Ideas

When my dad passed away years ago, he left behind his beautifully built wood projects, one of which was a set of four dining table legs that he skillfully turned himself. He was so proud of the work that he did and I was amazed that he taught himself how to build furniture so Im learning to do the same thing in his honor.

My family of 5 needed a much bigger dining room table so I decided to build one using the legs that my dad turned before he passed away. A post on the details of building the table, later. I have always wanted a farmhouse table with that charming, worn look created by being passed down from generation to generation, so, I decided to top the table with inexpensive 1 x 8 pine wood planks bought from Lowes. I stained them with a dark walnut stain, coated with polyurethane, lightly sanded, distressed and attached to the top of the apron and legs of the table. I painted the legs and apron a bright cottage white and took a palm sander to them to distress them a bit, as well. It turned out perfect and makes me smile when I see it. And I like to think of it as the table that my dad and I built together.

I like to mix different styles of dining chairs and already had these so I painted them all white to unify the different styles and distressed them to match the table. The fabric I upholstered the seat with is painters drop cloth that I taped off and painted wide stripes on with taupe/gray colored paint I already had called smoked oyster. I added textile medium to it to soften it up a bit but also to create a paint that could be washed, if needed. I wanted the fabric to appear faded with age, so I brushed it on very lightly and left some areas not completely filled in.
I sewed two pillows with the same fabric and placed in the two end chairs that are different to bring the entire look together. Its a very inexpensive update for chairs needing a makeover. I love the beachy, casual appearance the stripes give the dining room.
The "beach" sign on the far wall several photos up was inspired by an image I found online here so I created my own version with wood from an old crate my hubby found, craft paints, stencil and sandpaper. I attached sisal rope to the back with a staple gun and voila, beach art for free! Here is a close up.




The plate rack on the wall was inspired by, of all things, the movie Somethings Gotta Give. Great movie, by the way. At least, I assume it was, I was too busy pressing the pause button to look at that amazing beach house! Anyone else do this?
I saw this while watching the movie (photo above is a movie still) and fell in love with it, so, I spent several weeks designing my own version and then built it, pretty inexpensively, by using pine planks, bead board panels and crown molding. And I must say, Im pretty happy with my version. I filled it with my collection of plates and platters. :)

The wall art is just a piece of 1/2 inch thick plywood painted with chalkboard paint in which I wrote a quote by Fernand Point, a french chef.

As you can see, the dining room is quite large, which seems to be a characteristic of very old homes, so it was certainly a challenge to fill it. But I did, inexpensively, of course. I wonder how many times Ive said the word "inexpensively" in this post. Anyway, the rest of the room contains items that mean a lot to me and my family. This room was so much fun to redo and I think I achieved the farmhouse, coastal, vintage, casual theme I was going for, and I know my dad would be so proud. Thanks so much for looking!