Dining room turned library, finally!

Hello my friends and happy weekend! Hope you have a fun (or just relaxing!) one planned.

We’ve made a big stride in finally transforming the dining room to a library space that I’ve talked about for awhile now. It’s only taken a couple years. ;) Hello…it’s ME.

More than two years ago I got a wild idea to get rid of our dining room and make it into a more useful space for us. We were starting with a very dark, dramatic room:

Keep in mind this was kind of in between – I was painting the chairs and we had just gotten new floors that reeeeeally made the room feel extra dark. The carpet we had in there before helped to lighten it up.

Thing is, we used this room maybe twice a year for meals. That’s it. Otherwise it was fun to dress up for blog posts, but we never ever used it. I can’t stand that – honestly, the thought of not using space in our home makes me twitchy. I’m not one for “fancy” rooms either – most of our spaces are pretty laid back.

Soooo…I started on the process of building the bookcases to transform this space into a “library.” My Dad and I worked on them for months and they made a dramatic difference to this room. Then for awhile we had our old round kitchen table in the space just to fill it. My husband used it as his office in the summer months so he wasn’t down in the basement. (Lately he’s been in the kitchen – I think we need some windows in the basement!)

Speaking of an office – many of you suggested still using a large table in this room so it could be a desk and a dining room when we needed it. I considered that for awhile, but we always came back to the chairs. We don’t need another big table and we’re not the neatest people. :) I really didn’t want papers and the computer to be the first thing people saw when they walked in to our house either. I think it would be lovely for people that are good about keeping surfaces cleaned off but we’re so not those people. ;)

I have been looking for years for chairs for this space! Our plan all along was always to add four chairs in a circle as a conversational area. But four chairs are expensive – no matter how good of a deal. So I looked and searched and scoured Craigslist and couldn't find anything I loved. I found plenty that looked great online but I just can’t pull the trigger on ordering furniture I’ll sit in online. I have to be able to test it out.

My husband had two requests – they had to have arms and they had to be comfy. I finally found something that worked when I was in World Market a month or so ago and stumbled across the Abbott chairs -- they are super, super cozy: 

The bonus is they were on sale down from $300 to $250. Then I got another 25 percent off of that, and then I had a coupon. So I got each $300 chair for about $170 – score!! WAY better than the $300-$400 I was finding online. They only had two in stock so I got those and then did a rain check for the other two.

But when I got the two home I quite loved how they looked by themselves:

It felt nice and open and welcoming…I was worried four would be too tight.

A couple weeks later two more came in so I stuffed them into my SUV and then put them out with these…and it was waaaaaaay too much for the room. My husband loved it and I always try to go with whatever he likes when he has a strong opinion, but it just wasn’t going to work.

These are large chairs but even smaller ones would have been too busy. And they are crazy comfortable – I can curl up in them and still have room, I love that. More than anything we wanted them to be a spot where people would actually SIT.

I lived with the four for a few days, trying to convince myself that they worked, but alas -- they did not. I wasn’t sad about spending half as much, that’s for sure!:

One thing in particular that I noticed with the four chairs is that when you came in our front door you saw the back of a chair…it felt all wrong. And if this room was about four to five feet wider it would have been lovely, but I love how welcoming this feels.

So we took the two back and it immediately felt right again. Ahhhh. ;) It’s a perfect mix – cozy and still open. Awhile back I put a lamp on the shelf for my husband while he worked. It adds nice low light for when we sit in here in the evenings:

Of course the bookcase lights on a dimmer are awesome too!:

A few months back I added this dresser that used to sit in my office to an awkward little spot in the room:

It’s in between the library (I think I can officially call it that now!) and the living room. There was supposed to be a small wall there but I asked the builder not to put it in and I’m so glad! I love this little spot now.

So here’s a look back at what the room looked like a few years ago:

I loved it (mostly) at the time, don’t get me wrong. But I love it so so SO much more now:

Big transformation, yes? I’m so thrilled that we have a spot to sit in here now. And yes, the living room is right next to it but I’ve known all along we’d use another comfy spot. This is more intimate and just adds another area for us to relax or sit and talk.

The ottoman is one I’ve had for year from Meijer and I plan to build a bigger fabric ottoman on wheels to go in it’s place. We also really need a small table between the two chairs. I have my heart set on one of those tree stump kind of tables but they are expensive! I found on at West Elm that is perfect but it’s $200. Uhhh…NO.

So I’ll keep looking till I find one that’s the right price and look. We LOVE this space though!! For the first time ever we actually spend time in here! I sit out there most mornings and eat my breakfast. The kiddo and his best buddy end up sitting there and just talking…I freakin’ love it. And of course, the animals are curled up on one of them every single day.

The great thing about the two chairs is when we host big parties and I need this space for serving, I can just push the chairs around to the living room or by the windows and we’ll have plenty of space. It’s going to work really well I think. My sister pointed out (when I had her come to validate my thoughts on the four being too much) that with two more chairs that would be hard to do.

Getting rid of the dining room isn’t for everyone I’m sure. But it’s going to work well for our family and I’m really excited how the space has transformed! Do you use your dining space or do you use it for something different? So many builders aren’t even including them in their plans now, isn’t that interesting? I wonder if the formal dining room will be a rare find in the future.

Library bookcases done. Boom!

Remember that one time, back in January, when I had that idea to transform our dining room into a library? And then, back in March, when we started the process of building bookcases for the new library?

Yeah, it was eight months ago, so I don’t blame you if you can’t remember. ;) Well, they are finally done!!!! And I’m thrilled!!

I have worked  my butt off over the past few days to get them done. Seriously, my butt should be a third of it’s size.

There was so much to do to finish up, I didn’t realize how long it would take. There was a TON of painting – I had done one coat of primer on the bottom cabinets before, but then I dropped a can of blue paint that splattered all over them (fun times) and I got a recommendation to use an oil-based primer instead anyway (more on that later). So, I reprimed the cabinets and taped off the baseboards and cabinet trim with my Frogtape:

I did one more coat of primer and two coats of semi gloss white paint.

I primed the cabinet doors and then sprayed them with the semi gloss two times:

The finish is impeccable! I’ll show you more of that process soon too!

I used a TON caulk. It was insane. I used this trick I saw on a DIY show. Or maybe it was a blog? Pinterest? Who knows anymore!:

And found an awesome tool that helped this process immensely that I’ll show you soon too!

I installed the crown molding in the room and caulked the top and bottom of that:

I originally picked out hardware that was a nickel finish, but I realized after I got the lights in that I wanted the hardware to match it, so I went back to Home Depot and picked these out:

I love their clean lines – they say “library” to me:

I installed some lattice wood on the side of the cabinets just to add a little detail:

And THEN I could really start decorating the shelves! I’ve had most of them (mostly) done for awhile now, it was those taller shelves on the bottom that were hard:

Sometimes accessorizing is the easiest thing and everything just falls into places nicely. Sometimes it takes FOREVER to get it right. These took for.ev.er:

I’ll share more detail on all of the accessories soon, but for now, let’s just enjoy the final result shall we?:

The dog likes it too. I swear I don’t stage him like that – our animals are just obsessed with being in each photo. I had just shooed the cats out of the shot. ;)

I know I say this a lot, but they turned out EXACTLY how they looked in my head. I really don’t think I could be happier:

I love how the shelf spacing turned out – we made the bottom one bigger because we had to deal with the light switch and thermostat. We have a ton of bigger books that I wanted to have room for on the bottom, but I ended up laying them all flat anyway. ;) At first I was a little nervous about the bigger bottom shelf but I really like how it came together.

By the way, we asked two heating and cooling guys about the thermostat – I thought we’d have to move it. They both said it’s fine as is, which was a nice surprise. I’m even more surprised that they don’t bother me much. I hardly notice them.

We have a column in the room that prevents a good straight shot of these, so here’s a couple that show more detail of the bookcases:

 

I didn’t want to lose much floor space in the room, so we used upper cabinets for the bases – they’re only 12 inches deep. It worked perfectly – I didn’t want the shelves to be any deeper than that:

The cabinets were just the unfinished kind you can find at most big box hardware stores. Even at 12 inches deep they hold a TON! I’ll show you that soon too! ;)

Obviously it took me waaaay longer than I thought it would to build these. I’ve never done something this large. Dad helped me a TON by coming by a day or two a month to help me create them -- but I otherwise it was (mostly) me. We had help on one part – adding the trim to the front of the shelves.

Now I can’t wait to get moving on the rest of the room! Most of it won’t be too bad – I’ve had a new light sitting in the garage for months (this one is too ornate for what I’m going for in here – it’s moving elsewhere). The drapes won’t be too hard (just have to find the perfect fabric!). I’ve already got a coffee table that will go in the middle of the room that will get a redo.

The chairs are going to be the biggie – finding four, super comfy, pretty, affordable chairs will be interesting. :) My plan is to put the coffee table and four chairs in the middle of the room for another comfy spot to sit:

We never ever, I mean, never used the dining room. Ever. I do think a dining room table would look lovely in front of the built ins, but I just don’t want to go back to a space that we don’t use. For now, the chairs are the plan!

Since I’m obsessed with before and afters, let’s take a look at the room earlier this year:

This was a result of my dark and dramatic phase. ;) I really did love this room, but when I painted it chocolate brown the floor was light carpet. The addition of the hardwoods made it feel like a cave.

I’m so thrilled to have a much brighter, useful room now!:

And for all that is good, I am SO GLAD this part is done!!! :)

Can I get a WHOOOOO??

Thanks so much for coming along on this ride with me – and thanks for your patience. I hope you love them and are inspired!

For more on this project, check out these links:

We started out with adding toe kicks to the cabinets and fitting them in place here.
I pulled down all the trim in the room, had the lights and outlets wired (we had help on that too) here.
I installed and primed the cabs, painted the walls (twice, ugh!) here.
I showed you how we built the bookcases (frame and shelves) here.
The trim was added and shelves beefed up here.
And finally, the library light drama was covered here.

Whew!! MAJOR props to my Dad for all the help, and my hubby and son for being patient with me for the past few days so I could get ‘er done!

Now I’m off to create a new Halloween costume for a cute little boy. The ninja now wants to be the Headless Horseman and I’m determined to make it happen. And then…I’m taking a nap. For a few days. ;)