An Actual Dining Room!

 

We've reached a milestone! We have a dining room!

This doesn't sound as impressive as it actually is (well, I think it is, at least). Let's go back a step, shall we?

This is what the room looked like after we had redone the floors, and brought in the table.

And here is that same view now.

 

This poor room has been in a constant state of transition since the beginning. It's been the dumping ground for tools and all sorts of junk since the beginning, being close to the back door. Now it finally gets to be a proper room that belongs in a liveable house with a table and chairs and other pieces of furniture and even some ornaments! Amazing, I know!

I've made it my mission to try to furnish this room as cheaply as possible, with the extra goal of adding as much storage as I can manage!

That dining table used to look like this.

We snagged it for $40, and then sent it off with our Black Beauty for the gloss black spray treatment. Both items cost $600 to be painted, so I attribute $200 of that to this table, making him a $240 investment.

This guy came along next. He was another $40 find, and he couldn't be a more perfect size for the little wall space between the bathroom and laundry doors.

The picture on top of him is something I made while we were living in our last house, with little scraps of fabric and cut-up doilies.

The hutch that sits in the corner near the kitchen was our next addition. He set us back only $75.

I wasn't actually planning to go with only dark-coloured timber furniture for this room, I've been motivated mainly by price and size, but this guy came along for $50 next, matching the other pieces nicely. He slots in perfectly to the tiny little corner on the other side of the bathroom door.

Atop him is a silver vase I think I got at Target a few years ago, and a wedding photo.

Here's the view into the bathroom, with those two little cabinets on either side.

Next, this cabinet. It's pretty shocking quality, but it provides some storage, which is at a premium in this house. I got it for $30 from someone just wanting to get rid of it, and I have some ideas for making it a bit more interesting. Allie insisted on getting in this shot.

 

And the final addition, at least for now, are these chairs.

We sold our big dining chairs leftover from our last house on Ebay. They were just too big and chunky for this room, and we really didn't have space for eight of them!

I've been looking around for alternatives, and would really love to get some armless Louis ghost chairs. But I'm looking for cheap options for the moment. Then I found these guys.

I was actually looking for outdoor chairs when I found them, butI figured they were kind of unique and interesting, so bought the lot (including the table) for $30.

The chairs weren't in the greatest condition, so I bought some wood glue and glued up any loose bits.

And then lined them up in the yard for a makeover.

The idea of sanding all of those spindly bits was enough to send me a bit crazy, and then I remembered this stuff!

One of the guys in the paint section had recommended it as an alternative to sanding when we were asking about painting our kitchen cabinets (we haven't progressed beyond thinking about a new paint colour with those yet), so I found a rag and wiped it onto each of the chairs, and then left them for 90 minutes. It leaves them feeling vaguely sticky.

Then came an undercoat...

And I decided to stick with a gloss white for the final coats, to keep them looking fresh for their potential future life as garden chairs, and to add a touch of lightness to the currently very dark dining room.

Here they are looking a bit spooky and gleaming in the moonlight just before I brought them inside on Halloween.

And here they are living their new life as our dining chairs.

The room isn't perfect, but it's much more functional and much more attractive than it used to be, so we're making lots of progress!

 

And best of all, with all the furniture totaling just $465 (which I should probably round up to $500 to cover the cost of spray paint for the chairs), its transformation has definitely been cost effective!