Our Eggcelent Hang-out room

It’s been a loooooooong time since we last spoke about the hang-out room.   That’s really because nothing’s happened in there until recently.   If you’ll recall, I left off when I hung our shower-curtains-turned-curtains.  Waste not, want not, right??  And nobody ever catches on that they’re actually hung with shower curtain rings.  That’s totally my definition of success right there. 🙂

So, basically, we were here…

And then we got our midcentury-dresser-turned-media-stand for the living room (I hereby dub this post “hyphenated-turned-hypenated”. It just feels right.) and our old entertainment center was moved into this room.  I never photographed it afterwards because I was physically incapable of being happy enough with the styling experiments conducted on these poor units.  I’m finally in an “okay” place right now, so I’ll show you….

There were also some minor styling changes that I’ve made in the sofa area to help cozy it up a smidge…

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Pillows, throw, a basket of magazines, and a tall lamp that I found at Lowe’s for (waitforit) $10 (!!!).  I may paint it, but I haven’t decided yet.   Ignore the blank wall next to the window.  I’m still figuring that one out.

Really, though, the room REALLY started coming to life for me just this last week.  See, every time I looked at the space it seemed… well… very square.  It needed some curvy, organic lines to soften it and make it seem more homey.   And I found them.  Oh, yeah I did.

It all started when I stopped at a resale shop last Thursday.  As I meandered about the store taking in all the goodies, I turned a corner and feasted my eyes upon the most magnificent egg chair I’d ever seen in my entire life (namely because I’ve never actually seen one in person). 😉   It was a fantastic chair, though. Sturdy with awesome lines.  And… bonus… it totally rocked and swiveled (THAT, my friends, is what’s known as a Chair with Benefits). The finish was DEFINITELY in need of some serious lovin’.  It was dirty and scratched and damaged, but I didn’t mind that.   Those are issues that I live to tackle (if you haven’t already noticed).   But then, the panic moment… there was no price tag on my magic chair.  Mighty crap.  BUT. There was a “30” marked in pencil on one of the rods.  Curious.  All of the other items in that particular booth had tags… and it’s not like there were a lack of places where a tag could hang on this branchy chair.   So, the ultimate question was… was the chair taken??  Had somebody removed the tag and claimed it??? Or did the seller just mark this item differently??   So, like a completely sane person, I did the most obvious thing.   I walked up to the only other customer in the store and, naturally, asked her if she’d claimed the chair.   Luckily, she was very friendly and laughed like she’d totally been there before, and said that she hadn’t.  So, I found the salesperson and asked her about it (why this wasn’t my first move is beyond me).   Anyhoo, she didn’t know either since it was one of those shops that rents out booths to different individuals, so she called the seller to verify while I finished shopping.  She found me at one point to tell me that she was having trouble reaching him, so I started getting bummed out.  I could feel the pretty little egg chair slipping through my fingers.

Once I was done shopping, I brought my one other find to the counter…

hang out room tv

That little vintage metal box beneath the TV.   The salesperson was on the phone as she rang me up, so I’d planned to just leave my phone number for her to contact me once she’d heard from the seller.

She hung up the phone and stated my total “$36”.

Me: “Wait… How much was the box?  I thought it was only $3!”.

Saleslady: “Yes, you’re right.  It’s $3… your total is the box plus the chair.   I got ahold of him and that IS the price after all.”

I processed this and without thinking about it, initiated instantaneous happy-dance.  Aaaaand she totally laughed at me.   And I couldn’tve cared less.  The egg chair was MINE.   Paid for and mine!  Woot!!

I was so excited that I completely forgot that I hadn’t put makeup on that day and took an ever-popular car-selfie which was immediately posted on social media…

 
(Hence the filter)

And now, this is the view as you walk down the hall….

egg chair view

Friggin’ gorgeous.  I’m seriously not above referring to this chair as “My Precious” in a creepy Gollum voice.  Don’t tempt me… I’ll totally do it.  I love the pretty chair that much.  I mean, just look at it…

glorious egg chair

I haven’t done anything to the finish yet aside from giving it a good cleaning. I’m still deciding whether to keep it it’s natural color or paint it white.   Something’ll happen soon though, either way.  And in case you’re wondering, the cushion is just a standard chair cushion turned backwards with the curved part facing forward.  It fit like a glove that way.   Like it was born to be apart of a sexy egg chair.  Every cushion’s fantasy.  

So, now I’m brainstorming what to hang next to the window.

hang out room

I’d also love to change out my makeshift “coffee table” for something legit and add an area rug to help tie everything together.  …And a white Moroccan style leather pouf in front of my egg chair for a bit more luxurious TV-watching comfort.

Although, I doubt I’ll ever get to enjoy it.   Lucas has already claimed it as his own….

lucas

He’s requested to watch movies in the hang-out room every day since then so he can sit in “his” chair.  And I couldn’t be prouder. 🙂

TDC Before and After

A bunch o’ kitchen and breakfast nook updates

So, remember how one small thing can lead to a bunch of other changes without even trying??

Allow me to introduce you to one two small things…

Yeeeeaaaahhhhh…. I decided that there was no way to get a decent close-up shot without being in the mirror’s reflection (or getting my tripod which seemed like entirely too much work at the time).  So, I chose to maximize the opportunity with a cheesy thumbs up victory pose.   I’ll bet you’re thanking your lucky stars to be reading this right now, aren’t ya?? 😉

Anyways, I had a total score of a trip to my local thrift shop.  It was one of those magical trips where I found these things immediately, paid, and left all within about 5 minutes.    And these items would be a sweet ceramic planter that I got for $4.50 and a vintage shoe mirror which I scored for $8.   Honestly, I had no idea what to do with the shoe mirror when I purchased it, but I thought it was awesome so I had to adopt it.

Once I got them home, I simply washed the planter, and shined up the shoe mirror with a bit of Restore-A-Finish and Feed n Wax.   I dropped a plant I already had into the planter and stuck both items into the corner of our breakfast nook…

Which I loved, but unfortunately, the planter TOTALLY clashed with my bird chairs.   Which were last seen here…

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FYI: That orchid has since bit the Big One.

Back when I refinished our Craigslist kitchen table, I mentioned that the chairs needed to go.  They just didn’t mesh with the table and were too busy for the space.   I REALLY wanted to purchase new chairs since these are getting pretty worn (I originally purchased them for $8 from Craigslist and then refinished them), but with the unexpected expense of fixing our rotting wall, that option was (and still is) delayed.   So, my pretty blue and white planter was really the straw that got the motivation flowing as far as making cheap changes.  Or something like that.   😉

I knew that I had some leftover sagey grey fabric laying around, and while it wouldn’t have necessarily been my first choice for this space, it was free and neutral…

Which meant that it definitely had a leg up on the bird fabric.   So, I got going on recovering the seats.  I won’t go through a detailed tutorial on seat recovering since I posted one back when I initially recovered my bird chairs.  But, if you want more precise information on this process, check out that post.  I will say this, though.   I generally consider myself to be in okay shape.  I try to work out regularly and really enjoy it for the most part.   But recovering seats makes me feel like I’m getting a full-on workout.  Every.Time.Not.Joking.   I was literally sweating and breathing hard as I was completing this project.  Something about the strength needed to wield a staple gun while pulling fabric taut is just too much for me for some reason.  So, I’ve found that the easiest way to get ‘er done is like this…

Now, if I weren’t holding a camera with my opposite hand, I would’ve been pulling the fabric tightly directly in front of the staple gun. So, imagine that.   Basically, you wanna rest the top of the staple gun on your surface, and the bottom of the staple gun on the floor and then use your body weight to compress the staple gun rather than your grip.  This should work as long as your surface is relatively flat to the ground.   It becomes worlds easier.  Trust me.  Now granted, this requires you to rotate your surface much more frequently (or move around your object if it’s larger), but it’s worth it in the end.

Once the seats were recovered, I made a point to Scotchguard them.   Since this is a solid-colored fabric, stains will be much more apparent, so I felt that this was important in making the seats last more attractively until we purchase our new chairs.

As a refresher, remember when we first moved in??

Breakfast nook

And now our breakfast nook looks like this…

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And our chairs no longer clash with my new planter…

I’m really pleased with how the space is starting to come together.   It definitely feels more grown-up since I recovered the chairs.  Now I’m REALLY excited to replace them.  In the meantime, though, they’ll do.  ðŸ™‚

My plan with the shoe mirror is actually to use it as a dry erase board for messages.   I just need to get some decent dry erase markers that show up better.   You can barely see the ones that we have currently.

Eventually, I’ll add something to the other side of the French doors to balance out the space, but I’m not sure what yet.   Functionality-wise one of the most welcome additions to the nook is this striped runner by the door…

I found it at Target and love the pop of pattern it adds.  Plus, it goes a long way to preventing dirt and wet feet from muddying up the kitchen.  My goal was to find a dirt-colored rug that was still cute.  Mission accomplished.

Now, since we’re in the kitchen anyways, how about an update on the other side of the room??   Now, let me preface this by saying that I realize that a dressed-up turd is still a turd.  And well, our kitchen right now is definitely a turd (what with its mismatched appliances, nose-cabinets adorned with chipping/drip-ridden paint, chipped Formica countertops, etc.).   But, I figure that I may as well style it cutely to better to help us live with it until the renovation starts (which will hopefully be late summer/early fall depending on when we find decent reasonably-prices appliances).

Just as a reminder, last I showed you, the kitchen looked like this…

And this is the current status…

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Minor changes, but they all work much better in the space and seem less cluttered than before.   I’m constantly changing things around in here.  Even as I was taking these pictures, I was altering things actually.  So, now for a few countertop cameos.   First, our coffee area (and yup! This picture prompted me to refill the sugar)…

Next…  Anybody remember Larry the Table Guy??  He was my very first project on the blog almost 2 years ago…

Aaaand… Just like in our last house, chunky cutting boards are a mainstay on the countertop (and see how the teapot is tilting???  Our stove is dangerously uneven.  One more reason why it needs to go.)…

Then, I added a stack of coffee cups opposite the coffee bar for easy access.  Plus, I think it looks kinda cool (and you can catch a small glimpse of our dining room in this shot)…

And one more shot.  Simply because Lucas gifted me the rock….

Right now, I’m okay with this space (sortof), but I’m not gonna lie… I cannot wait to get started on this baby.  It has so much potential that it isn’t living up to right now.   I’ll have a planning post on what we’re thinking soon.  But until then, that’s what I got!

So have any of y’all had small changes that add up to many more?  Kind of like a snowball effect??

TDC Before and After