DIY: 5 Minute Mantel Makeover

I found THIS picture a few weeks ago thanks to some pinterest browsing and instantly decided it was time for our fireplace to have a mini-makeover.  I have been wanting to spruce up this area of our home for awhile now but was not sure what I wanted to do.  I have all sorts of ideas... and have even been thinking about possibly painting it all white (brick included).  But, that seems like such a big move.

So, with some leftover milk paint and a slab-of-wood-posed-as-a-mantel that needed repainted badly, I made one small and subtle move in the right direction.
The beige/tan tone of this milk paint color really seems to make a difference.  I think it helps make this space feel a little warmer, homier.  I am always impressed what five minutes and a little paint can do.

Our next step will be to construct a mantel similar to the one I found on pinterest... which looks to be on the project list for next summer... or at least my list, anyway.  The hubs will get the memo soon.

DIY: Dining Table Re-Hab

The hubs works with one of the coolest guys you'll ever meet... seriously.  We were lucky to have the hubs help him build our crib before Kingston was born and now we are even luckier to have him restore a dining room table to our liking.  Talk about cool.  

Originally, he agreed to build us one from scratch.  Then, a friend of his offered up a solid oak dining room table in exchange for a fire place mantel.  Score on our part - with the table to use, it will be more solid than if he had built one from his own wood.

But... it was oak.  And of course, it didn't really jive with what I wanted our "forever" dining room table to look like.

So, we dissected my inspiration photo to find what it was that I really liked in a table (i.e. plank-style table top, border around the table top, and some "beefier" legs) and he got to work.

After just one day, I couldn't believe how much he had already changed the look of the table.  Pretty amazing, friends.  By using one of his many workshop tools, he was able to create a plank-style look on the table top, he built some pretty beefy looking legs (pretty much exactly what I had been thinking), and added a border to match.  Beautiful.

The best part about this table?  It comes with two leaves and expands from about five feet to eight feet... which provides for seating of up to eight (maybe even ten), easily.  Bring on Christmas!

This isn't a finished photo of it... and I think it was after only one layer of stain (we applied three), but just an idea of what it will look like.  The table top is stained with a gel stain in Java and the border and legs will be painted with a milk paint in Millstone.

Originally I thought I would add a little wear-and-tear to the table to make it have that vintage or antique style/look, but I've decided against it.

We are going to re-use our current dining room chairs, so I am working on re-painting them in the Millstone too.

Oh, and we may have a new Chandelier and rug in the works... hoping to share soon!