HOUSE TOUR – LIVING ROOM AND DINING ROOM
As we continue on through the house tour, we move from the kitchen to the dining and living rooms (which are really just one big room with even bigger windows). This part of the house is where we spend most of our waking hours at home – that is when we are relaxing, entertaining, eating, watching movies, reading or hanging out with our favorite dog, Leo.
The dining room is where some of my favorite furniture lives…my Broyhill Brasilia hutch and my retro Tulip table and chairs (table is Burke, chairs with arms are Fiberform and chairs without arms are unknown maker).
I’m also a huge fan of the paint treatment I gave my built in china cabinet and all the fun stuff it displays.
We get a lot of light through our huge picture window, which is one of Leo’s favorite places to sit and watch the world go by or take a nap in the sun.
One of these days, I’m going to do some more paintings so I can fill up all of that blank wall space!
Speaking of painting, here’s Leo posing with the portrait of him that I painted a few years ago.
Our couch and coffee table are some of the only non-vintage furniture pieces we own (besides our mattresses). We purchased both of them about 5 years ago at a modern furniture store called Rubin‘s here in Milwaukee. The couch is very comfortable!
Our Barcelona style chair is also new. It was on a scratch and dent clearance at a local furniture store (because of the broken straps that I figured out how to fix) and was too good a deal to pass up. The retro record cabinet was something I got on Craigslist for $10 and refinished to its current state.
See those shelves up on the wall?
I made the mini ranch house shelves about a year ago. One of these days I’ll make a bunch and put them in my Etsy shop, I promise!
…now we’ve come full circle and are back at the entry way!
Tune in next time to see what’s down the hall!
Managing Editor and Graphic Designer for the popular blog RetroRenovation.com by day and part time home improver, interior designer, retro enthusiast, vintage bargain hunter, gardener, cook, artist, picture taker and the brains behind this blog on evenings and weekends.
What a terrific tour! I hadn’t seen your story about your shelves — so cool! And I didn’t know you were a painter, too! I love Leo painting!!!
Thanks Pam! I’m definitely a creator of stuff! Paintings, projects, furniture, shelves, gardens, blog posts…you name it and I’ll try making it! It’s what makes me happiest!
Hi, thanks for the living room tour. I like your slate entry tile a lot. Did it come with or was it your choice? I was a big doll collector, builder of doll houses, purchaser of miniatures. I had seen those little shelves but never noticed what was on them and had absolutely overlooked the blog post. I have seen those cool miniature modern chairs. Nicely done. Very 3-d art-like.
Hi Rebecca,
The slate entry tile is original to the house! I’m so glad that the second owners didn’t mess with it (we are the third owners of the house). One of our neighbors down the street has the same slate tile but someone covered over it with icky ceramic tile! They are carefully trying to chisel it off, bit by bit to restore their slate tile entry. I’m glad we didn’t have to do that!
Lucky!
I love your magic touch in everything you do. So exciting to wonder what you are going to show us next.
Thanks Dianne!
There is more to see down the hallway! Stay tuned!
I love all of it! I especially like how you have so many different colors going on but it isn’t overwhelming. The paint scheme on the built-ins is really nice. I’m jealous of your tulip dining set. Our dining table is built-in/ connected to our kitchen so we can never have a cool dining table like that. I guess ours is cool in its own right though.
Thanks Katie B! I bet your table is cool! I’d love to see a picture!
If I ever get my blog going, I will definitely post pics!
I’ll be sure to be on the lookout then!
The place looks great, Kate. That Brasilia hutch is on my “must have” list. Can’t believe you got the Barcelona for such a great price either. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Nickarmadillo! I can’t believe you and Mr. Modtomic haven’t found one in your sea of awesome stuff down in St. Louis! Soon I bet, you’ll have one at your place too! Personally, it is one of my favorites. I would have taken either that hutch or the room divider – but something tells me those are even harder to find!
I love the color treatment on your built-ins too. And I’m crazy about your little retro ranch shelves. Those will sell like hotcakes on Etsy, I bet.
Thanks Dana! All I have to do is set aside some time to make them for my etsy shop!
Your built-ins are lovely! I bet it “sold” the house to you!
Thanks Laura!
There were a lot of things that “sold” the house to us…the tiki lounge, the layout, the large windows, cool retro original features like the built in too!
I am so jealous your house is immaculate! Just realized I’ve never seen your garage, is that where you hide your junk? please tell me its somewhere! lol
Ohhh Nicole, My house is far from immaculate! I spend hours cleaning and hiding stuff before I shoot photos for the blog! I hide junk in the closets, the office, the laundry room, the garage and the basement! I just have to move it around when I take photos! Not having kids probably makes it easier to keep the place relatively clean — no piles of toys laying around!
Oh good! I don’t feel so bad now
I love the coffee table! It’s just so fun. And the shelves are fantastic – I remember reading about them awhile back. Didn’t you also make ornaments too? Maybe you should bring those back for recent readers!
Thanks Jilly!
I did make ornaments too. They are in my etsy store…just click on the link on the right hand side of the blog to see them!
The built-ins are my favorite too, Kate, but I like everything there. Love your Leo portrait. I wonder how he would get along with our corgi Lucy? How about doing a huge paint by number painting on that wall?
Thanks Uncle Atom! Leo is a friendly dog. He gets along well with most dogs and people. I bet he would be friends with you and your corgi, Lucy!
Huge paint by numbers are cool! I’ll keep that suggestion in mind.
I do love these virtual tours, but it would be wonderful to see before and afters to show all of us in throws of our “home work” what a great distance you have traveled to enjoy what you have now.
Great idea…I’ll work on that as well!
fantastic and inspiring rooms! a few questions/comments.
in the dining room, there are small vases with ball shaped flowers in them. what are those? i have some similar vases and i never knew what to put in them. could i see a close up? where can i get them?
i love your portrait of your cute pup. i think you could make a lot of $ doing pet portraits. i had 2 portraits done by popartpet.com. they were around $125 each.
i also love the mcm house shaped shelves. adorable and very clever! i think you should start your own website for your art or definitely get that etsy shop going! thanks for the tour. Van
Thanks Vanessa!
The ball shaped flowers in the vases in the living room are called Craspedia or Billy Balls. The ones I have are dried from my wedding bouquet. I’d imagine you could get fresh ones at a flower shop and dry them yourself.
I do need to get my etsy shop going!
Love the tour! You have collected so many cool things
Thanks Jenn! I could say the same about your place!
your tour just keep getting better and better!! LOVE it all! and yes, def. add those shelves to your etsy shop….i’d be your best customer!
Aww thanks Sandi!