 |
| Hideous upholstered table |
 |
| Updated midcentury modern |
 |
| Far Out Home Fittings, r.i.p. |
 |
| Parents are the best |
 |
| New table top + old legs, and re-upholstered chair |
As promised, I’m going to be sharing my experience living in and decorating a tiny studio apartment. You saw the before pictures here, but now it’s looking much more lived in. So today I’m going to tell you a little bit about my dining area. We can’t call it a room, because it’s not in any way closed off and sits just 10 feet from my bed, but it’s an important part of the space nonetheless. So let me tell you a little story about the ugliest table in the world…
There was once a totally groovy vintage furniture store here in Austin called Far Out Home Fittings. It wasn’t beautiful, but if you looked closely there were some excellent finds. Take for example this dining table and chairs. Really I only wanted the chairs for my dining room, but it came as a set and the table had sweet legs. Sadly Far Out is no longer there, and I miss popping in for the oddball find.
But seriously, is this not the ugliest upholstery you have ever seen? Brown, orange and mustard velvet, these photos don’t do it justice. Who upholsters a table top anyway? Imagine all of the spilt food that would soak into it. It had to go. But it turns out upholstery is quite an expensive service, so I only had enough in my budget to reupholster one of the chairs with white leatherette, I just threw a sheepskin over the other as a temporary fix.
Then I went to Ikea and bought this white lacquer table top for just $35. The new top is larger and rectangular, which was far more practical than the oval shape (the old table could only seat 4 people and the new one seats 6 comfortably). And all it took was a few quick turns with a wrench to remove the legs from the old top and a regular screwdriver to attach them to the new top! Easiest Ikea hack ever, and it doesn’t even look like Ikea with the authentic vintage legs on it.
Oh and do you like my sunglass storage? I got the crystal pedestal bowl from
Flashback for just $12! They were actually using it to display belts and accessories but agreed to sell it to me, and at a bargain price as well. I told you I love that place. The blue horse head is one of my favorite pieces, I spotted it in Dwell magazine years ago and searched for it tirelessly until I made one mine. It’s by Bitossi. The coasters are Anthropologie and so are the polkadot napkins, a thoughtful gift from Cass at coco+kelley (thanks Cass!). You might remember the pink painting from my
old home tour, and the before photos of my studio from
this post. During my time in Sydney I fell head over heels in love with Aboriginal artwork and this painting by Betty Mbitjana is just one of the pieces I brought back with me. The gold table runner is a
Moma find, and the black tray was part of the Neiman Marcus Target collection. I like to keep a tray on the table to corral all of the random things that end up on my dining table – like mail, sunglasses, and cameras (when you’re a blogger).
That about sums up my dining room area (oh yea, and my dying orchid makes an appearance too) and by the time I post this I will probably have rearranged it all again. Redecorating is my favorite midnight activity. It always seems like a better idea than sleep at the time.
I hope you guys liked my ugliest-table-in-the-world transformation!
xoxo Cristina
shoesandshelter 
