Thursday, October 26, 2017

Dining room update

One of the things that makes me cross about our market driven society, is that things which are still perfectly useful, are suddenly declared 'out of fashion' and therefore we are influenced to think of throwing them away and buying new things which are pretty much identical to the old things, but perhaps a different colour. Not only is that an expensive thing to do, but so wasteful for our planet.

I have explained previously how I wanted to refresh the dining room at our place, but felt that the table and buffet were strongly made and worth keeping. In today's style guides though, they are the wrong colour.

My solution has been to replace the pine chairs with new white ones. The old chairs went to the op shop. We moved the dresser to another wall, and restyled it with my prettiest blue and white or pink and white china. I have retired the Arnotts biscuit tins which had been featured on the top. I also sent to the op shop some other pieces which were taking up space and making clutter.




DH did a lovely job this week of repainting the walls, door and door frames and the window ledge. We took down all the china plates, and that had left holes in the walls we wanted to fill. Things get tired after a while, and the door frames in particular had become chipped. 

The wooden window ledge is now shiny again, perfect for when our cat Dora wants to sit and breathe the air through the open window. 



Then I went looking for a new buffet. In the past we had a chest of drawers in this room but it was too high to be useful for an extra serving space, and was coming to the end of its life anyway.

The chest of drawers went to the op shop too. 

We are lucky to have found the perfect thing to replace them! 


The top is the same colour of wood as my ancient pine table and buffet, but it picks up the white of the chairs and the china, to make it all seem like it fits in! The doors are framed in the same way as the dresser, and the knobs are the same shape too! 

I am now in the final stages of refinishing the art for the walls. We are waiting on a tool to be delivered, which will help us fix the back of the picture frames securely.  Meanwhile these two delightful originals can sit here, leaning against the wall  -in the modern manner! 

We are all feeling happy about this makeover so far, and are inspired to keep going in refreshing more spaces in our home. There is a problematic store of stationary which is going to be culled next! 

4 comments:

selina said...

i hate waste too & half the time the new furniture won't last as long as the old; i would love an ancient pine kitchen table & am on the look out (they are very expensive!) plus the beauty of wood, if you get tired of it you can always paint it then when you tire of it again in another 5yrs you can change the colour of the paint, etc
beautiful make over
thanx for sharing

Nil @ The Little House by the Lake said...

I love your new dining room. It looks so airy and fresh. Well done.

admin said...

I think adding the white has really freshened things up. I like the white against the timber, perfect contrast. It is all looking so good.
Kylie

earthmotherwithin said...

Thanks for your kind comments. I am really happy with how it all looks and feels now.