And we re-arrange the dining room once again!

This wall has kinda always bugged me.



When we moved in I had this idea for rustic floating shelves to display all of my pretty white bud vases against the blue wall, but that never happened. Instead we found this great midcentury piece that has done the job okay.

Problem was, the wall was just too big for it. I hated the mirrors and the wedding pictures on it. But, no real solution had appeared so we just kept it and I continued browsing craigslist.

We were supposed to buckle down this weekend and get the house totally ready for our upcoming house exchange (strangers staying in our house while we stay in theirs).

Then, on Friday night, I found this!
And the dimensions were PERFECT for either our living room OR our dining room.

They were asking $300 for it, but that was definitely not in our budget, so I asked if they would take $150. They said yes! The thing is GIANT (112" long by 89"tall). I figured we could sell one of the other pieces and make $150 to make it an even trade.

Let the re-arranging begin!

Like I said awhile ago, I was kinda over the expedit in the living room. The books were always getting messy looking, I couldn't hide the TV in any way that looked great, and it just didn't feel like a grown up home to me.

Here's what they both looked like...





As we were planning what to do with the expedit my mom came down and told us she would buy it from us. Not having to post it on craigslist is awesome.

We called the movers and they would pick up our new bookcase at 3, bring it here, put it back together, then move the expedit up to my mom's.



When we moved the expedit into the hallway, we realized someone had been stashing snacks behind it for a LONG time.


The plan was to put the TV in the Rumpus Room and put the new bookcase in the living room.

Then we realized the TV would fit in the display from the dining room...PERFECTLY. And all the equipment could fit in the storage underneath...and the speakers in the spot above! I didn't even mind that the TV wasn't covered. Because it fit in the spot perfectly it wasn't too offensive.



Did a little switcheroo...(see the expedit awaiting the movers in the hallway)...


Bubbs hooked up the electronics while T modeled his "robot pants"


To make a long, boring, and whiny story short - the movers stank like pot and were horrible at their job. Bubbs and I ended up paying them for two hours (plus tip) and we put all the furniture together ourselves, dissembled the expedit, moved it upstairs and put it back together (not an easy task).



Apparently Elmo was riding a train in this photo.



Our entire Saturday was eaten up getting this beauty together and mounted to the wall (to avoid toddler death by climbing). Then we spent Sunday morning putting everything back together again.

We still have holes to patch, but I love the results.


The dining room looks giant with this in there. It seems a little busy with all the colors of the books, so I might arrange by color some afternoon during naptime, but for now, I like it.

I need so much help in the shelf styling department, but I see many garage sales in my future to make these shelves pretty :)


Ta Da!

Recovering our Dining Room Chairs

Looking back in the blog, I've been hating my dining room chair's upholstery since April of last year (yup - 13 months ago). I've bought fabric twice and hated it both times.

My curtain fabric makes me a little insecure about my ability to match so I was looking for something toned down and mellow.

Again, we have a house exchange coming in just a few weeks and I had to recover them by then (they were DISGUSTING with toddler spills and who know how many years of funk on them).

I came to terms with the boring grey fabric I would use.

As the Beebs (grandma) took T out for an adventure yesterday morning, I got to work. But...when I pulled out my bag of fabric, I saw something I had forgotten about!



No, not a sofa and a cute baby, but the fabric from this sofa.

My girlfriend had this sofa and every time I went to her house I GUSHED over how amazing the fabric was. They were about to send it to the dumps, and without even asking, she cut any salvageable fabric from the frame and brought it to me!

I quickly measured (by laying my chair seats on top of some fabric) and we had enough! BARELY enough. Like no mistakes enough.

Mama got to work.

It is so easy. I'd do a photo essay on how to make it work, but this guy will do a better job.



I agree with everything he says except that you should put THAT fabric on a chair.

This took me no more than three hours (and that was because I had to pull some fabric SUPER tight).

Anyway...



It is NUTS in that room, but I like it, for now.

House-aversary

We've lived here for one year today!


































































Cheers, to many more!

Our Hiding Place - Or a Permanent Dining Room Fort

I didn't commit to joining a pinterest challenge, but I could have, because I did it!

T desperately needed a tent. He loves to hide and "get cozy" but we REALLY don't have room in our 1100 square feet.

I loved this one

Source: builtbykids.com via Mama on Pinterest

and a million more, but this was the one that we actually had room for:

Source: nefotlak.blogspot.com via Mama on Pinterest

I figured out how to make it permanent - and take WAY less time - because I know I wouldn't take this off the dining room table and the house would always look like kids are there (god forbid my house look like a kid leave here).

***

So, about five months ago I found some fabric at Ikea to make curtains for T's room. I lined them with some other fabric I had lying around. And they turned our HORRIBLE. They were too narrow and my sewing was B A D. Plus, one of the fabrics was stretchy and the other was not. Anyway, I had wasted some money on fabric and it was just laying around.

So, I measured, and it was AMAZINGLY the perfect size for the dining room table. This was magic. Perfect. Not an inch left and not an inch too short.


(excuse the naked bootie - a little diaper rash is made better by naked time)

I had brilliant ideas about sewing heavy duty velcro to one side and then strategically placing another strip of velcro so I can roll it up and hide it completely when it isn't in use.

But, I had 20 minutes to do this, and our dining room table is nothing fancy, so we staple gunned it up.



The velcro rolly parts will come during a nap, but the boys were happy.





T had just woken up from his three hour(!) nap and was eating an almond butter (with flax seed) and FIG BUTTER sandwich on whole wheat. I know I'm dorking out, but the dude has been a SERIOUSLY picky eater until like two weeks ago. So I'm thrilled that he'll eat - and he eats with ravenous huge bites. Its adorable. That cup was a handmedown and got tossed today because of our fear of BPA. Welcome to San Francisco.



We covered all four sides. I actually don't hate it here. It could stay down until company comes.

Next step: velcro roll ups and lighting in the tent.