Dining Room Makeover: The Cozy Minimalist Way

Late last winter, I started decluttering my dining room.

Here is what it looked like, on a good day.

I was a woman on a mission. I spend  80% of my waking hours in this room and it felt altogether too claustrophobic.  So, I began to go through all the binders of old homeschooling stuff and before I knew it, I wanted to get rid of even more.

About that time, the Nester offered a decorating webinar course (with facebook group support) called Cozy Minimalism. I signed up. The One Room Challenge began shortly after that, so I decided I would combine the two and put myself on the five week whirlwind that is the ORC.

I shouldn't have done that. I just frustrated myself miserably. because, I now realise, the two approaches are, essentially, incompatible.

The ORC is all about the deadline: it is a great way to apply pressure so that your project doesn't linger on forever: you have to make decisions quickly and sometimes you end up with things you don't really want because there's no time to wait.

The whole idea behind Cosy Minimalism is to have the smallest number of items you can get away with to create the biggest impact possible. That means taking your time, being reflective and uber-intentional.

Having done the ORC, now, four times, I much prefer the Cosy Minimalist approach. However, it can mean that rooms will drag on--like my dining room did.


The Cozy Minimalist Approach to Decorating a Room.

1. Quieten the Room.

Essentially, this means to empty the room. Take out everything you can (while still maintaining peace and harmony in your home. So, if hubs is in the middle of the play offs, leave the TV and a chair alone!) I wanted to paint my room (ORC Week 2) --and, for the first time, the baseboards and the pine french door, too-- so I took everything out that I could.

I briefly considered painting this room blue green. You can see the off white I chose, instead. (Glass of Milk, Martha Stewart) Amazing how golden the walls were before by comparison, isn't it? (Papaya, CC-248, Benjamin Moore)

Doing this is just amazing. You cannot help but see --really see-- what's what in the room. The feeling is indescribable. You notice all its flaws, you notice that it wasn't born with style. But that's OK: because you also feel the lightness, the space: all is possibility.

This is the time to start collecting images on pinterest, too. (if you haven't already.)  Nester advises at least thirty. The images you pin will help with every decision that needs to be made going forward. According to my Pinboard, I had 192.


2. Are the seats and surfaces in the best places?

This, is of course, the whole issue of the layout.

I played around with several options on paper first.

As you can see, I fully expected to get a round table to put in this room. But as I was playing with the furniture cut outs and moving them around I realised a few things:

1. I don't like working at round tables. It is too hard to spread out comfortably.
2. I could not find a happy place for my Ikea drawer units.
3. Somehow, I wanted to include a comfortable chair in here for reading.

So, I settled on moving the Expedit to a different wall and keeping my china cabinet in the same place. That left just two options for the table--either perpendicular or parallel to the window. You know which one I chose.


3. Style: Window Treatments, Rugs, Lighting and the Walls.

Some rooms are born with style: most are not. This is so obviously true that it seems trite, but Nester's genius, I think, is her ability to show and explain how to take the usual, ordinary things we put in a room, like our drapes and rugs and lights and create something truly amazing.

Looking at our walls, drapes, rugs and lighting as opportunities to create style simplifies the whole decorating process immensely, too.

Window treatments.

"Don't start your art until your drapes are hung correctly!"

This little ditty from the Nester is humorous--but also a tremendously useful bit of advice. Drapes can--and should--do a lot of heavy lifting in your room. They can set the style and tone. Hung correctly--that is, high and wide, they will visually lift and lengthen the room. Even though our first attempt (ORC Week 3) at hanging them did not go well, I am very happy with them, now. The colour ties this room to the living room across the hall.

A Rug.

A rug, Nester says, is like that friend who connects everyone together and helps everyone get along. I'm quite sure she's right, but I never did find a satisfactory rug for this room.

I tried this one--and a cowhide from Ikea.

Lighting.

Oh my goodness. The overhead ceiling fixture. I mentioned I'd looked at over a thousand fixtures--and I had. I'd wanted something both super stylish--and centered over my table. I got neither. That was in part due to the pressures of doing this room on the ORC time table-- and partly a result of budget constraints--and of being afraid to invest too much into something trendy and something I might tire of quickly. I mean, if I was going to tire of it, I didn't want it to be too expensive!

I quite like the fixture we got. It is 100x better than what we had before. But it didn't give me quite the WOW I was looking for.

Walls.

Nester has a great deal to say about walls, and I'm not going to repeat that here. In my case, I needed some style, big time. Since the light fixture turned out to be perfectly adequate--but not a statement, I thought long and hard about my walls. I consulted my pin boards over and over again. As you know by now, I chose to put up faux brick paneling.

I loved it right away: but it was so startling, so new, and so different, I did not quite know what to do next. It was unsettling and bothersome. I don't like change, actually, for just these reasons. It always affects me this way and it always settles down eventually--as this did. But it has probably taken me this whole year to get used to it.


4. Accessories.

The Nester talks about the importance of scale (one big is better than lots of littles), shape, (opposites attract), visual mass, and texture. I blogged about roughage in week 4 of the ORC. There's more, including how to mix your pillows, style the shelves and a section on creating vignettes. I can honestly say I've done my best to take her lessons to heart (and, to be fair, others, too).

After the ORC was over, I lived with my new table top propped up on the old one until I was able to apply the bar and table finish by Varathane as a protective top coat. I hate how shiny it turned out.

I also had problems mounting the engineer print. (Though it is up, it is bad. It bows like crazy.) I haven't fixed it, yet, and re-doing the top coat on the table may wait yet another year. But it is definitely livable.

And finally, a whole year later, here we are.

If you're interested in the history of this room and its different incarnations, see this post: A Retrospective 5.The Dining Room, 2007 to (early) 2015.

If you're interested in the One Room Challenge Posts, check them out on the One Room Challenge Page (tab above).

The Cosy Minimalist Course may be offered again this fall. I highly recommend it.

Edited to add four larger, individual pictures of the last collage, as requested. :)

ORC Countdown: Day 5.5

We hit a huge snafu with the table--we were short a lengthwise board.

So we don't have a table. Not yet, anyway.

In other news, I went accessory shopping.

I may have a thing for birds. No bull. 

And I painted the new slipcovers for my chairs. (Thanks, Mom!)

I am disappointed I won't be taking photos tomorrow: but it'll be a lousy day for photos, anyway. There's 2 to 4 cm of snow in the forecast!

I'm looking forward to seeing the rooms designed and put together by the professionals participating in the One Room Challenge. I'll link as soon as there is one.

ORC Countdown: Day 5.4

Math.
In real life.

The following problem has two parts:

A.

A woman wants to build a table 78" long and 32" to 33" wide. She wants to build it with a board at each end which will run perpendicular to the interior boards which will run lengthwise.

Like so:

You will use 2" thick boards (which are really only 1 1/2" thick). You may use any length of board you wish. You may not change the width of any board you choose. You must use at most only two widths of board.

Nominal dimension on the left, real life dimension on the right:

12" // 11"
10" // 9 1/4"
8" // 7 1/4"
6" // 5 1/2"
4" // 3 1/2"

Recommend which boards to be used and how they will be put together in the least expensive way possible while still being aesthetically pleasing. Calculate the rough cuts you want the store to make for you.

Here is the cost of the boards:

Store 1:

2x12x16    $30.47
2x12x12    $23.39

2x10x16    $16.61

2x8x10        $7.45
2x8x12        $9.62

2x6x16        $9.64
2x6x12        $13.98


Store 2:

2x4  $6.99/foot
2x6  $2.99/foot
2x8   $3.99/foot
2x10 $4.99/foot
2x12 $6.99/foot


You have fifteen minutes at each store and no calculator.

Go.

Oh, and Store 1 doesn't actually carry any pine, specifically. Those prices are for spruce--or fir--or pine. You won't discover this fact until you have bought them and had them cut, however.

B.

Add the cost of a circular saw so you can make straight cuts and factor in a day and a half to track down the router bit so you can join the boards with biscuits. Calculate the gas used to drive to three stores to find biscuits and two trips to yet another store to buy and return two different sizes of router bits.

Assume it takes three hours to join the boards lengthwise.

Add in a further two to three hours--after work tomorrow--to join the end pieces.

Add the time to sand the table, stain it and top coat it.

How much will the table top cost and will it be done by Wednesday?

Show your work.

ORC Countdown: Day 5.3 Epic Fail

I was up at 7:00 am and spray painting by 7:30.

Thanks Anastasia--I found that Montana Gold's spray paint. The copper is so purty.

Then, a long trip to Home Depot to get wood, a circular saw, router bits and paint.

No router bits. In fact, it turns out that the router bits we want in order to make slots for biscuit joints for the table top are terribly hard to find in a brick and mortar store.  The hubs will try to find them again tomorrow.

Good thing there's lots to do! Moving on to the brick wall.

Surprise, surprise, the wall isn't straight. Out came all the nails we put in yesterday, a little wiggle here, a little wiggle there and now both panels aren't straight--but the seams line up and that's all that matters! By the time Chris and Ben put up the last one, it was almost 3/4" wider at the bottom than the top. Fortunately, you can't tell.

Ugh. My pipe table rusted. I left it outside unprotected for a few days--and we had hail. Hail! Two days in a row.

I attached a brush thingy to the drill and sanded for probably an hour. I thought my arm would fall off.

Just before the sun set, I spray painted the pieces. Some of them we couldn't get apart. They've likely rusted in place.

Meanwhile, off and on, I worked on my painting all day.

Chris says it looks like a psychedelic hamburger. Not that, but it doesn't matter. I don't like it. Emphatically.

ORC Countdown: Day 5.2

Gathering courage.

I still have a rather large canvas to paint.
Remember this? This is where the whole One Room Challenge for this room started!

I went searching for inspiration.

I like the shapes and the brushstrokes in this one: Highway Wildflowers by kelli hall for Minted.

source

I loved this by the artist, Alison, at minted. It's called Indian Summer.

source

This, too, is called Indian Summer.

 Helen Frankenthaler: source

I love how the colours are stacked--inverted--like our expectations. 

I really love the one below, though.

 Helen Frankenthaler: source

I feel like it could inspire me to write a boatload of fantasy fiction, Darkoverish-Zimmerman-Bradley style.

And then, there is Rothko.

source

source

Of course.

ORC Countdown: Day 5.1

No promises I will do this every day, but I did last time and it was fun to capture the chaos and energy of the final week.

Today, I bit the bullet and cut the wall hanging.

Then, I shopped and shopped and settled on some fabric to cover the office chair (the tartan draped on the chair) and the chair cushion for the wicker chair.

I liked it a lot, actually. The colours worked well together and the tartan felt "libraryish."

But then, my husband agreed to hang one of our brick panels, "to see how it goes."

Rocked. my. world.

changed. everything.

Um. No. Not anymore.

This?

or something like this?

Now I wish I'd brought the drapes all the way to the end of that wall. That patch is distracting.

I bought some more yarn.

and a rug

and I am so freakin' excited again I can't stand it.

ORC Week 5: Nuthin'

I had four days off between last week's post and today. Four days.

I didn't do anything related to my room until late yesterday.

10pm saw my husband and I picking up brick panels at Home Depot.

They're still in the garage.

I also went to an upscale lumber yard to find dimensional lumber for my table top. After doing math for about an hour (and making my head hurt) I found out they didn't have enough! And it is going to be much pricier than I'd ever thought.

I purchased the pipes and constructed the base some time ago. I still need to spray paint them.

It's all coming down to the wire, now.

I want to build my pipe table, put up a brick wall, cover my office chair and find a rug.

Oh, and paint a large canvas.

In less than seven days.

Please check out the rest of the panicked linking participants, here.


If you'd like to catch up on my progress, here are the weekly posts:

Week 1: Befores and a Vision
Week 2: The Painted Room
Week 3: The Agony of Decisions
Week 4: Texture and Art

ORC Week 4: Texture and Art

A successful room is a room with a lot of texture. Nester, in her inimitable way calls a room with too many slick textures a diarrhea room. Most of our rooms, she says, are this way. What we need is more roughage.

Abigail Ahern, takes the idea further. Every room, she says, needs at least six textures.

Six!

She advises two from each category: smooth, rough and soft.

Smooth textures are things like glass, marble, smooth tile, plastic, fabrics like silk and satin, certain pieces of pottery and ceramics.

Rough textures include wicker, reclaimed wood, brick, stone, and luckily for me, book spines.

I got everything back on the Expedit during the Organize-a-thon last weekend.

Soft textures include most fabrics and feathers.

Her emphasis is on opposition, on contrast and juxtaposition. Smooth with rough, (a smooth ceramic lamp on a stump) soft with smooth, (velvet curtains over a glass window), rough with soft (a woolly blanket in a basket.)

So, I analysed my room and what I had.

Rough? Wicker chair, wicker baskets, book spines.

Smooth? Glass, ceramics, polished wood, plastic (the Expedit and the table are melamine, definitely plastic.)

I updated the china cabinet by taking out the mullions and lining the back with (photocopies of) pages from a Children's dictionary during the Organize-a-thon.

Soft? Velvet curtains.

A cushion on the wicker chair would help--as would a rug. But the cushion wouldn't add a significant amount and my husband doesn't think a rug is a practical idea in this room--and he may be right. 

So, it occured tome that some sort of textile art would be just the ticket. I had planned to put my large 3x4 foot canvas on this wall to help balance things out, 

but scraped that idea when I saw this:

So, I made an attempt at textile art.

The bottom is bothering me--I'm not sure how to finish it off. The width, too. Should it be wider? It may be too 1/2 and 1/2 dark and light. And is the branch too "rustic" for this room?


Your thoughts are welcome.


As usual, please check out the others, both the invited, who posted on Wednesday (and what an inspiration they are) and the party crashers, like me.

If you'd like to catch up on my progress, here are the weekly posts:

Week 1: Befores and a Vision
Week 2: The Painted Room
Week 3: The Agony of Decisions

The Organiz-a-thon is Done!

Such a great project.

Presented as a class with an emphasis on action, Simplify 101 offered me a chance to get some organizing done in my study which I am overhauling as part of the One Room Challenge. Participating in the forum with its built in accountability and encouragement from classmates was absolutely wonderful.

Here are the Befores.

I decluttered, again, as I went. (I'd decluttered as I had packed everything up, too.)

I got most of everything out of the living room and into the Expedit on Friday night.

Those boxes on the side are destined for the basement. Yes, it needs to be organized down there!

Saturday, after work, I worked on the China cabinet.

I lined the back with photocopies of pages from a children's dictionary. So sweet.

That's just white paper on the shelves.

Ever since I painted the door black, something about this view has bothered me.

Yes, they are both dark. Yes, the heights are wonky. But wait--the muntins--perhaps they're not getting along with each other?

So, since they were easily removed, I removed them.

Then, very carefully, I loaded it back up.

Sunday, I had a meeting over at my Mom's with a fellow bidding on some work in the morning and I had to work in the afternoon, so I set myself an easy task: pack up and distribute the stuff not staying in the room.

Some of it went back to the basement to be stored, some of it was wrapped and boxed up for sale, and some of it went straight into the donation station. I'm happy to say I got it all done! This is that last 10% of a project I find so difficult to do.

Then, I rewarded myself with some styling of the Expedit.

It was a great weekend!