D is for…Drab, Dated, and Demo!
Spring 2019 ORC: Week 2
Since I’m actually not able to do anything in this room until my tax season is over – week 2 is brought you by some more before shots, as well as a few of the things we did in the space when we moved in last summer and I never got around to blogging about.
If you’ve landed here from the One Room Challenge, Welcome! We just moved into our second home, a gloriously 80’s contemporary, located in Upstate NY. She just needs a little TLC to bring her back to her former glory. If you’d like to see some of our past work, start here.
Need a refresher? Week 1 ~ Week 2 ~ Week 3 ~ Week 4 ~ Week 5 ~ Week 6
Let’s take a few steps back into the kitchen. Our kitchen is pretty large and honestly had more storage space than we ever thought we would need. The previous owners had an upper tier cabinets with frosted glass doors with their initial D on them. We are not a D family, so this was one of the very first things we tackled in the house. Let me state that we have never demo’d anything before, but somehow we worked up the courage to take this down. Here’s a fun little gif:
THE AMOUNT OF LIGHT THAT CAN TRAVEL ACROSS THE ROOM IS AMAZING. Sorry for yelling. You just wouldn’t think a set of glass door cabinets would block that much, but oh boy, they did. Taking the rest of the soffit down would have been nice, but we weren’t quite ready to do that much – that job gets tacked onto the someday kitchen remodel for sure.
I decided to make lemonade with lemons and added a fun little magnetic chalkboard on the now-exposed side cabinet. I gave it a rough frame (I probably should have invested in a miter box and power tools, but hack saw and ruler was good enough for this temporary fix) with some leftover cable-management plastic molding we had. Two layers of magnetic paint, a layer of chalkboard paint (don’t do two or your magnets won’t stay!), my favorite gold spray paint and liquid nails and bam! Family calendar wall. I usually do about two months of weekends and then update. It’s nice to glance over without having to look at my phone to remember what social obligations we have (spoiler alert: it’s kids birthday parties. Every. Single. Weekend).
We found this great MCM table and chairs on craigslist for $90 – from a home who also had also found the set on craigslist and had used it for several years themselves – and who knows who had it before that. Sure, saving money is great on thrifted items, but I really appreciate when there is a story attached. The previous owners had reupholstered the chairs for their young children to slowly destroy, and I intend to do the same. I love the formica top – it’s SO EASY TO CLEAN. Which is important because my cavemen-like boys still do not understand what utensils are for. You get a better idea of the windows and doors on the two walls in this picture. Annnd if you look closely, you can see the only shot I seem to have of the three dinky little hanging lights that were previously above the table.
As I’m drafting this I’m realizing how few shots I’ve taken of this room over the past 8ish months. It just goes to show that choosing to up the ante in the area will be well enjoyed (and probably photographed way more!). Ahh, our Jonathon Adler chandelier. I am sooo happy we took this from our last house. The ceilings are a little higher here and we opted to hang it a little higher as well and man it fits this space perfectly. This picture was clearly taken around Christmas when I was told “no more trees” by someone and came home with three of these huge wreaths for more of my ornaments. The Scandinavian straw ornaments and mini julenissen had to go somewhere!!!
We moved our Ikea VITTSJO in and I slowly started adding plants as I began to recognize how great the lighting was here. The glass is great to let light filter through all the shelves. As I got a little cocky with my plants, we brought over this leaning shelf to the other side. And this is pretty much where we’ve been for the past few months.
Like I said in Week 1, this room just needs to go from 75% to 100% to feel special and finished. I went down a rabbit hole last week brainstorming some new shelving ideas, but it’s proving harder than I thought to find what I want. Necessity is the mother of invention soo…..we may be DIY’ing something!
Next up: start testing paint on the walls. I’m wavering between a white wall with some satin off white for my stencil, or should I pull the trigger and get a bucket of this stuff(in iridescent)?? This is certainly far from the safe route, but that is usually when something really special happens in a space (I hope!). The pattern on the stencil is actually larger than I expected, so there is a chance I may be scrapping that idea altogether anyway. CONSIDER THIS YOUR CLIFFHANGER UNTIL NEXT WEEK!
Thank you again to Linda at One Room Challenge. Spread the love and check out the featured participants other guest participants HERE!
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I even love how it looks now! I bet it’s going to be BEAUTIFUL when finished!
Thank you! I’m really hoping I make something special with this room! I NEED to take advantage of all that light!
That is amazing! With those uppers going away – it’s so much more brighter and up to date! I’d yell with glee too! Can’t wait to see your progress next week! Happy to be doing our kitchen with you for this ORC!
I can’t even imagine what the previous owners could have used MORE CABINETS for! Don’t miss ’em for a minute. Good luck to you too!! I’m hoping over to check you out now 🙂
I am doing our kitchen too, so I am excited to see your design and how it turns out. That table was a great score…love Craigslist!
Yes! Can’t beat the feeling of a great find at a great price! Good luck with your kitchen too!
How incredible does that space look without those upper cabinets blocking that beautiful view and that gorgeous light fixture!
Thanks Lindsey! That chandy is like my 3rd child, I’m so happy we found a place for it in this house!
so much space! so much promise! Love the layout, and looking forward to seeing what you do.
It’s coming together! Can’t wait to see the finished look!
Thanks Lizzie! Working on it!!