House in Progress: Breakfast Room Redux

Although I promised when I started this blog to "chronicle the process of making my family's house a home," I realize that I've been totally slacking on the House in Progress posts.

Mostly that's because everything has been in such a perpetual state of un-doneness around here that I didn't have much to show off. (Case in point: We still haven't repainted the pink bathroom.) That, and because Nick and I aren't totally satisfied with the rooms that we "finished" shortly after moving in last year, and have plans to repaint and rearrange a few of them.

But finally, one small area is coming together: Our little breakfast nook off the kitchen. It's a charming room with a bay window, two built-in china cupboards that are original to our circa-1939 home, a little arched entryway, and a peaked roof.

But as you can see from these "before" pictures we took when the house was for sale, the room was painted a dull beige, had ugly metal blinds hanging in the pretty divided-light casement windows, and sported a rather hideous copper and brass light fixture.

We repainted (with Benjamin Moore's Soft Fern) and took the blinds down right away, and I hung some cream-and-lavender ticking-striped cafe curtains that I had made up from a Restoration Hardware shower curtain. (I hated to cover up half of the lovely windows, but the room faces the street and has a southern exposure, so we needed to add something for a little privacy and shelter from the blazing sun while we sit at the table.)

Then we moved in our beloved retro formica dinette set, which had added such color and personality to our old kitchen. Unfortunately, the dinette set just wasn't right for this space, and it took forever to find something else. (The set is for sale on craigslist right now, if any of you locals are interested.)

We finally settled on a white parsons table from West Elm, and after a fruitless search for affordable wooden faux bamboo chairs, I ended up bidding on this set of metal patio chairs on eBay. (They just came back from the auto body shop today, where I had them powder coated in high-gloss white.)

Same with light fixtures. The one we ultimately went with (the new 15-inch Leran pendant from IKEA) is the third we've installed -- but I think the third time is the charm.

We also hung some vintage botanical prints (purchased very inexpensively on eBay and matted and framed in simple, stock-sized white mats and black frames that we bought at Aaron Bros. during one of their regular "buy one frame, get the second for 1 cent" sales). In retrospect, though, maybe we should have gone with white frames ...

And I set out my collection of purple sun glass and lavender transferware, assembled over the years from garage and estate sales, flea markets, and eBay.

Lastly, because the table needed a little something, but I wanted to keep it simple, I grabbed a metal tray I snagged for $2 last year at the Oakland Museum's White Elephant Sale and filled it with moss balls ordered from Schusters of Texas.

Still to do:

* Replace the dull, grayish brown vinyl floor with some colorful Marmoleum.

* Hang some of my collection of lavender transferware on the wall around the big window. (I think I'm also going to spring for the "Wanker" platter from Etsy seller trixie delicious that I blogged the other day, just to keep the mood in the room light and not make the vintage-plates-on-the-wall thing seem too straightforwardly traditional.)

* Get some chair cushions and new cafe curtains made up using more vibrant fabric, since the ticking stripe doesn't really "pop." Maybe the Amy Butler Lime Star Paisley pattern, below. (Any of you real or armchair designers out there have other fabric suggestions? If so, I'd love to see 'em.)

Anyway, one room (almost) down, eight more to go!