Cantilever Chairs || Plus a Dining Room Reveal!

Today is the day.  I finally have a room in our new place to share: our dining room!

Ok so it didn’t look like much when we moved in.  Basically three things had to happen to get us to this reveal day: 

1) The dining room HAD to be painted something a little less light-sucking
2) We needed to find some chairs - because what is a dining room without chairs amiright? 
3) I needed to decide what art to feature in here!

We (I mean er my familial paint crew - thanks again guys!) knocked out the painting on week one but finding some chairs that could really make a statement was proving more difficult.  But eventually, I found them:

Brass... Breuer... CANE... Cantilever chairs.

Up until I found these, I didn't even know Marcel Breuer chairs came in anything but chrome.  But when I saw these glittering gold chairs, I scooped them up - carrying two at a time through the maze of dusty furniture at the thrift store, slightly panicked that the other two wouldn't still be there while the check-out clerk waited for me to navigate them safely out. 

My original plan was to flip and sell them. But I wasn't sure what direction to take them in.  My gut wanted me to recover the seats in leather but I was having some doubts.  Between the warm cane and bright brass, I feared that richly-toned leather would stick out like a sore thumb.  It needed something to tie it all together.

I sought council from my favorite sounding board Chelsea.  She actually suggested a soft, light velvet instead - wouldn't that be lovely?!  But after more research at the fabric store, I realized velvet was out of my price range.  Plus, I already had some yardage of leather in black and didn't want that to go to waste - but what could I do to marry the look?  

Eventually, I landed on adding an unexpected touch of black on the back of the cane.  Suddenly, this discreet black lip is what I needed to realize I was in love!  Alrighty - let's see it all together shall we?

Ah the paint color already makes a WORLD of difference in this space.

And these chairs are the stuff my dreams are made of!

Can you see the touch of black on the inside lip?

At certain angles it even peaks through the cane.

It’s funny to me that rooms with molding used to always read really "traditional" to me.  But when we toured this rental, it was the idea of making this space a fresh take on traditional is what sold me on this house in the first place - despite the dingy tan walls.

As for the art, I tried hanging all sorts of arrangements in this dining nook and was despondent to all of them.  I had wanted something long and low to lean a cluster of art on but the dining room didn't have space for a buffet or credenza.  But when I hung the art low and along the chair rail I realized it created the same effect that I love without the added furniture footprint!

Even though they were originally supposed to be for sale, once I brought them in around our table - I was done.  These babies were mine.  And the perfect crowning jewel to our freshly finished space.  Hoping to have more of our new place to share over the coming months so stay tuned friends!

Room Tour (Finally): McKenna's Bedroom

You guys know how it is... 

It is next to IMPOSSIBLE to decide when to shoot a space. I take one picture, and all I see are the five things I want to change about the room. I keep telling myself that I'll have our new Seattle rental (we moved here in July 2017... is it still new?!) photographed when it's "done." But let's be honest, that day will never come.

I'm lucky, then, that a breakthrough of sunlight - a welcome arrival during this gray and drizzly winter - made my decision for me. I finished work, snuck in a workout, and came home to the most breathtaking sunshine seeping through our windows. So today, Mutts, you can thank the anomaly that is the winter Seattle sunshine for this peek of our bedroom.

Exhibit A:

No, I did not add those light bubbles to these photos. That just HAPPENED. And I know they're not perfect, professional photos, but holy cow, I had to capture it. 

When we moved across the country from DC last summer, we literally brought clothing and kitchen supplies with us. The only pieces of furniture were a coffee table in our living room, and the two bedside tables you see above. Oh, and the painting - which is a Framebridge print of a photo I took in my soul city, Palm Springs, CA. The side table on the left is a table that my parents purchased and refinished at the start of their marriage in the 80s; the table on the right belonged to my fiance's grandmother. Both are precious to us and, luckily enough, majorly back in style. We saw exact lookalikes at a trendy vintage store in Seattle a few months ago. 

So that means that we had to purchase everything else. As someone who moved every 11 months for 5 years, this didn't phase me, but we took our time to make good decisions and find great deals. 

My proudest purchase is actually our bed. Even though it's a mass-produced item from Wayfair, we spent only $73 on it, and the quality has really surprised us! 

I hunted down this midcentury Tallboy on Craigslist. It's a tight squeeze in what is already a small room, but it gives me the storage I need. Now that I've accented it with some dried flowers from our local farmers market and a copy of our favorite engagement photo, I seriously love this little corner. 

And then we splurged on a few things: our Parachute Home bedding; our plug-in West Elm sconces; and our stunning and soft West Elm rug. I waited for sales and have no regrets about these purchases. In fact, we've registered for many more Parachute Home items for our upcoming wedding. They're worth it!

I love the way the small but sufficient bedroom has come together. Of course, there are things I'd change if I had a limitless budget, but it's a space that I genuinely love at the end of the day. There is no better feeling than lighting a candle, diffusing some essential oils, and nestling into bed with a good book. 

I am so excited to share the rest of our home with you all soon; in the meantime, have a great weekend, Mutts!

Living Room for Life's Next Chapter

Hi Friends! Jumping on today to share a bit of transformation in our home, and in my heart. When we moved into this, (our first), house, Colin and Shire we're 10 months old and according to BabyCenter.com Mason was the size of a kumquat, whatever that is. I had one main objective - to prove that it's okay to not surrender your home just because you have children. If I'm being honest, that's really what was on my heart. Just being real here!

In the name of proving a point and being brave, I opted for white slipcovered furniture. White appealed for so many reasons - aesthetically it felt calming and airy to me, and I figured I could always use bleach when running them through the wash. So for the better part of a decade that's what we've had as our babes have grown into active big kids, now 8, 8, and almost 7. White stopped working for us over the last year or so; I'm sorry to say this if your kids are younger than ours, but big kids sweat! And then they start getting kinda stinky. And they flop their sweaty stinky bodies on the sofas when they come in tired from hours of outdoor play. And sure, if the sofas are slipcovered there's no permanent damage, but here's the thing: If you are in a stage of life where you need slipcovered furniture, chances are YOU DON'T HAVE TIME TO WASH THEM. At least, that's been my perspective. So I had a decision to make - either forbid my precious family whom I share this house with to not sit on the furniture unless they're cleaned up, or find furniture that can be more easily cleaned.

Living Room one year ago

So despite my love for the white sofas and having a home that isn't just for the kids, I felt ready to jump in and embrace this new stage of life with older, sweatier, dirtier kids who are juuuuust starting to give off the first whiffs of BO. To be clear, I made this decision because I knew there was no way I could fully enjoy this new stage of life or my home with white sofas. That's me and my uptightness. Every person/family is different and there are certainly loads of people with white slipcovered sofas and kids and they're happy as clams because they're so laid back it's annoying. I wish that was me, but it's not. I've been ready to throw in the towel and tap out.

When I decided to part ways with slipcovered furniture I wanted something I could wipe clean, (leather), would get better with use, (leather), and had great reviews from others with a lot of activity in their home: This lead us to Article, and specifically, the Sven sofa!

This is not a 'which design is better' thing and I'm not making any case over visual appeal here. For us this is about maximum function in a house full of kids, many of which wander in from the neighborhood.

While we've only had the Sven sofa for a few weeks and I can't speak to the long-term quality just yet, (though the reviews were fantastic), we have been impressed with the comfort and durability thus far as our family has piled, (literally), on the piece numerous times since we unpacked it. I've already seen my kids fall asleep on it during our pre-bed reading time together and it's the first place they come in the morning to transition from sleep to awake.

A few more shots of the space show nothing else has changed. The ivory shag rug was an inexpensive Amazon find from Safavieh that has spoiled our feet all Winter long! It's SO thick and soft and when our new sofa is crowded, no one minds moving to the floor.

Even our chair is stain/smudge proof! That one wasn't intentional, though. After our very grown-up sofa purchase we didn't want to spend money on a new chair and this had been in the boys room for several years, (a $10 thrift store find that I got for free with customer loyalty points).

When I committed to embracing this next stage of life, I meant ALL. IN. We've got one learning how to play guitar, and we realized when it was in it's case put away he wasn't practicing much. The only solution I could think of was to get it out and seen; well guess what sound we wake up to now on Saturdays? All in.

Oh yea! Our new art :) After 15 Valentines Day's together, I think I got this year right; a canvas + a sharpie + my husband's favorite Philadelphia Eagles' trick play from the Super Bowl, the Philly Special. He's been running this play with the kids on the daily right here in the living room, so getting the play up on the wall just seemed right!

Thank you so much for coming by today! We sure appreciate you.