The dining room update

Heya peeps! I hope you had a great weekend! I finally finished up a project that was months in the making…really it was years. ;)

Before we built our house, we had been living in a two bedroom apartment for three years or so, and a small apartment translated to VERY little furniture in our new, large house. I lived with the bare dining room as long as I could after we moved in, and one day I told hubby I just couldn’t take it anymore – I was getting furniture!

Did I mention this was before we “met” Dave Ramsey? ;)

Before we even started shopping, I had what I wanted in my head – a long, lovely, dark table (which I got), and a long buffet. I did not want a hutch. But what did I get?

A hutch:

I remember standing in the showroom with the sales guy, asking if I could just buy the buffet piece on the bottom, not the hutch. He said nope, and said the hutch had to go on top.

FINE. I believed him. (Grumble.)

And since the day it was delivered, the hutch has been a thorn in my side. We’ve had it for five years, and I was never crazy about it. Last fall I did a little redo by covering the mirrors on the back:

But I was still dreamin’ about that beautiful buffet. So one day I started thinking about it (you know that’s dangerous!!) and wondered if there was a beautiful buffet under that hutch.

I knew it was two separate pieces, but figured the bottom part was unfinished  – you know – all  pretty along the edges, but particle board or something craptastic on top, since it wasn’t seen?

Well, one day I did some batting of the eyelashes at the hubs, and he helped me push the monster away from the wall (did I mention it is INSANELY heavy?), and we pushed the hutch back a bit to see what was on top of the buffet piece:

Cue the birds and angels singing Squeezays!! It was a glorious day!

Then came the hard part. (Did I mention the hutch was CRAZY heavy? Crazy.) Getting that thing off the buffet was a chore. I ended up taking the mirrors out of the back of the hutch, along with the glass shelves, and then took the doors off. It worked! We could actually move it off.

Yeeehaw! :)

Then the accessorizing started. The FUN part!!

I found a large mirror at Goodwill for only $5.99. I loved that it was large (two by three feet), but the frame around it was wimpy, wimpy, wimpy. I knew I could chunk it up, so off to Home Depot I went.

I found underlayment in a four by four sheet for only $6, and had it cut to size:

 

I took the mirror out of it’s old frame and used Liquid Nails for mirrors to glue it on the board:

Because I didn’t want the underlayment stuff to be seen from the sides of the mirror, I had it cut just shorter than the width of the molding I was going to install around it:

Then I cut my molding and used glue and my nail gun to secure it around the mirror. This is how it looks from the back:

My long ago dream of how the buffet would look included two fab lamps at each end, so I stalked HomeGoods for a couple weeks before I finally found lamps that made my heart go pitter pat:

These were a SPLURGE. Fifty bucks each baby. Ouch. It hurt just a little when I checked out. But when I got home with them and placed them in their spots, I knew it was totally worth it. They were loverly.

I wanted something substantial sitting in the middle of the buffet – and I REALLY wanted a bouquet of beautiful, fat hydrangea blooms. But my bushes aren’t cooperating this week, so I went with plan B. I got this humongous faux greenery from Hobby Lobby for $15 on sale:

And took the beautiful Pottery Barn footed bowl I got with my Amex points (whoo!):

And just started cutting and sticking the pieces all over in the foam till I was happy with the “poof” factor:

I loved how it was turning out, but I knew the buffet needed one thing a dining room isn’t complete without – candlelight. ;)

I skipped to the local Dollar Tree the weekend I highlighted Emily and her fab candleholders. Each one is only $2 – one taper holder for the base and a large glass piece for the top:

RUN, don’t walk to the Dollar Tree, cause right now they have candle holders that flare out at the top, and it looks SO much like the William’s Sonoma version!:

I still haven’t glued the base on, so they are a little precarious at the moment. ;) For now, I don’t breathe on them. 

But I love them so very much!!:

I big. fat. puffy heart. the whole darn thing!:

I LOVE how the beautiful curves of the buffet can really be appreciated now. No ginormous hutch bringing it down.

The mirror is now a chunkilicous 31 by 43 inches. Cause you know I like ‘em big. And chunkaaaaay (Moto Moto!):

The gorgeous crystal lamps play off of the crystals in the knock off Pottery Barn light:

It’s just what I wanted – simple and understated, but dramatic at the same time. And it makes the room feel SO much more spacious without that hutch on top!

Of course, I love it best at night, with the centerpiece all lit up!:

(To see how I made the centerpiece, go here.) Lurve:

I am GIDDY thinking of ways to decorate the buffet for the holidays! Yay!!

It only took me five years, but I got my dream of a buffet in the dining room. :)

The before:

And finally, the after I wanted from the start!:

Now I just have to decide if I’ll hang anything inside the boxes on the walls. Right now I’m think no – but I’m going to live with it for awhile and then decide. You never know what my mind will come up with. ;)