Before and After: The Breakfast Room

For a long long long (looooong) time, I have wanted to do something about our breakfast room furniture.  For some reason though, despite several moves and updates in other rooms, this one remained it's tired self.  It's time had just not come.  

The table and chairs were Pat's - and maybe someone in his family before.  I've forgotten.  They were the few pieces of his to survive Katrina.  Then we had kids and I figured if those chairs survived Katrina, they could certainly handle another few years of toddler life.  They took a beating alright and had garnered a new sort of sealant called maple syrup!  But they were still functional.   Functional.  Yeah, like that's how you want to describe your breakfast room - the space in your home, aside from the kitchen, you probably spend the most time in.  

So it was time.

I threatened to put them on our curb in Houston before we moved.  But they made their way on the truck and came back to Louisiana.  And found a home here - in the brown room.  

Before… brown tile, brown walls (with my crazy paint samples already littering the space), brown table, brown chairs.

And AFTER...

Let's take a look from a different angle too.  Here you can see my one creative contribution to the space… the kids art wall.  Thanks to the help of a true design professional and some serious pushing outside of my boundaries by her and my husband, we have this lovely, bright, colorful, inviting space.  

It all started with this… my inspiration from Pinterest.  I wanted to mix it up a little bit but thought I wanted the colors toned down.  A lot.  My smart husband and clever designer thought otherwise.

I mean look at this light fixture.  Never in a million years would I or could I have ever picked it out.  But we did.  And it's amazing.

Did you notice the chair cushions?  And bright rug?  

We even kept a few of the old breakfast room chairs - although they were very tired (and sticky), I liked the size and shape.  So I gave them a good wash, fresh coat of chalk paint and we completely replaced the seat cushions

We love our new space.  Not only is it a fun place for our family to gather, but there's plenty of extra seats for guests to join us as well!