Vintage on line

 I've decided to share 1/2 of our kitchen with you this week. This is our dining space. Our only dining space. The kitchen and dining room are one long narrow open room. The picture below is what it looked like when the house was on the market.


Love that ceiling fan? We were blessed to find several similar ones in the house. I will do a happy dance the day the last one is removed.


This is how it looks right now. The pics are a little dark but I got tired of waiting for a sunny, picture taking day. There is still plenty to do on this side of the room but it is in much better shape than the kitchen side. You will have to take my word for it until I unveil it next week.


So far we've painted trim and walls, removed some of the brass strips from the fireplace, beefed up the trim and painted out the fireplace and replaced the light fixture. Long term we will do built in shelves on either side of the fireplace (hopefully with windows above to let in more light, rip out 2 layers of sub-floor, install new flooring, rip out the ceiling, raise it and install wood paneled or smooth ceiling, gut that fireplace and start from scratch and replace the french doors.


Short term I still need to paint the remaining brass fireplace pieces with high temp black paint, paint the dining table and find a furniture arrangement that works for us. This room houses our only fireplace and I hope to find a way to make it a sitting area as well as a dining area. I'm thinking a comfy settee facing the fireplace with the table turned the other way and a bench on the opposite side with a chair on each end. I'll need to just remove the long, narrow white buffet side table if we go that route.


I'd love to hear any suggestions you guys have about arranging this room. I also need to decide what color to paint the kitchen table although I would dearly love to replace it with a wood finish table. Maybe I will make enough money at my upcoming garage sale to fund some new purchases in here.