Our Dining Room is Complete!

We've finally picked out a chandelier, ordered it... and it came in!  Kel had it installed last night and I finally got the chance to post it!

And for those concerned about Mr. Raphael Plant, you can see him on the table there.. with a new sprout standing tall and proud!

One step closer to a complete dining room!

We've been on the lookout for dining chairs for quite some time now and we got really close two months ago.  We saw a style we liked at a warehouse, but the unfortunately, they weren't stocking any more and there were only three left.  What on earth were we to do with only three chairs?  So the search continued...  until today that is!  We went by a one day sale and finally found these that looked similar to what we had in mind.  We weren't able to take them home with the car we were driving, but didn't want to risk losing them from some human error (even though we paid for them and they were on hold, I mean, remember the battle with Sears?!)  So, we immediately went back with a van, did an inspection, and brought them home!

Here's a close up of the chairs we got.  We like the shape of the back, with the detailing of the nail studs  on the seat.

Looking back on what we started with when we first bought the house, we really came a long way.  Check out how the dining room looked before:

And as promised, our dining room now with our new chairs:

 

What an awesome way to mark our one year at the house.  Next up for this room: a chandelier, and Kel's project to make a two seater bench for the dining table!

Wall Art

I finally got my wall decal installed!  I've had this idea to put up vinyl wall decals on my living/dining room wall for quite some time now and have been looking around for what designs are available out there.  I came across this blossom branch with birds that I completely fell in love with and had to get, but of course this was way back before much of the house was done, so I had to wait for the walls to be painted, the hardwood put in, and the whole nine yards.  During this waiting period, I found out that a friend of ours was actually looking to launch his own vinyl wall decal company and he informed me that when I was ready and have a design in mind I should check and see how their operations are going.  Sooooo.. that's what I did!  I showed him what I was looking for, and he said they have something similar and can always readjust their branches into the shape I like, etc etc.  What's awesome is that because they're local, they can come over to our house with colour palettes to try out on our walls to make sure the combination matched.  As well, they can come over to install the decal for us!  How awesome is that?  Totally takes the guess work out of shopping online and wondering if the colour showing up on my screen is actually the colour I'm getting!  Another great thing about these wall decals is that they're cheap and removable!  So you can change them as frequent as you'd like without damaging your walls and the messy work associated with changing wall paper!  Below you can see the design I've got on my wall now.  I'm contemplating doing another one for my bedroom walls...  For anyone who's interested, check out http://www.wallperfection.ca/

Tables.. tables..

After blast blogging on our trip last month, I've come to realize that this is only the fourth post for May..  That's not right!  So here I am, on the last day of the month trying to make up for it.

We've been looking around for furniture for the house for quite some time now.  We're still lacking a proper dining table (the two of us have been eating off our kitchen island and bar stool for some time now :P), dining chairs, sofa, bed, and of course those missing rails for the staircase!  Our original plan was to start shopping for all of it once we got back, but the priority of that task was lowered... why?  Because we've been getting summer weather in May already!  Now don't get me wrong, we haven't been slacking off and going to the beach every weekend, but day after day of 25-30 degree Celsius means our lawn's been growing in at full speed!  Now, where was I going with this.. yes, furniture shopping.  I'll post about our outdoor activities in another post.  (I promise!)

I've been eyeing this coffee table (in white) for a while now and getting quotes in store, online, and researching all the possible delivery methods.  We both loved the curves on this table because it'd be easier to maneuver around being without corners and all.  I inquired several websites on their policies and delivery and finally found one that was reasonable and with a promo code!  I placed the order online, and we went on to shop for a dining table.

We saw something at a store before that we really liked, but was looking for alternatives.  Kel wanted something not rectangular since it seemed like most dining tables these days were rectangles.  So, the original table we saw was circular... picture this table, but with a dark charcoal outside wood ring, and a dark tint glass in the middle.  What we loved about this table was that the middle glass part was a built in lazy susan, and the four metal legs on the side.  However, we came to realize that the metal legs would make the seating quite awkward and limited.  It took me another week to come upon something else we could agree on.  It was an oval wooden table with a off centre base.  We measured and placed markings on our floor to judge where everything would be when they arrived and soon came to realize that our coffee table may in fact be a bit too big.. and we'd much prefer the dining table and sofa.  And with that, I had to cancel the order on our coffee table. :(  Kel and Erica ended up driving down to Buffalo to pick up our dining table as shipping by that company would be far more expensive.  Below is the sneak peak of the table we got.  Now we're on to shopping for dining chairs... I'll share the actual look when we've got the area set up!

Our Curtains!

One of our objectives for our Asia trip this time was to check out the different types of fabrics available and see if we could get our curtains made in China and so... here they are!

Here's the set for our dining room window on the left.  On the right is the closer look at the pattern on the fabric.

Below on the left, are the curtains for our living room window.  On the right is the closeup of the pattern.  It's actually the same fabric as our dining room window, but we decided to use the flip side of the fabric so it's a different contrast and look.

And finally, below we have the curtains for our bedroom!

While we were there, we couldn't decide on what to do with our patio doors to the deck, so that's still up for debate.  As well, the office still has it's temporary curtains as we couldn't agree on those either, but we'll keep you posted once we figure that out.