This week we made some great progress in Lindsay's cute apartment, helping her get everything in her dining room all set up for Christmas. I am SO thrilled with how well this room turned out for her and especially how little we had to spend. Putting together a dining room from scratch can blow just about any budget, so I'm especially proud of our bargain victories.
Remember the table as I found it, stashed away in the clearance section of an antique shop for only $65? I sanded it lightly and gave the whole thing a good scrubbing to remove any grease and then carefully brushed on two coats of Rustoleum's oil base enamel in Smoke Gray. This stuff covers beautifully and creates a rich, glossy finish that looks like it took many more layers than just two coats. Because it's oil based, the cleanup is kind of a pain, and you have to wait a full day between coats for it to cure, but the result makes the extra effort totally worth it.
I love the way the gray turned out with the warm neutral walls and the fresh, modern look of the lucite chairs from IKEA. The cute fish rug is a hand me down from my parents to us, and I'm thrilled Lindsay can use it now.
Lindsay has always loved the wall series hanging in our dining room, so we planned on using the same layout of 12 calendar prints in black frames for her dining room wall, too. Since she spent seven happy years in New York City before moving to Louisville, Cavallini & Co.'s calendar of vintage NY posters makes the perfect series to remind Lindsay of her past as she makes a life here in her new place.
While I was at IKEA to get her chairs, I also picked up these cheap black frames, which only set us back $50 for the whole set of them. So our total for a full wall installation, including the calendar, came to just under $75!
After hanging my own series of 12 pictures, I know firsthand how critical planning is to getting these things straight and properly spaced. Eyeballing it will definitely leave you with an unsatisfactory result that drives you nuts, so before grabbing the hammer I decided to put in the time to measure everything out and check the hole positions with the level. Once everything was marked out properly, nailing and hanging was a breeze.
I love how crisp and graphic the series looks all together! And how dramatic the prints look filling up nearly the whole wall. Lindsay's place is really coming together.
xo
Liza
Great job!
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