new dining chairs

Mark and I have been looking for new dining chairs for eons and we finally found some a West Elm a few weeks ago. The Porter Leather Dining Chair was perfect for us because it was practical for kids (easy to wipe down) and simple in style. The quality is pretty good too (...and there was a sale! Ok a small one but better than nothing!).

We both liked the ivory colour because it brightened the room but now that they're all in here I keep thinking they're competing too much with the light above which is too bad because I really like the light! I'll have to live with it for a bit and in the meantime keep my eye open for light fixtures.

What do you think? Too much ivory/white???

Yes I know the tags are still on the chairs - we just need to make sure we are going to keep them! ;)

mini-makeover phase 1 - cafe chairs cushion recover

I'm not going to sugar-coat it: it's hot here people. Yesterday was apparently a July record of 35 degrees (feels like 41 - or 104 f or something like that for my Fahrenheit friends). Oh and did I mention that I don't have AC? Luckily I live by the lake and there is a bit of a breeze, but really AC would be nice.

Anyway, as I mentioned in a previous post, I've been spending most of my time on the porch reading. I see the same people walking by at the same times. It's a bit groundhog day-ish. Today I finished yet another book and I thought I had better do something else with my time before I start the next one.

I decided to start small. Really small.

This is the little cafe nook we have on our front porch. We eat most of our weekend breakfasts here and some occasional dinners. The cushions leave little to be desired - they're pretty faded and the orange colour just isn't working for me anymore - so I added cushion make-over to my long list of things to do.



I put the babes to bed for his afternoon nap (or chatter-time since he's been up there for an hour now and is saying Dada over and over again) and got to work.

I had some leftover material from my nursery glider re-do so I used it to make a simple cover for the cushions. No binding (because I'm afraid of it) and no quilting stitches (because I didn't feel like it). They took me about 20 mins to do, which is the perfect amount of time to spend inside with no AC, on a sticky chair and near a hot iron.

I'm pretty happy with how they turned out!




The next phase will be some little pillows and then next summer I'd like to refinish the table and chairs.

Happy Monday!

new chairs (or: there is officially nowhere to stand in my living room)

Yesterday the fam and I went to my sister's for some yummy eats. She's the only person I know who can make tofu taste really good.

On the way there, we were side tracked by a garage sale. It wasn't your typical garage sale though. According to the signs, it was a 'designer garage sale' and all the stuff was camped out in an industrial parking lot. What caught my eye were some chairs they had for sale. I have a little bit of a rubber necking problem when it comes to chairs on the side of the road and at garage sales. I'm surprised I haven't gotten whip lash yet.

Anyway we turned around and went to check out the chairs. There was something I liked about them right away: they were in mint condition, super comfy and although they weren't a typical garage sale price, they were a good deal. So we got them for the living room upstairs when we move our gigantic black sectional to the basement.


The brown worn leather look isn't really our style so I want to reupholster these in a creamy linen colour. I'm going to do this myself (when I have time ha!) because it's a relatively easy job compared to most chairs.

Can't wait to get the basement done so we get some order back to this house!

Happy Monday!