I made some big updates recently to the kitchen, more specifically our every day dining area. I have longed for a new rug, one that would actually fit this space, forever. I was also over our leather chairs. Don’t get me wrong, they were nice Room & Board chairs, but they were totally showing their age (just look how I have extended the life of one of them). This was the before:
And, here is the after:
I am head over heals in love with the transformations. The updates are not only beautiful, but also super functional. Let’s start with the rug saga…
This little breakfast nook area of our kitchen is perfectly square. Our table is rectangular, but with four chairs on the sides the seating group is pretty much a square. Most rugs are rectangular. We lived with the rectangular one in the before shot for over a year and it drove me nuts. It was a 5 x 8 rug, so it barely extended 12″ on each side of the table. The recommended clearance for pulling out a chair is 18-24″ of rug. In case the chairs slipped off the edge of the rug, which they did daily, we had to keep the felt pads on the feet. The felt protected the floors, but prevented the chairs from sliding on the rug.
I had eyed Flor tiles for this space for a while. Makes sense, because a bunch of square tiles could easily make up a big square rug. We have a set of four, from CB2, that we use as our entry rug and love. I just wasn’t seeing the right color or pattern for the space. But, recently I realized they added some new colors to their Lasting Grateness pattern. The titanium grey immediately caught my eye. Then, I did what I do best… I delayed. Should I order a sample…la la la. I signed up for Flor emails and within a few hours they sent me a code for 15% off. Sold! I pounced and ordered my new rug, skipping the samples and going straight for the goods. The whole rug cost just over $200 after the discount.
I moved the table and chairs to lay out my new carpet tiles. I played around with the tiles a bit to find a pattern I liked. The pattern is random and the tiles do not line up, but I noticed there were a few tiles that were very similar that I tried to spread out in the design. After a few minutes I came up with this:
Hallelujah for a square rug for a square room! It fits the space perfectly. It was so lovely, I could not bring myself to put our old, falling apart chairs on it. I had a few ideas for new chairs and one of them was a long shot.
You see, a few months ago, I bought these awesome vintage Classmate chairs, from Mid Mod Men, with the hopes they would work in the kitchen. Would you believe I only paid $125 for the set of four!? The wood tone was similar to our kitchen cabinets. I loved the idea of the modern steel and frosted glass table with the vintage wood schoolhouse-style chairs. The only problem was they looked completely wrong when we first tried them. They just did not work, so I sent them off to the basement to hopefully use down there.
With the new rug in place, I decided to give the Classmate chairs another chance. I brought up one to start and I kind of liked it. Pretty soon I had the other three in place and I was in love. Turns out the only thing wrong before was the old rug. It was sucking the life out of that whole space. The blue legs on the chairs clashed with the old rug and did not stand out. With the new rug in place, I discovered the Classmate chairs actually do look wonderful with our frosted glass table. And, now the blue legs pop off the Flor rug.
Enough about the way it looks, let’s talk about function. The rug is not as long as the old one, but since we don’t use chairs at the end of the table it does not matter. The good news is the rug is much wider and we can now fully pull out the chairs without them slipping off the rug. The old rug was a high-pile pain-in-the-you-know-what to wipe spills from. The Flor rug has been a cinch for wiping up spills.
The chairs are all functional now… no broken backs covered up with fabric. They actually work a lot better for our boys. The old chairs were backless and sadly on more than one occasion we had a little bottom fall through the back of the chair. The Classmate chairs are still nice and open, but those two metal bars holding up the back-rest help keep little bottoms on their seats. The back-rests are my favorite part of these chairs…they tilt, as in recline! My hubby likes to lean back in his chairs, resulting in the old broken chair back. I love that he can lean back in these, without actually leaning back and damaging the whole chair.
I also made one quick adjustment to the new old chairs to make them rug friendly. The metal feet on the chairs were old and rusty on the bottom. I picked up Magic Slider slip on feet and covered them up. Now, I don’t have to worry about my boys touching rusty chair feet and the chairs glide across the rug like a dream.
So, new rug meets old chairs and our kitchen eat-in area lived happily ever after!
Love the new rug and LOVE the chairs. The space looks great!
This looks gorgeous! Before I read I looked at chairs and thought…hmmm… Chem 1A….and then read they are old classroom chairs. I cannot believe what a good shopper you are. I think you live in a great city for great finds:-)
Thanks again for another decorating tip. Oh and the painted toy animals looked so chic!!! I think it’s my most impressed project I’ve seen. Especially that your two year old helped!!! And I actually like what you used as a ribbon better than real ribbon. So designer-ish. Great job!!
Thanks Gwen. I am looking forward to adding different animals each year! I think it will be a fun tradition.
Love the new rug – you have great taste! The rug really works with everything else you love, i.e. the chairs and table. Great job! I think the chairs work with the table for several reasons, but one of them is that both have some blue (the glass tabletop has a bluish tone in the light).
A lot of people are doing the vintage + modern thing too – and that’s because it works! Your room looks lovely!
However, if it was my room, I would start brainstorming a way to tie the light shade into the rest of the room… The light shade is not really vintage or modern (it seems more global / Moroccan to me) or in the same color scheme as most of the room (has no blue or gray to tie it in with the major elements of the room). Perhaps shopping within your house for a (free) shade swap would be interesting? Or finding a way to add a little gray (or blue) detail to this shade? Or finding a way to add even more green to the rest of the room. For example, a tablecloth with a pattern that has a little green or some long fabric panels for the windows with some green would tie it in. Or, add some more green outside the window via a couple potted evergreens – the green would be visible from the inside and tie the green into something else.
Jess,
You have great taste too. Your always one step ahead of me. I have actually already ordered the perfect fabric to tie together the green, blue, and gray. I plan to make faux roman shades for the windows. Hopefully I can get to those soon and share another update!
I’m in love with FLOR and am so jealous of the pattern you snagged. I love them. It makes me want to change out the squares I put in our foyer….
Also, I saw your picture on YHL today. Nice touch wearing teal and lime to meet them at the book signing. :)
Haha, Marcie…it is all about branding right? My shirt was actually navy with kelly green and a yellow/almost lime necklace. I really did not plan on having my picture taken. But John and Sherry were so sweet to take pictures with everyone! There mouths must hurt at the end of a signing from smiling so much!
The new rug is PERFECT! Nice update!
I’m linking to you from iheartorganizing.com — gorgeous room! I just got “Lasting Grateness” from FLOR in indigo for my living room. I love yours too. GREAT FIND on those chairs. Jealous!
Looks great! Wonderful improvement. I also like your pendant light.