Evolution of an Eat-in Kitchen

When we first moved into this house almost five years ago, we used our dining area/eat-in kitchen as our dining room. This house was built without a dining room. Unfortunately, the step down that you can see clearly in the third picture (with Charming on the dark loveseat) made the dining room cramped and actually unsafe for the person who sat at the end of the table.

Within a year, I moved the dining room table into the room that is supposed to be the living room. It eventually ended up looking like this and has worked really well for us.

But what to do with the "dining room" space? Well, for a long while I played with it as a seating area. The family always gathers here when I'm cooking or baking. When guests come over, they want congregate in the kitchen area. Here is the first iteration. A dark loveseat and a leather chair facing it created a conversation area. The problem? The ottoman collected "stuff" and was never cleared off for any amount of time. We needed a change. (This dark loveseat is now in my room.)
Then we have it with the white Klippan couch from Ikea. A little Ikea table that I got for something like $25 in the as-is section was pushed up against my kitchen cupboard. The birdhouse was moved (I hated the way the feathers collected under the table). The big problem? Again, stuff just collected on that table and the table was never used the way I thought it would be.
I don't have a picture, but I ended up taking the table down and storing it (again) and putting a bent wood rocker in the corner to create a conversation area. No ottoman or coffee table to collect stuff. No rug to collect dog fur. Simple and easy.

Then Valiant wanted the Klippan couch in his room, so I put the futon in its place.
This is how the space stayed for quite some time. It wasn't very pretty, but it worked. Then Superman left for his new job. Charming was away at college and the two kids and I didn't want to eat all our meals at the big table. The bent wood rocker was put away (a good thing, too, as the cane wasn't holding up well). I moved the "craft" table from Buttercup's room and put the futon in its place (it is awesome for sleepovers!). I brought out my as-is Ikea bar stools (from my California house...finally had a use for them because the craft table is counter height!) and we started using this as our table. I loved the the size and the layout, but I hated that the ends were shelving, not open like a table. The space was still only "kind of" working for us. This morning, however, inspiration struck!

I took the craft table apart and used the two shelf ends as one big shelf and added a melamine "shelf" from Home Depot to finish the top. I brought back the table that I'd had in the room with the white sofa, as well as bringing back one of the rugs I've moved to various places in the house. Finally, I brought in some of my dining room chairs. Ta Da! A room that is comfortable, functional, and attractive. All for $11.43 (the price of the shelf on top of the "bookcase"). The dog is just eye-candy.


So, the moral of the story? Keep tweaking until you get it the way you want it. As long as you only have furniture you like, you will eventually get to a room you love.

What about you? Do your rooms evolve? Do you think I'm crazy? Does it work for you?

Obviously it is an inherited trait...

Did you think I was the only one? Valiant finally demonstrated it is not just me and not just the girls in the family who need to rearrange furniture when highly stressed. Despite having his wisdom teeth pulled earlier this week, by Wednesday his stress level with all that has been happening around here had reached critical mass, so he did what I would have done: He decided his bedroom was no longer working for him and MUST be changed IMMEDIATELY. The original layout of his bedroom was constrained by his need for "floor space for Lego building". He no longer feels the need to make accommodations for Legos, giving himself more flexibility in furniture arrangement. I think he did great...what do you think?

Before:



After:



The same view. The desk is gone (it was just a junk catcher) and has been replaced by a Klippan loveseat from Ikea that was elsewhere in the house.



And this is the view from the bed. Everyone in the Nagle family loves to read, so a comfortable place to relax is a must. As you can see, Sam I Am has wasted no time christening this new furniture arrangement...basking in the rare sunlight and on a couch at the same time? Sublime.

Ah, this little nut didn't fall far from the tree...and he wasn't the only one who did some furniture rearranging after Superman left...stay tuned.

The Dining Room is Done

...but I haven't made much progress on the Family Room....sigh.

Here is the completed Dining Room. I am really pleased and, while I'm still not 100% in favor of the current cushion covers, they're really fine for summer. I figure once I'm done with them, I'll use them on the patio to cover those cushions, so they'll get plenty of use. I'm looking to find a nice red fabric with texture or depth that doesn't look "country" or "velour". (I know what I mean, even ifI didn't explain it well.)

It is difficult to convey spatial qualities and perspective in photos, but the room feels roomy without feeling empty. Everyone feels as if they can lean back, scoot out, and generally stretch out without bumping something--even with the table fully extended (which it is not in the photos). We used the same shelves in a different arrangement and actually ended up leaving out one of the pictures. (I thought Superman would cry when he put molly bolts into the walls he'd just patched and painted.) We added the gymnast, which my dad just sent last week, and the recessed lighting lands right on her at night. We managed to keep it "dressed up" without making it stuffy by keeping the whimsy (yes, those are dinosaurs on the floor - they used to be my mom's) and mixing it throughout the room. All in all, it works for us.

Phew! Now if I can just figure out what to do with the Family Room!

It all started with a simple idea...

Seriously. Then it grew and grew and grew.

Superman and I talk a lot about a lot of things during our vacations. This vacation was no different. One of the things we talked about was how I missed have an area in our house that was devoted to conversation, an area where work didn't get done. In our California house, our living room (not a formal room) served that function and it was a calm room. Here in this house, we didn't have such a room because the room that served as our living room also had a big desk in it. So, during our vacation, I mentioned to Superman that I'd love to get the desk out of the living room. He agreed (!) and we started talking about what we could do with the desk. "Hey, we could put in the family room (the macaroni and cheese room) and you could use it there!" That lead us to the questions of a) what we could do with the desk I was currently using for crafting, etc., in the family room and b) what would we do with the kids' desk. "I know! We can put my desk in Buttercup's room and take her old desk (two inexpensive bathroom vanities topped by a sheet of melamine) and bring them to the family room to be the kids' new desk." That still left the questions of how we would place the furniture in the family room, what we would put the television on, and how we'd arrange the living room without the desk. To make a very long 36 hours short, our final plan ended up requiring us to rethink and rearrange: The Living Room, The Dining Room, The Family Room, Charming's Room, Buttercup's Room, and Our Room. Oh, yeah, and Superman will be spackling and touching up paint in four of those rooms, too!

All because I said, "I'd really like to have a room that functions like our old living room functioned." Seriously, why can't I be quiet?

(Pictures to follow!)