Pepper Design Blog

Kitchen Additions: Breakfast Nook, Part 6 – Finished!

The new artwork is up! The tufted bench is finished! And the breakfast nook has a table and chair(s)!

It’s really wonderful to have this empty area of the kitchen finished and ready to go. Now walking into the kitchen space feels pretty complete, minus just a few additional updates (such as adding molding to the end of each side of the kitchen island and replacing the white door to the far left which you can see in below photos).

The space before:

And with all of the updates:

Which include new bench seats and cushions (a duo pair so we can move the seats around the kitchen, like we did when we moved them to the end of the island), a DIY tufted bench backing (revealed here, but here’s a link to the tutorial), new Craigslist table and thrift store chair and an over-sized chalkboard to cover up an ugly plywood repair (that we are waiting to fix this summer). Here’s a link to the calendar art that I DIYed last year that’s just to the right of the nook, I love that the art and fabric work so well together.

More to come on building that giant chalkboard, but because it was assembled from two pre made frames, it wasn’t a horrible task. I might use it for notes to share with the family, or maybe a few beautiful sepia photos on white mats to keep it a bit more organized. I attempted three layers of magnetic paint under the chalkboard, but alas it didn’t work out and a magnet won’t stick even if its life depended on it (and I threatened).

Prior to the chalkboard, I had attempted a faux window curtain, some sort of cool fabric art and a few other ideas… but the chalkboard ended up looking the best.

Here’s the other side of the kitchen for full perspective:

Have an awesome weekend and see you back here Monday for the full tufted tutorial post.

PS More on the breakfast nook transformation here: part 1, the inspiration, part 2, the bench, part 3, the cushions!, part 4, the ugly wall design dilemma, part 5, revealing the tufted bench

Kitchen Addition: Breakfast Nook, Part 5 – A Tufted Bench

Sorry for the lull around here! We’ve all been fighting off terrible colds and crossing our fingers that the flu doesn’t arrive at our doorstep – but it feels as though it might. We’ve all been a bit down lately.

I did get an awesome project finished before the horrible sniffles and headaches hit though, and I can’t wait to share with you. AND found a great Craigslist breakfast nook table that fits the spot really well!

There she is! A newly tufted back to the breakfast nook bench seat. It makes a world of a difference.

Previously the space felt bare and the cushions weren’t substantial enough to make a big impact.

Now the bench feels a little more permanent (even though we assembled all of the pieces so that it can move about the kitchen, backing and all) and it really fills up the space well!

Love the detail and the deep tufts, more on DIYing this project very soon.

But that’s not the only breakfast nook update… I found a Craigslist table and a thrift store chair to match:

Initially I was on the hunt for a table in a contrasting color – perhaps something dark or something that I could paint a bold ‘pop’ of color. But finding a table that was neither too small, too big or too expensive was a challenge. So when this bad boy came up in my Craigslist search, I jumped on the chance to check it out. Turns out it matches the cabinetry almost perfectly and is just the right size.

I’ve played with the idea of painting it because I’m not too crazy matching sets (see how the table looks like it almost belongs to the bench seats?), but it’s in such great shape that that decision can sit on the back burner for a little while.

I also played a bit with making my own table – that is, hunting down a neat pedestal and then getting a little creative with the top. Ahh well, sometimes these things fall in your lap and you take ‘em and run!

The first chair I spotted for this table was actually a bentwood from a thrift store that salvages pieces from the local junk yard. It’s in pretty bad shape and I scored it for $1. Then I found this matching guy at a local furniture consignment shop for $19:

The $1 version needs some love before she’s allowed inside. But hopefully a pair of chairs is in this table’s immediate future.

And hopefully some artwork, too! Thank you, thank you for all of your excellent suggestions on how to temporarily cover up that plywood window we’re hiding until summer, and as you can tell from my photos I’m on to an idea… as oversized as it may be at the moment.

Still loving my new tufting! My favorite upholstery project to date.

This bench area is now a great spot to snuggle up in while reading the morning paper or to enjoy a quick bowl of oatmeal before the day starts. The thick, soft backing is just what this space needed.

Working on pulling all of the images together now for a little DIY post on how I made the stand alone bench back (it’s not connected to the actual benches) and finished the tufting.

More to come.

Hope your home is staying sick-free and keep us in your no-flu thoughts! We are all hanging on…

PS More on the breakfast nook transformation here: part 1, the inspiration, part 2, the bench, part 3, the cushions!, part 4, the ugly wall design dilemma

Also, a big thank you to iVillage for featuring the dipped play table legs project in Liv’s room in their 2013 trends to watch!

Kitchen Additions: New Breakfast Nook, Part 4 – Design Dilemma

I’ve been anxiously waiting to catch you all up on my breakfast nook project, but I’ve reached a bit of a design dilemma and I thought I’d share what’s going through my mind right now.

I’ve moved the bench seat from the edge of the island:

To this blank wall. We’ll call it the problem wall.

This particular wall used to be the dividing line between what was (way before us) a bedroom and an entry room (at least that’s our suspicion…). It had an unusually placed window just to the right of the side door that makes us wonder if a mudroom existed here before (and a slight buckling in the wall where there may have been another wall that jutted out of it?). The wall was gone before we moved in and a den was in its place.

During our kitchen transformation, this small little window broke and was quickly boarded up and left for a future project. The plan is to either A. replace it, B. use glass block to fill it in, or C. make it disappear altogether as a solid wall. The last is my vote, but Kevin is not 100% convinced on which he loves best. So it sits now as a piece of plywood in the kitchen. We finally painted it to match the walls (though it doesn’t blend much…) and avoid photographing it altogether . When we have guests over, sometimes I hang a piece of art right up over it.

The ultimate goal is to integrate that space back into the house, and even if we wait on the to-close-or-not-to-close decision for a while, I’d like to come up with a solution to hide the eye sore in the interim.

I had this space in mind too for the kitchen breakfast nook and I thought it might work well if the end of counter idea (see top pic) didn’t. And the bench? The perfect size!

Now just picture a round little table and two chairs in front of it.

I love that the colors tie in so well with the artwork.

But back to that dilemma, because the plywood ‘pin board’ is a big eye sore.

I have a couple of ideas…

The first one that I imagined as perfect for the space was to find a cool old mirror and convert it into a chalkboard, like this:

How beautiful! Image from here.

But I searched and searched and had the hardest time tracking down a large enough ornate mirror. See, to both cover up that plywood (temporarily, of course) and look somewhat natural on the wall, I needed a piece that is roughly 44″ tall and 40″ wide (big and tough to find).

Still on the hunt for an ornate mirror, but I suppose option two would be to hang a regular square chalkboard that might look something like this:

I could build my own or find a large frame and then turn it into a chalkboard.

Image sources for all of these ideas can be found over on my kitchen Pinterest board (Pinterest is where I was lucky enough to track most of them down!)

If I build my own frame… perhaps a chunky reclaimed wood look?

Love the look of wood and chalkboard… though gold is high up there as well!

And I’d have to make it magnetic, just like Christina did:

Part of me is secretly wondering though if a command station so front and center as you walk into the kitchen is the right idea? Do I want lists and ticket stubs and reminders so evidently visible? Could I keep this space visually clean?

That wall above is just to the left of the island below. I’m standing in front of it while snapping this picture:

If I could and was willing to make that promise to myself, why not a cool fabric pinboard?

Picture this coral in a square frame and Liv’s art hung up in a semi-organized fashion:

Or perhaps I nix the command station idea and hang just a stunning piece of framed fabric (from a vintage scarf, tablecloth, remnant piece…):

Maybe a framed picture? Painting? Map? What would not look out of place in a kitchen/dining space? See how difficult I’ve let this one become?

 PS You can find all of the kitchen renovation stories here.