Decisions

Well, moving to a new place is of course overwhelming (packing) and exciting (new place to decorate!) and then overwhelming again (sooooo many decisions to make!).

I am in a dining room dilema right now. I wasn’t in love with my current table and chairs anymore. Mostly because I was in love with this IKEA round table … but a round table was not the right thing to put in our eating nook … no, the long skinny table we had at our old place that I sold was actually the right table … but I was not aware of that until we moved … and it was too late …

So, when our new place came with this nice table included I was very happy … (thanks Melody!)

Now, the only thing is, I need chairs. Well, I was excited about finding chairs actually. I knew exactly what I wanted and found these on Kijiji right away for $10 each. Score.

I was hoping to just have to paint the frames – the small picture tricked me into thinking that the seats were maybe a coral velvet, which I would have been perfectly okay with keeping for the time being and maybe just making some covers that come off for washing. Disappointment, the seats were red, like KFC red. Yucky with the white. I have dubbed them “Under New Management – what the French Country KFC kicked to the curb …”

So, something has to be done about them. And Mr. Somewhat was the FIRST to tell me all about it LOL. He was not impressed with my purchase. Sigh, sometimes he has no vision LOL. He hates the cane backs and wants me to upholster them because they remind him of chairs his grandparents had in the 70s and he says the cane backs are too uncomfortable. Boo. Then he was freaking out about the fabric cushions which I was in agreement with him on the desperate need to recover! So then he says the only way he will let me keep them is if I refinish them ASAP. So fine. He rushed me into picking fabric and paint immediately. We went to IKEA – I figured that I could dig something decent out of AS-IS to cover the seats in. I wanted to go light, like linen. I found one thing that was perfect, but of course, not enough fabric. And I felt Mr. behind me with the death stare going so I dug out a bunch of couch cover pieces for this:

image from IKEA

It is a pretty heavy woven brown fabric with black threads in it too. Good. Not exactly what I wanted, but honestly, linen was probably not a good idea at a dining table with kids … especially when it is stapled to the chair and not removable. And there were tons of pieces to it and they were $2.00 each. So I walked out with way more than enough heavy upholstery grade fabric for $12.00 total. And feeling a little guilty since I just screwed someone over who wanted the whole couch cover and I took pieces of it … sigh, whatever, that is IKEAs fault for pricing the pieces individually instead of as a lot. Then it was off to Home Depot for paint. I wanted cream, the Mr. wanted dark since the table is dark. I want contrast though, but for some reason I let him talk me into dark. So here is what I bought:

image from Home Depot

The colour is called “Seal.” I sanded the chairs the other day. I am really liking the heavily distressed look of them right now though … so I am rethinking using the paint I bought for the dresser-turmed-shelf thing (I really want the interior to be pink and think it would look awesome with this on the outside …).

And then the Mr. was mad at me tonight because I asked him to leave the truck outside for the night so I could sand the dresser and break out the paint sprayer. He wants to me focus on packing and not on finishing the chairs and dresser… what?!? So now when I am not done the chairs later this week he is going to ask why they aren’t done yet right? Sigh.

Here is the other dilemma. I really want to be able to see the cane back. I like it. So I was thinking maybe I could get away with only covering the front of the chairs in batting and fabric with a nailhead trim border to spice it up … since he says the main complaint is the cane back is uncomfortable. But then you would be able to see the batting through the cane. Then I was thinking it would be fun to put a layer of burlap first, so that is what you see through the cane. And if he doesn’t go with that I think I will still burlap the back over since I love the look of burlap but not how it feels, so this is a way to see it and not feel it, since it is on the back and recessed. Oh, the other thing I am debating is filling in the decorative thing routered in the top. If they stay distressed it also has to stay, but if I paint them grey then I think it definitely has to go – I think, or would it be weird when it is gone? Too big of a blank space on a decorative chair … I don’t know!!!!

Oh wait, I do know, wow not thinking at all. Thanks to the “retouch” tool in iPhoto I now have this:

And I say, yes I definitely need to fill it in if painting the chairs. Wait, I just had another epiphany. If I do paint the chairs I could do the back cushion in a bold print with white or cream background which would give me the contrast I want and more interest … now to find the right fabric … So many decisions!!!