Finally, I figured out how I will furnish our new dining nook banquette area! I knew basically what would go here all along, obviously we’d need to have a table and chairs along with the banquette. But I wanted to wait until the renovation was (mostly) finished to just see how it felt to be in it before I decided which table and chairs I wanted.

Our built-in banquette is along the wall where our kitchen stove used to be, so now it is in the middle of our little main floor, right between the living room and the kitchen. We LOVE the new layout and all the built-in storage we were able to add to our home in this renovation. The dining room functions as part of kitchen, and the flexibility of the space works well for how we want to use our home. Plus, I love the built-in bookcases! It makes it feel so cozy!

Yesterday I rearranged our living room furniture (again) and I can’t wait to share what I landed on for the layout of that room. It finally feels right! Now we are just getting the dining banquette area set up, so I thought I would share our plans with you.

My general principle on furniture is always to use what I have whenever possible. We used our previous dining room table for over a decade (and it was in our family beach house before that!), I prefer to avoid spending big money on new furniture if I have something that works for us. We just painted our last table many times rather than spending money on something new.

When we moved here, we gave a lot of what we had to our kids. The table and chairs we had went to our oldest daughter, Kylee.

We bought our house with a table and chairs in it, so that helped ease our transition into this home. And now that we’ve remodeled, we could finally be in the new space and think about if what we had would work for us or not.

It was slow going to make any decisions because we had to pile furniture and boxes in our dining room several times now so they could paint various rooms! It is hard to visualize a room when it’s in chaos, so clearing a space out is really is the best first step.

Once the room was cleared of boxes, I was able to start thinking about what would work. I shared that we recently added a new rattan serving cart — that decision was easy to make. It is perfect! But with that first decision out of the way, I was excited to make others.

Here are a few things that helped us make decisions on our furniture:

1. We could see that the table we already have was ideal for our new room. The table is sturdy and has a leaf so it can be round or expanded to oval, which works in our layout. And the center support is preferred to four legs due to the banquette.

2. While it needs a refresh (paint or perhaps also a re-stain of the top), the need to give it a little update (even though I don’t like doing projects like that!) didn’t seem like a reason enough to buy another one. We might be slow at getting it done, but we can do it. 🙂

3. New tables can be expensive and finding a secondhand one seemed unnecessary since I already had one! While I saw some beautiful new and secondhand tables, finding a “more beautiful” table or a more trendy style (which I don’t care about ha!) wasn’t a real justifiable *need.*

4. I realized once we pulled chairs up to the table, it’s the style of chairs that would be more significant to the look of the room. So while we considered painting the chairs we had (and they would’ve been cute!), this area is such a prominent part of our main floor I got excited about the bigger vision and that involved other chairs.

New Slipcovered Chairs

With my vision for the space finally solidified, I knew the style of chairs I wanted.

I pictured two Parson’s chairs with slipcovers (again!). I had given my other slipcovered dining chairs to Kylee when we moved. While I’m sure she would have willingly given them back, I had a different color and pattern in mind this time so I was happy to let her keep the others and get what I wanted for this home.

I actually found the exact Parson’s frames I wanted secondhand on FB marketplace but sadly it was too late as they were already sold. While finding secondhand would’ve been wonderful, I was more than ready to just make a decision so we could move forward.

So, I took the plunge and ordered two new chairs along with two adorable blue striped slipcovers (Downey Blue fabric). AHHHH! So excited!

Unfortunately the striped slipcovers I ordered were not able to be shipped until just before Christmas, but I was willing to wait. However the chair frames were already delivered! Since we have very little room to store anything, rather than set them in the garage to wait or leave them at the table for a couple of months without slips, I had an idea! I discovered I could buy a second set of slipcovers (these) ON SALE that would ship immediately. They are going to be delivered TOMORROW! YIPEEEE!

Fall and Winter, Spring and Summer Slipcovers

I’ve ALWAYS loved having slipcovers, and I’ve dreamed about having more than one set I love so I could change out styles for the season. I don’t sew and slipcovers are expensive so the idea of more than one set seemed like a luxury, but my dream is coming true! Now I can have the black and white ticking as a fall / winter set and the blue striped as a spring / summer set :). Or vice versa, it really doesn’t matter. I could change them on a whim! I think I’ll love them both for any season and different reasons and occasions. Plus, with the sale set it meant I could have my chairs at the table ready to use this week!

Mix and Match Dining Chairs

Besides not having to buy a new table, I justified (to myself) the expense of my two new Parson’s chairs by not purchasing four! 🙂 Instead I found a deal on this set of rattan chairs.

I love the eclectic look of mix and match chairs. I found the rattan chairs online last week and much to my delight, the style and price was right! They were at a store right near Courtney’s new townhouse, so she was able to go look at them first to confirm they were what I wanted and she’s bringing them to me this week!

There are two final big decisions to make for this room:

One, we need new window treatments. Currently in this nook we’re using the woven shades we had in the living room. We love the look but we don’t have enough of these for the windows we want them on. In an open space, I think matching or a close match would be ideal. However for safety of babies and pets we want cordless so we’ll be starting over but with something similar.

The other final decision is on the upholstered bench seat cushion. Right now we just have a mix of a too small cushion and pillows to sit on. Originally I planned to order the cushion for that early on so it would be completed by now, but for many reasons I decided to wait on it. I’m glad I did because now I can coordinate the bench and pillows to our chair slipcovers.

Finding someone to make slipcovers locally has been one challenge (please let me know if you have recommendations for someone good!) plus the wait is usually really long any where I’ve checked. But, I’m trying not to be a big hurry! Pillows work fine for now but I also figured out another solution that I think will work even better in the meantime. I’ll share that soon. 🙂

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Wall paint colors: Beach Glass Benjamin Moore, and Classic Light Buff Sherwin Williams