The kitchen. Eating area. Breakfast nook.  Whatever you wanna call it. It’s where we live.   Where we spend a lot of our time.  It’s where we eat all of our meals together. It’s where we do homework, color, create, draw, play-dough (is that a verb?)…

When we moved in, I kind of envisioned us spending lots of time here. I mean, look at this WALL OF WINDOWS.  It’s like a dream come true for me. Watching snow fall. Watching seasons change. It’s one of my most favorite spots in the house.

If you remember from earlier pictures, this area just had some clean white walls and linoleum flooring at first.

We had the floors taken out when we closed on the house and had hardwoods put in throughout the first floor.  I took down the valances that were left behind, thinking I might replace them with new ones one day, but I LOVE the windows bare and open and they will probably stay this way forever.

I painted the room a few weeks after we moved in (the entire main floor is Sherwin Williams Amazing Grey), repainted all the white trim and everything looked brand new. Jason likes to make fun of me for saying paint makes everything look “brand new.” But it’s really true.

We moved our table over from the old house and it fit the space perfectly. This table was originally from Pier 1 and had taken a SERIOUS beating over the previous six years.  We were in no place to buy a new one, but thought I could maybe try freshening it up a little. I wish I had a great picture of the original table, but here’s the best I have.  You can see the color of it in this picture.

And here is the picture of it from the Pier 1 site.  It’s no longer available, FYI

I have never totally stripped/sanded a piece of furniture to restain it before, so I wasn’t quite sure of the process.  I knew that the underneath structure was solid wood, but it seemed to have a veneer overtop that could possibly be ruined if stripped down with a sander.  So I found this Citri-strip Stripping Gel on Amazon that had great reviews, but I was still a little worried. I mean, if I used it and it worked, AWESOME… but if I used it and ruined the table, we still didn’t have the money to replace it.  So I said my prayers, did as the directions said, and IT WORKED! Like literally, left it for 2-3 minutes, then scraped the stain off with a putty knife. Pretty messy, but crazy easy- came off like butter. And it has a citrusy smell, as it claims.

I stripped off all of the stain and then had to hit a few small stubborn places with the sander where the stain was harder to come off.  Next, I cleaned it off a few times using mineral spirits and let it dry.  Then I skipped out the garage and skipped back inside, excited for the change!

I wound up using my “secret concoction” for the stain color. It’s one that I’ve used a lot in the house. (My dad helped me install some shelves in our family room, post coming later, and I worked hard on coming up with a color that I loved. It’s a mix of a few different stain colors in a certain order. Maybe I’ll share it with you one day!) I put the stain on and wiped it until it was the color I wanted. Then let it dry. And then applied a couple of coats of satin poly over the next day or two. I LOVE the color and I really love the finish. I’ve found I like satin poly over anything glossy for our home. I also painted the bottom half of the table to lighten it all up. I used a regular house paint and covered it with a few coats of the same satin poly. (I didn’t even sand it :)) Here’s how it turned out. Excuse the toilet in the background. I was obviously potty training at the time too 🙂

I did the same thing with two of the chairs. Stripped them. Restained them. And painted the bases white.

I found two additional basic chairs at HomeGoods a few months later and this bench for the other side of the table. We can now easily sit 6, and can squeeze 8 or 9 if needed.

The last part of this room to change was the light fixture.  The original one was the same as the one we swapped out in the dining room (see dining room post).  I had my eye on a new light for a while and Jason surprised me with it for our anniversary.  I love the wood tones on it and really like how the whites, wood tones, and black iron all mix and match in this space.

We are so happy with how the table turned out and especially love living life in this room!

Side note: the table has held up really great.  It’s been about 18 months and is still going strong!
You can see the before and afters here, along with others throughout the house.