A new addition to the kitchen

Sorry folks, there will not be a Flickr finds post today. Instead, I thought I'd share with you a major purchase I made about a week ago. A bit of background first...

During the kitchen renovation, I wanted a dining table built because I needed something narrower than an average size table, and it needed to fit 6 people. My boyfriend and I were initially going to build it, but my contractor offered so we took him up on it. The table turned out to be pretty disastrous. The wood of the top ended up warping and splitting, and the pedestal base was completely non-functional for such a long table. In the end, I ended up picking up a couple cheap table legs at Ikea and adding those on, particularly for instances when some of my porkier cats would launch onto it from the countertop. Here is a photo of the table:

I've been looking for a table on and off for several months now and have had no luck, up until a couple Fridays ago when I took my boyfriend down to the Byward Market with me on a table hunt. We were in Stacaro, my new favourite store, when Jeff spotted a really cool desk. It was on sale at 40% off (floor model), and had a black steel base and a wood top, the same colour as my cabinets but a few shades darker. It came with a shelf attached to house a desktop computer, and we quickly discovered it could easily unscrew off. It was the perfect width (just shy of 3') and length. Here is a photo of it from their website:

SOLD! It arrived last Monday and I finally got a chance to try it out with the shelf (decided it was too distracting and hid my Pantons) and find some things for a centrepiece. I love it. I am so happy to have something straight to eat off of, and I am no longer embarassed to have people over for a meal.

There's a few more photos over at my kitchen blog.

Sandra's dining room makeover

Sandra sent us an email the other day with a project she wanted to share: "In the past you've posted pics of my cats Lulu & Schmoo (see here and here) & I recently finished redoing the small dining rm in my 1st ever home & thought I'd share. The before pic shows how the dining room is located just off the kitchen. I'm not sure why, but previous owners put a ceiling fan way off center in the room. Because the hole made in the ceiling to accommodate the fan could not be easily covered up, I decided to just put 2 lights over the dining table (even though I originally wanted just 1). It took about 7 months to complete only because I waited for each piece in the room to go on sale. The only things I was willing to pay full price for was the pottery by a local potter, Charlie Tefft: http://www.ctpottery.com/". What fantastic choices she made - particularly the Marais chairs and pendants. LOOOOOVE the yellow!!! Great job Sandra and thanks for sharing it with us!

My favourite dining rooms of '08

I will be posting over the next few days my favourite photos of the year, by room type. The dining rooms from this year (and by this year I mean that I've saved on Flickr after Jan 1 '08) that have inspired me are below.

Reasons I love these: anything that looks Scandinavian, bold grouping of photography, bold colours, crystal chandelier over a harvest table, that built-in banquette is to DIE FOR, moody grey walls and floors (again), book storage, eclectic vibe, mismatched chairs...

Bolig Magasinet

Steven Gambrel

Canadian House & Home

Sköna hem

Shelton, Mindel & Associates

Suzy Hoodless

Design*Sponge

Bolig Magasinet

Tori Golub

Domino

Marie Claire Maison

Marie Claire Maison

Marie Claire Maison

Sköna hem

Backsplash, table and more decorating

This blog chronicles my entire kitchen renovation from start to finish. Greentea Design has provided me with their solid wood kitchen cabinets, and I'm taking care of the rest.

If you'd like to be brought up to date, check out my kitchen remodel blog for an archive of previous posts. I posted recently about a few more completed items and some finishing touches, and now for the backsplash, dining table and yet more decorating.

Last Friday the backsplash was installed. I was excited to not have to see the unfinished edge of the countertop finally, but the result was very disappointing. I decided to use the quartz of the countertop and have about a 4" high piece installed along the back of the countertop. The guy that installed it showed up and started bringing in these really short pieces of the quartz which had me a tad confused. They were not the length of each cabinet section. Turns out there were 6 pieces, each one exactly half the length of each cabinet section. Meaning there was a seam down the center of section. Then I watched him silicone everything in place, and then tell me he was all done. I said "HUH? You aren't going to fill in those seams??" He says nope, they just silicone backsplashes. ALLRIGHTY THEN. He left and I called the shop and was told that they had told me they were going to use offcuts. I wasn't told the whole story then if that was the case. I said it looked totally unfinished and the seams weren't filled in. Turns out in the new year they will order a slab of the 3/4" (which is what I had wanted but they didn't have enough of so they used the 1 1/4"), and redo it. I can live with it for now and hope to see a proper backsplash next month. So these photos show the seam, and hopefully one day soon I can show you what it SHOULD look like. (Luckily with the kitchen counters dressed, it's not as noticeable).

It's just before Christmas and I finally have a dining table. It's actually not completed yet but it's useable and I'm very excited about that. I can now eat meals not hunched over my small marble table that was WAY too short to eat at. Also, the kitchen was designed so that I could use it as a second office because the office at the back of the house is cold in the winter and I wanted to be able to work at the dining table and watch the TV in the living room. My contractor built it, and suggested a pedestal base, which was a BRILLIANT idea because you don't see legs from the living room and the top looks like it's floating. It still needs a couple pieces to make it more sturdy because it's quite tippy right now, especially when the porkier of the cats jump from the counter onto it. YIKES! (I should mention as I'm sure some will notice, that the table is warped. My contractor made it in a hurry and then brought it over and it warped quite a bit in the cold/heat. As a result he won't charge me for it...but I'll give him something because it is usable).

Click HERE to see more photos of some decor items I purchased, the completed basement hatch and more.

Flickr finds - Dining tables

This post is self-serving. I do not have an appropriate dining table for my new kitchen. And I don't really have alot of time to find one. I doubt I'll ever find one to my specifications. I may end up building one. Should be interesting as I am NOT a furniture maker by any means. Thought I'd get a bit of inspiration from my dear friend Flickr in the meantime.

m.bibelot	kdkaboom
bumblev	TobiasMik
my pocket	Eastvold Custom
rauchdickson	Eleventh Earl of Mar
franzskinner	Eastvold Custom
Eastvold Custom	carla.marriott
jdabney01	beachhousehawaii
Chrysanth3mum	jeremysavian
LINDEN STREET DESIGN	Graeme Quinn