Dining Room Project

I love Shabby chic furniture but I always wonder why it has to be so EXPENSIVE. It is "old looking" furniture after all, and not all of it is necessarily really antique, it just looks antique. So, after lusting over certain Anthropologie and Rachel Ashwell pieces I could only afford in my dreams, I decided to take action and create my own shabby chic piece.
I dragged my husband around Thrift stores trying to score the perfect china cabinet or armoire that I could "beautify". I finally found a piece that looked like it had been used by kids because it had old bits of crayons inside, glitter in the corners and even some coloring paper bits shoved underneath the drawers, one of which was broken. But it was only $50! How can I resist!
It was fairly easy to take it home and clean, but the "antiquing" process proved to be a bit more work that I thought.


First I primed the entire piece with plain white primer, then I proceeded to add semi gloss paint in an off white/creamy shade. I had to apply 3 coats! (Only to sand the hell out of it later).

I sanded mostly the corners and sides but also sanded parts of the sides and doors to give to whole thing an aged look.

And voila! My own Shabby Chic china cabinet!

The only other project I followed this with was painting 4 different old chairs and sand them so, along with the dining table, they would create a cohesive look in the dining room.

I feel very proud of my work, but I think it will be a while before I attempt to do this again.
The Dr. said I have to take it easy from now on so it's the perfect excuse to stop the antiquing madness... for now.

Nesting: The Dining Room

Before

After Full View

After: Different Vintage Chairs

After: Wall Art

Nesting: The Kitchen

Before

After


Before

After

Nesting

After 1 week on the road and a month of whirlwind activities: painting our new apartment, waiting - forever- for the movers to bring our things, stocking our pantry, etc. We are finally starting to feel at home. This time I was so organized and methodical when it came to decorating the place. I created inspiration boards for each room and focused on each one to bring the rooms to life.
Here are some of the rooms that I consider "almost finished". We still need some rugs and other details but with love, patience and not too much money we were able to transform these dull empty spaces into our cozy little nest.

I started with the Kitchen. I had to, otherwise where would I do all my cooking and baking right?
So here is the inspiration board followed by the before and after shots.