben and looking around town, the search died; we couldn’t agree on a table. We discussed building a wooden table and painting it white. But how to make it sturdy enough? Back to the drawing board. Then, Ben had a great idea. Why not build the table out of steel? It’s cheap, durable and rigid.
Ben went to the local steel supply warehouse to see what he could find. He found three-inch square steel tubing for the legs and three-inch ‘L’ pieces for the rails. Score! The supply yard cut the pieces to length, too. Ben left $58.00 poorer and 100 pounds heavier, ready to start welding.
We decided on four outer legs connected by a 1/2 inch inset apron with a cross support. Pass about 4 hours and we had this:
Here’s Ben touching up some areas:
Ben is so amazing, he even added feet!
Add some spray primer and three coats of gloss white Rustoleum spray paint and we had this:
And this:
Because we plan to sell our entire dining set, we began searching for new dining chairs. The plan is to have 4 matching chairs at the table at all times, with these stacking chairs available for larger groups-we already have two.
I loved World Market’s Loft Chairs (see below), but at $100.00 each, they are a little out of our current price range.
After some online searching, Ben found these:
They aren’t quite as good-looking as the Loft chairs, but the price was definitely right and they are nice, solid chairs. The chairs are discounted because they are discontinued. We were sold-we bought four. World Market offers 10% off your entire purchase if you open a World Market credit card, so we got an additional $14.00 off! Here’s our receipt. I love when stores show the amount you’ve saved. I really love when the amount saved is more than the amount spent. Check it out:
Yep, we spent $125.96 and saved $154.00!! Amazing!
We went to our local granite and marble yard. We found a dark greenish-black marble with white swirls. It’s b.e.a.utiful and it’s a remnant! Ben helped cut the slab at the granite supply- it was too heavy and large to cut at home. 
Then he hauled the 4 1/2 foot by 3 foot cut piece home and polished the edges using granite specific polishing pads on a right angle grinder. Here he is, hard at work:
ourhumbleabodeblog.com 