Tables Before/After
November 16, 2011 by Aimee • 45 Comments
First: Kitchen Nook
When I first moved into our house, the furniture ended up as I’d pictured it in my mind for the weeks prior to moving! Everything stayed put because we’ve been CRAZY BUSY with projects!!! But with life settling down for a bit, I got to thinking…..
I realized that having my table span the length of the window took away from the natural flow of traffic. See below. Although our kitchen isn’t a galley kitchen, it’s definitely longer than wide and with the table following the same lines of the kitchen, it emphasized the shape of the kitchen, rather than making it more spacious and open. Of course, the addition of these Ikea Stockholm Blad Curtains and my Yellow Curbside Table turned Dazzling Kitchen Cart totally improve the room, too!
A 90 degree rotation and the kitchen nook seems so much larger. Sometimes I take the leaf out and make it round as it was when I feel in love ~ that totally makes the kitchen nook feel airy, but for practicality reasons, a larger table fits our family of five a little better. Turning the table one rotation wasn’t what I first envisioned, but for this space it definitely works best!
Here’s one more look at the space opened up by rotating the table. Before: Above ~ After: Below. The rotation easily extended the kitchen two feet and opened up the area for better traffic flow. I’ve been getting some comments about where the table comes from….
This table was a huge splurge for us. We bought it from Crate and Barrel, because there just seemed to be nothing that I could love quite so much. The table is called the Avalon and we bought the 5 piece set. I cared for this table better than you could ever imagine. Place mats every meal, didn’t use anything harsh for wiping, and dried after each meal. Surprisingly, the table started chipping. Seriously BIG chips.
As awful as this was and as leery as I was to replace it with the same thing, there wasn’t a comparable table set so we called Crate and Barrel and they were super sweet. They offered to exchange the chipped tabletop for a new one. We had owned the table for less than a year and my photographer (aka my hubby) drove the table back to Crate and Barrel (an hour away) and came home with a brand new sparkling white table. This time, I wasn’t sure how to maintain it, but I decided to leave the surface empty — no placemats or tablecloths and care for it like fine china!
Fast forward another year. Same thing happened, the paint chipped and the table looked like my photographer’s work bench. As I was doing some blog stalking and hopping, I came across someone in the same scenario as I and craziest thing, Crate and Barrel had now changed the company they were using to paint their tabletops. Crate and Barrel already used a different company to paint the chairs which is the reason they were more durable. So, one more phone call (actually took three, but who’s counting). And Crate and Barrel two years after the fact, delivered to our door a brand new Avalon Table and towed away the damaged table. Just from the touch of my hand I could see a major difference! Isn’t it beautiful! Isn’t Crate and Barrel AMAZING!! Seriously, what company would stand behind their furniture for two full years!??! They sure did make this customer happy. And now six months down the road it is still in perfect condition!
Second: Dining Room
This table is very large. I believe 108 inches with both leaves, but I’ll double check. I found this table and chair set at Nayfa’s Unfinished Furniture. They will stain or paint your furniture for an additional fee, staining being much more reasonable ~ that’s what we did! We could have stained it pretty easily, but to make it look good, furniture requires 9-11 coats and we decided we lacked that amount of patience and by coat 2 would probably drag it into the house and put it to use. They did an exceptional job and a week after purchasing the table and chair set, they were ready to be picked up and brought into our dining room! We’ve gotten so much use out of this table both at our old house and our current house!
The only bummer about super large tables is storing super large table leafs! Keeping one leaf in the table at all times, helped lighten the storage load some, but then I got to thinking how stately it would look (and how practical it would be) if I could extend the table with two leaves and keep it that way.
The size of our dining room was definitely large enough. But when I did that, the three chairs on each side looked a little lost and far removed from the two arm chairs at the head of the table. And the area rug was a little too short!
I got to thinking, why not work with what I have! I grabbed a screw driver, some wood filler and a stain pen and went to work removing the arms from the two armed chairs. It was so simple and of course if I ever changed my mind, I could add them back, but for now, my idea made me super excited!
Definitely not the best sand/stain job, but rest time for the kids only lasts for a short amount of time each day so I had to make it work…
The result…a Large Stately Table that has just the right amount of chairs and fits perfectly on the rug!!! There’s no going back, this is totally the way it’s staying!!! And here it is all PRETTY.
Click for link to see my Whimsical Nature Themed Tablescape.
I love that white table.. i just love crate and barrel
What a great blog you have here, Aimee. Thanks for finding me so I could discover you.
Interesting to hear that Crate and Barrel stand by their products two years later….at a time when so many companies look for a way out of their responsibility to their customers.
I love both tables. White tablescaping on a darkly stained table is always so chic.
What a great blog you have here, Aimee. Thanks for finding me so I could discover you.
Interesting to hear that Crate and Barrel stand by their products two years later….at a time when so many companies look for a way out of their responsibility to their customers.
I love both tables. White tablescaping on a darkly stained table is always so chic.
What a great blog you have here, Aimee. Thanks for finding me so I could discover you.
Interesting to hear that Crate and Barrel stand by their products two years later….at a time when so many companies look for a way out of their responsibility to their customers.
I love both tables. White tablescaping on a darkly stained table is always so chic.
Beautiful! There’s nothing like hardwood and white.
Oh it all looks great! I love the white table.
Fantastic! Your taste is so chic!
Your tables are both beautiful!! I am loving your blog!
Both rooms are lovely!
Thanks Jodi, PJ & Judy!!!
Alicia, I stopped by your place and loved all that fresh produce…I need to take another trip to our Farmer’s Market this weekend for sure!!! Thanks for inspiring!!!
Jenny, Chrissy & Wende ~ You are Just TOO Sweet!!!
9-11 coats? no wonder the coffee table I built and am trying to stain still looks awful. I gave up and started sanding it off and plan on painting it aqua or something now LOL oh well… the dining table is gorgeous!!
Love your bright and sunny kitchen Aimee! Oh and that’s one of the prettiest tablescapes I’ve EVER seen!
What a lovely, sunny transformation on your kitchen table are. Bright and cheerful…
Kathi
Zaira ~ You crack me up!!! Paint always looks chic!!! Can’t wait to see your coffee table reveal!!!
Every time I visit your blog I want to redecorate my house! You’re so inspiring.
I can’t get over the transformation of the kitchen nook! It’s like you waved a magic wand and created a whole new room. I love how light and fresh it is without losing it’s coziness.
Everything is so beautiful! Wow!
That tablescape is to die for gorgeous.
Just found your blog via Home Sweet Home. Loving browsing around at all your beautiful spaces. I’m your newest follower!
Love that white table! (there’s some kind of technical difficulty stamping a warning right on top of your paragraph about the tables return, though…) and you’re really clever to have thought about taking the arms off of your chairs! Brilliant!
My goodness Aimee, you’ve got great taste! Thanks for linking up all your gorgeous posts! Jen @ http://www.icantstopcrafting.blogspot.com
I just love the table in your kitchen nook. It’s perfect:)
I’m impressed with Crate and Barrel’s customer service. I love both your tables – they are both so different, and both so pretty. I can’t believe what a difference turning your table made – and adding curtains!
I love everything!! (especially your curtains because I have the same ones! You can even see them in my most recent post;)
How great is it the Crate & Barrel replaced your table TWICE!! I had the same problem on my black painted table but with no luck of replacement. But it wasn’t a good quality piece to begin with.
Love your blog! I’m a new follower from the linky party over at Home Stories A to Z!
Great job with your dining spaces! Found you through Mod Mix Monday.
I really love the soft colors of the table and the drapes against the dark wood floors. And that little yellow table – so cute! Thanks for the follow – following back
Your tablescape looks beautiful, I love the peacock feathers!
You are on a roll! So beautiful! I love your white table. I did something similar to my dining room table and love it. Thank you for sharing at Taking A Timeout Thursday!
-Trish
So glad to see this at Fireflies and Jellybeans! I love your tables – and that yellow curbside turned cart is so fun! Love your blog!
Great ideas. Love the tablescape.
looks amazing you’re very talented! great blog
Well kudos to Crate and Barrel! Love hearing that! I think the small turn of the table made big gains!
Turning that table DID make a huge difference! Wow! Great idea and absolutely beautiful tables!!!
xoxo laurie
Love the dining room table! the chairs on either side make it seem so much more stately!
What a beautiful little space you have there now! Sounds like a headache with the table though. Glad it worked out. That area is so inviting. The dining table and chairs are gorgeous too. I’d love it if you’d share this at my Saturday Splendour Party at http://www.megandmums.com
Your house is lovely. I just was looking at your breakfast nook table – mine looks a lot like this. I thought they were the same but mine is from Ikea. Still kinda funny
your house is beautiful! love all the decor and the colors! your a genius:)
I love your kitchen nook, especially the drum chandy. Following you back.
Visiting from every thing under the moon…Your blog and taste are beautiful. I am your newest follower
Would love it if you checked out my blog sometime soon!
whatmeeganmakes.blogspot.com
Meegan
Hi I just found your blog and I love it! Would you mind sharing the colour of the paint on the walls of your kitchen nook? It looks so creamy!
Thanks
Jennifer
I’m obviously needing to put this info in a better spot! LOL! It’s found in this post though if you want to see the color sample and such you can copy/paste the link.
http://www.itsoverflowing.com/2011/10/painting-our-fireplace.html
It’s definitely creamy, but not yellow. I LOVE it LOTS!!! XO, Aimee
Wow! I think you might be the first person ever to respond to one of my questions on a blog. Class act! I found the colour through your link.
Thanks!
Jennifer
Oh goodie! I was hoping you’d get that!!! Thanks for your sweet note Jennifer!!!
XO, Aimee
Love your tablescape on the big table. Really pretty!
White is timeless, classic and chic. It never goes out of style! I would love a table and set like this! Crate and Barrel has always been awesome about returns. I love their decor. Thanks for sharing!