COLOURFULWORLD

Sunday 16 October 2011

Renovating Weekend - Dining Room and Laundry


I had been thinking of changing the look of my dining room chairs from the brown leather type material to something with turquoise blue to match the wall colour, to bring it more up to date with the look of the renovated kitchen. I felt that the kitchen being so modern, the dining room looked far too austere and out of place.  The dining suite is made of solid Cherie wood, and we brought it with us from Portugal, so it´s the type of furniture that will last a while, so I didn´t want to change it.
On Friday I went to Spotlight and decided to buy 1mt of a furnishing fabric that would match the wall perfectly. Maybe I should have gone for something a bit bolder, but I didn´t want to start too bold, baby steps first...

On Saturday, while my husband was putting the finishing touches to the laundry, like securing the bench top to the cupboards, drilling holes for the handles, etc, I started dismantling the chair seats by unscrewing the four screws underneath - in fact except for 1 chair, all 5 others only had 3 screws, they must have been saving some pennies, but as my husband said "If they saved 1 screw for each chair they made, it would add to many thousands and that would be a fair bit of money".
I then cut the material in 6 matching bits and with the help of a hand held stapler, I stapled it tight over the original cover material. One hour later I had my brand new chairs. 

 My husband thinks I should add some covers for the back too, so I might by a bit more material and make 1 cover and see how it looks...

Boring brown chairs
Unscrewing the chair seat from the frame
The old and the new
I also decided to add to the art collection on the wall. I had hung 3 pictures originally, but I found two more in the garage that would be suitable for the dining area - (this was a little seating area before, although I had already changed the dining area to this room when we finished renovating the kitchen).  I first cut newspaper  to match the picture sizes and hung them on the wall in various positions until I was happy with the outcome, then after much measuring I finally hung the 5 pictures.(if you look closely the picture on the left is closer to the middle one compared to the picture on the right, even after all the measuring). A bit too much art for the small wall perhaps, but I will live with it for a while and see if it grows on me.

The original 3 pictures and former seating area

Trying out the newspaper cuttings
The final choice - except for the top right picture in a gold frame, all others were painted by me
The dining room with the newly covered chairs and picture gallery
What do you think, does the dining room look a bit more modern now? 


The newly renovated laundry: 
This is how it looked when we bought the house
The start, the fridge is out and now we have a broom cupboard and  wall cupboards,
same washing machine that we inherited from previous owner.
The finished laundry - new front loader and sink.
Still missing 2 small shelves over sink and to glue some black  laminate in the
benchtop corners that were cut at an angle

13 comments:

  1. Humm, a Sami tem a quem sair...A sala ficou muito airosa.
    Bjo.

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  2. Ficou tudo mais airoso e com mais vida :-)
    A cozinha nem parece a mesma e as cadeiras da sala de jantar ganharam outra vida ;-)
    Este fim-de-semana tambem andamos em arrumacoes e reorganizacoes. Mudar faz bem. Apesar do cansaco do trabalho, sentimos que rejuvenescemos, nao e? :-)
    Bjs!

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  3. L e Sandra, obrigada por visitarem e comentarem sobre a renovaçao. Tambem gosto de mudar, até estou admirada de nao ter feito algo diferente com as cadeiras há mais tempo...
    Um dia destes ponho fotos da renovaçao da cozinha, era um horror antes!

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  4. Oh you are so clever, Sami! The newly covered chairs do look much more modern and I love the colour of your wall (and am very jealous of you having so many lovely paintings of your own to put up there). The laundry is also a huge improvement! My husband is similar to you and is good at renovations but I just see the original version and can't imagine how to change it so I have only ever bought houses that I was already satisfied with ...

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  5. It all looks amazing! You have a flair for interior decorating.
    Love the blue,

    Deb

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  6. The dining chairs looks great, and I love the colour of the wall. Good job Sami, laundry looks much better too.

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  7. Thanks for visiting Amanda, Deb and Emalee.
    I have a very clever son and husband who have been doing a good job of renovating, slowly...slowly... slowly, but it will all get done! I am just the painter and decorator and have done all the tile grouting as well. I also would rather buy a brand new house, but when we first bought we were newly arrived in Australia and the houses were far too expensive for our European pockets, so we had to settle for something older - a renovators dream - like the estate agents call them!

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  8. ~applause~ You are so creative. Your colors are so cheerful and lovely. I love the new look of your dining room and the laundry room. :)

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  9. Thanks for visiting EC.I am enjoying the new look too, much brighter and modern.

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  10. You have done a wonderful job! I like the fabric you chose. It does seem more modern. And the laundry room! What a transformation. Kudos!

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  11. Thanks Lovely light, I am so happy with the renovated laundry, makes life easier.

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  12. Sami, não sei como foi, mas apesar de visitar o teu blogue de vez em quando, não dei por tantas e tão belas modificações. Nãio conhecia as cadeiras da sala com o novo tecido. Lindas! (Não gosto da cor da parede, mas gostaria num azul levemente menos vibrante, mas toda a gente gostou, parabéns.) O gazebo? Nem sabia que tinhas!O antigo estendedor de roupa está coberto com rede? Parece! O jardim está belíssimo. Posso ficar aí durante os meses de Primavera (pelo menos), a olhar, só a olhar esse jardim?
    PARABÉNS. BEIJINHOS

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  13. Celeste - primavera é sempre a melhor estaçao para uma visita. O tempo ameno e o jardim florido.

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