You guys are pretty familiar with the breakfast nook by now…I featured it first a little less than a year ago for Friendsgiving with the original paint and wall shelves. And then it got a little spruce up for this end-of-the-school-year party. I lot of you followed the progress on Instagram 🙂 We’re still making changes in here but we’re soooo close to being finished!
Here are all of the first phase changes we’ve made:
- Removed the dated asymmetrical, Ikea wall shelves.
- Removed a funky wall addition that the last owners added so that they could have an outlet and cable in the middle of the wall, I guess for a TV? You can see a picture of it on the left-side below.
- Removed the track lighting.
- Added 3 sconces to the wall to replace them.
- Painted…everything.
When we started work on the kitchen, I figured it was the perfect time to make some changes in this eating nook as well, since they’re adjoining. We use it everyday to eat, (We repurposed the formal dining room into a family room.) so it was important to me to have it looking it’s best! So phase 2 commenced! Here are the things we’re currently working on:
- Add vertical shiplap to the blank wall for interest. DONE!
- Replace the disgusting seat cushions (YUCK). In progress! You guys, these seat cushions are probably over 5 years old and we are the 3rd family to use them. And here’s the best part. They aren’t washable. Yep, that’s right. The cushion covers are NOT removable. Which means they’re just scary to think about, let alone sit on. :X
- New drawer pulls for the built-in drawers. Easy to do, but need to pick out the kitchen pulls first so that they somewhat coordinate!
- Repaint. Yes, repaint. The white I chose is just wrong. It has an awful green tint to it and I hate it. My bad, since I didn’t test it out before painting. Please don’t do what I did. Ever. Luckily it’s a small space, so it’s easily repaint-able.
- Replace the sliding door to the back deck. I’d love to get some french doors that open out and a real screen door. The one we currently have is one of those cheap rolling ones and it falls off its track at least once a day. It’s pretty much on its last legs. Send help please.
For step one, I was lucky to be able to reach out to Metrie and get some of their pre-painted shiplap to install. I love this product because they make it SO easy for us infrequent-DIYers to manage projects that are usually out of our pay-grade 😉 Metrie’s pre-painted shiplap boards came already painted with built-in spacing for easier installing. And they come with a kit that has spray touch-up paint and hole filler crayons in the same paint color as the boards. You can’t get much better than that am I right? The boards are solid and have a quality feel to them too.
Here are some after pics! I’m pretty excited at how the shiplap looks. It’s exactly what I was looking for in here. The perfect way to add interest to this focal wall, without getting too busy or distracting.
Sources:
Stay tuned for more updates soon – step 2 is currently in progress!
All “after” photos by Bénédicte Lasalle.
Meghan J says
Thank you – love this! Curious to know if the bench is comfortable? We are looking into a very similar plan – Seat cushions / no back cushions / storage drawers – but just a little nervous as I have not sat in anything like it! Would appreciate any insight you could share!
Deb says
Love the warmth of the wood and textures with all the white. That table is brilliant- light and bright top AND wood tone. And so thankful you avoided the cliche black painted door and window trim.