House Tour - Dining Room/Kitchen

**Update - we've repainted (AGAIN!) so for updated photos follow this link:  http://krusesworkshop.blogspot.com/2014/05/we-are-going-gray-and-were-ok-with-it.html
In a perfect world, I would have gone back to this house tour post and updated the photos - and that will happen - I just can't guarantee when.  Don't judge me.

We love our dining room.  It's right in the center of the house, making it an easy place to gather.  The Kruse's aren't a formal dining room type family, but we do sit around the table most nights to eat.  This room is a nice mix between the formality of a fancy dining room but not as laid back as an eat in kitchen.

Built ins are a classic touch in these older homes.  One would probably store fine china in this cabinet but we don't own any...so it holds our wine glasses and some of the things we like to look at every day.

The inside of the cabinet used to be painted the same color as the walls, which sort of made it disappear into the wall instead of highlighting the items inside.  When I was in the process of building the living room back up after I sold everything, I found myself gravitating towards these blue accents.  I saw this cabinet as a perfect opportunity to introduce the color into the dining room.

We are a family that is obsessed with hooters.  I know, it sounds bad, but innocently enough I mean the bird variety.  Actually, Brent could probably care less about them, the bird variety that is.  The kids just like spotting them in stores and hollering out to me, "look mom, there's a hooter!"  Do we get some stares?  Yep.  But when the kids get excited, it makes us happy so we don't care.  I got these hooter mugs from Kirklands - I'm beginning to wonder if I am their best customer.

This is a little burlap owl my mom got me as a gift. 

This light over our dining table was a cool find.  Brent called me from Lowe's one day to let me know they had all of these ligh fixtures on sale that we normally over $125 and on clearance for $20.  They were the worst tone of brass you could imagine but I liked the shape.

First, we spray painted the insides of each of the globes a glossy white and then used an oil rubbed bronze spray paint on the rest of it.

The absolute best part of our house are these French doors leading from the dining room out to the paver patio.  Summer mornings with those doors open wide and a cup of coffee in hand is the most magical way to start a day.  Brent calls them Freedom doors because of the circa 2002 Freedom Fry debacle.

Brent's parents gave us the dining room table.  It's over 100 years old and when fully extended can seat at least 10 people.  The chairs are in excellent shape but the table top itself needs some major repair.  We are looking forward to the day that we get to restore it back to its luster.

Our kitchen is a galley style and the first time I saw it, was afraid it would never be big enough.  I have been proven wrong.  It's actually easy to work in because there is always a countertop nearby and everything is within grabbing distance.  It gets tricky when you have more than 2 adults trying to work in there but that doesn't happen often.  

Here's what our kitchen looked like when we moved in...

And here's what it looks like now!

When we moved in, the cabinets were just a standard oak.  We wanted to update our kitchen but didn't want to remove the cabinets because they were in good condition and new cabinets would have cost at least $3,000.  Our goal was to make the kitchen look more like it belonged to our 1939 house, so we glued sheets of bead board into the recessed part of the cabinet panel.  Three weeks of sanding, priming, painting and glazing later, we had a "new" kitchen for a total cost of $200.  $85 of that $200 was just for the hardware!  We purchased the hardware from our local home improvement store, Menards.  Here's the link where you can find it: http://www.hickoryhardware.com/p3010-obh . Counter tops were just bought off the shelf from Lowe's for $60.

So far, the paint finish has been incredibly durable.  We used an oil based primer and latex paint top coat.  Even with the kids slamming doors and running into them, we don't even have one chip yet and it's been 3 years or so since we did this.

The roman shade curtains are from World Market - my other favorite store besides Kirklands.

This is the view you have when you come inside through the Freedom doors - you see the kitchen and dining room.  We used the same paint color in living/dining/kitchen so it would all flow together.

That's a huge pantry cupboard on the left with a bunch of pull out drawers in it.

The chalkboard is meant to entertain the children while I cook - but there's two problems with that.  1.  I don't have much time to cook  2.  If I do HAPPEN to be cooking, they are helping me, not playing with the chalkboard. 

We use this small section of countertop as our coffee bar.  Usually we have a few more varieties of flavor syrups to choose from but we've temporarily switched to brewed coffee since it's gotten colder out.

The doorway to the right in the following picture goes out to the garage or downstairs to the basement.

The only thing we would still like to do in here is replace the flooring.  It is that vinyl tile meant to look like ceramic right now.  It's kind of nice because it isn't cold like ceramic, but the grout is discolored.  We haven't decided if we are going to tile in here or possible do a cork floor...we've heard mixed reviews about cork.  We just want something that blends nicely with the hardwood floors in the living room and dining room.

I almost forgot - our next big project is to build our own butcher block counter tops!!!  We think they will complement the cabinetry style and look a little more original to the house.

When we were painting the cabinets, Brent transitioned this cabinet from a storage cabinet that had two shelves inside, to a pull out trash bin that is large enough to hold 2 trash cans.  One for recycling and one for trash.  He just used the same cabinet door and rebuilt the inside so it could slide.