‘Around the House’ is a little series intended to document the (slow) decorating progress in my own home . Like most people, decorating my home is an organic progress -adding and tweaking, as the need arises or inspiration strikes. No big bang reveals here…this is real life.
When we moved into our home two years ago, there was an awkward room off the kitchen. I say awkward because it is a very small space (only 7′ wide by 11′ long) with 4 windows and a bay window (!). The two previous owners had used this space as a dining room but the space was way too narrow for a proper dining space. See?
DECORATING TIP: Ideally, you should allow 36″ between the walls and the dining room table (or other furniture) to allow chairs to be pulled out easily.
Here is how the space looked when we moved in. Already a little better with all the furniture removed.
This was the view from the kitchen:
After living in the house for a while and discovering how we use the space (occasional eating, lots of colouring/crafts, some reading and relaxing), we decided to build a bench under the bay window using IKEA cabinets for built-in seating. I won’t give you the step-by-step, but if you’re interested in DIY’ing a bench using IKEA cabinets there are plenty of tutorials online (we used this one). Oh – and that’s the royal “we”. My husband did all the construction.
Once the bench was installed I had a firm 3″ bench cushion made in a super-durable denim coloured fabric and added several Sunbrella cushions (kids + spills/crumbs/markers/paint requires stain resistant fabric!)
Two weekends ago I decided it was finally time to get rid of the beige walls. The honey coloured floors, in combination with the beige walls and sometimes harsh afternoon light, made the room way too yellow for me. The beige had to go.
Inspired by this bright and airy sun room by Emily Henderson, I decided to go with a cooler palette, to give the room a fresh and breezy vibe. I selected Benjamin Moore’s Mt. Rainier Gray from their 2014 Colour Trends palette. A soft bluey-gray.
Doesn’t the blue make the white trim pop?! So refreshing.
The room gets a TON of light and as a result, plants do very well in here. My fig tree has sprouted about 2 feet since I bought it. Now I’m trying my hand at succulents.
I’m much happier with the “finished” space. I use quotes because I’m already planning on switching it up in a month or two once our littlest guy starts crawling. Since the room is right off the kitchen I think it’d be great to use as a small playroom so I can keep an eye on him while working in the next room.
And since I love a good Before + After, here you go:
One day of painting was totally worth it.
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