Dining Room Dressing

Remember way back in July when I finished painting this room? It has been sitting un-dressed for several months now. The dining room serves mostly as my craft room. We don't really eat in there, so I can leave all of my projects in their various states for days/weeks. The room was really starting to get me down. The walls were getting more and more "meh." My bro's lady said that she still likes it and thinks it just needs some accessorizing. Window dressings are a start. I want a buffet, but I have to find one that I can refinish for cheap. I have no desire to spend $500+ on a sideboard. Curtains and wall art will suffice for now.

Chalkboard paint on canvas. It's nice. When I get tired of the quote, I can change it.

On the Rails

Anyone who has been over to our house has noticed what we affectionately call "The Cliff." It's the four foot drop from the kitchen to the den. When we moved in there was a rail there, but we removed it to put in the new fridge. The rail was in TERRIBLE shape. I'm not even sure we needed tools to take it down.

I finally got around to putting in a new rail. I'm am quite pleased with the results.

"The Cliff" Before

 
Remnants of the old railing. It's not even installed on a level surface. It's also painted orangeish.

The first thing I had to do was set the newel post. There were two options for setting it to the floor. One involved a 12" spike that is supposed to attach to the supports underneath. Because of the strange outcropping and bumped up floor this wasn't going to work. Instead I bracketed the post to the floor and used a special molding to cover up the hardware.

Then I set all of the balusters into the floor using dowel screws. I measured, drilled, and then twisted them into the floor.

By far the most difficult part involved the half-newel, the one that attaches to the wall. Because the post had to be attached to the rail as well as the wall we had some finagling to do. While I did most of this project myself, I needed Jeremy for this part. To bolt the rail to the post Jeremy held the rail with a death grip and I used the socket wrench to screw it on. After wrestling with it for a while we finally got it attached. Then I was able to attach the post to the wall, which was FAR easier. After that setting the rail in place and bolting it to the freestanding newel went fast.

Check out the finished product!

Also, Mama's new socket set...

Organization

I made a list today of all the projects I want done in hopes that I'd find something to get working on. All of them seemed like big undertakings, so I started small instead--especially since I wasn't getting any help from my housemates

I cleaned up my "craft closet" so I could actually walk into it. It's not actually all craft stuff, but "craft and other stuff closet" isn't as alliterative.

Before:

After:

While it's no Ikea closet, at least I touch the back wall now and access all of my stuff without frustration. Hopefully you'll be seeing some more posting on here as the winter progresses. I'm getting a little stir crazy already...