Ikea's Nordmyra Chairs

We just did a big switch-a-roo of dining chairs!  Yes, I loved our Bertoias but they aren't really comfortable for kids.  Gemma (5 months) will be sitting at the dining table in the next two months.  Annika (4.5 years) is ready to sit in a regular dining chair. So in the near future we'll be playing musical chairs. The Bertoias are a bit painful to get into for a child Annika's age. Kids use their knees as leverage to get into a chair and the wire hurts. Since Annika is letting go of her Stokke and passing it onto Gemma I want her to be comfortable in her new chair.  I was on the lookout for an inexpensive alternative.

Ikea in Burbank had a sale on the Nordmyra chairs, $19.99 from $39.99!  I thought they were perfect! Inexpensive, flat surface, clean lines, and they reminded me of something I had seen in Remodelista.

I set time aside the first day they went on sale and drove across the valley to pick up 6.  Burbank was sold out and wasn't getting more but Carson had them. The following day I drove to Carson.  When I went to pay it totaled $180 instead of $120! Turns out Ikea has different prices at different locations and they won't honor another location's price.  A lesson learned and good to know. Next time I'll be calling ahead to verify price and stock.  I felt it was so sneaky of Ikea to list a chair on sale at a location that had none.  Well, at least they were $29.99. The price of all 6 chairs is half the price of just one of the chairs I really want.    

We all love the chairs.  Annika can get into it no problem. It's a little harder for her to get out of it, but I like that.  It's making her sit still longer at dinner. If you've eaten with kids you know how hard it is to have a child just sit and eat without getting up all the time.  My only complaint was the noise they make on the tile floor. I ended up gluing felt to the feet to quiet them down a bit.  We'll see how long they last.

These chairs will hold us over for a while.  Before spending $350 on a chair I'd like to get to the years when I won't have to worry about artistic designs magically flying off the paper and onto the furniture.

We still have the Bertoias. It was always intended for them to eventually go outside. I'd like to  create a seating area that looks like this picture below. I love the hard, modern lines of the chairs mixed with the more organic, softer wood table. And I'd love to have an official dining area outside.  We do live in Southern California afterall!

picture via coco+kelley

Can You Spare a Strip?

When I laid out the Flor tiles in the entry way, I had to cut 2.5" off each one so the runner would fit properly.  I ended up with 10 strips of carpet. I decided to join them all together to make an entry matt for the sliding door in the dining room that leads to the backyard.    It ties both entry doors together surprisingly well. Because this is in strips instead of squares it matches without being too matchy. 

What do you think?

What do you guys think about these chair pads? I know they're not the the bikinis, which traditionally belong on these chairs.  However, I've always  thought those pads were too thin.  I got a lot of weight resting on my hiney so I'd like some good cushion for our long, leisurely lunches and dinners.  Plus, the bikinis start at $69 per pad!  These were $6 a pad. That should give you an idea of where I got them.  Yep, Target. 

I've been looking for a cool looking pad for a while now.  When we were in Palm Springs three years ago, we stayed at the Parker Hotel. They had these cushions on their Bertoias and I really liked them.  

So, I've been looking for something similar.  Last week I was zooming through Target when I spotted these cushions. For $6, I at least had to try them.  Dave wasn't gung ho until I mentioned the price.  And to be honest, I normally think that's not a good reason to buy something. You should like it all the same if it was $1 or $100 or else you end up with a house full of $1 junk.  However, I like them and because they were so inexpensive I won't freak out if we spill red wine or blueberries on them....very feasible with a 3-year old.  

So do you all like them or has my money saving brain totally ruined my designer eye? 

Happy Birthday D!

To anyone considering doing a chalk board wall in their house here is something to consider:  once you write on it, it will never be completely black again.  It's not like a regular chalkboard where you can wipe it down and it's completely clean.  There will always be residue.


Our wall has grown on me. I loved it at first and then hated it once it was written on.  Today I loved it.  It was D's birthday.  He didn't ask for anything. We're fighting hard to get out of debt and I know he preferred peace of mind over another charge on the cards.  The only things he asked for was a pizza and chocolate-peanut butter cupcakes....which just fyi, our neighbor's 6 year old just asked for the same thing for her birthday.  Charming and funny.  


As I shopped around for a cheap way to make his birthday special I realized I could skip on the birthday banner and write "happy birthday" on our chalk board wall.  I did a little bit of a tiki themed font.  D loves tiki. I do not. He wants large tiki heads in our backyard. Someone please explain to him how this is not right unless you have a Hawaiian villa.  A little birthday tiki theme is my way of compromising.


My other creative feat of the day was his cake.  Our 2.5 year old daughter would not let me make him cupcakes. She said it had to be a birthday cake so I made a chocolate-peanut butter cake. Once I got home I realized I sort of forgot a cake topper.  Again, trying not to spend money which is why I "kind of" forgot. Instead I traced and cutout a bicycle icon on cardstock.  I placed the card bicycle on the cake and dusted cocoa powder on top.  I took off the bike stencil and taaada!!! My husband is a cycling fan.  Tour de France is next month and he's gearing up by watching a race in Switzerland right now.  

D, happy birthday!  As I told you today; I feel you were made for me so today I feel special and lucky.  When I look at our daughter I know it was all meant to be and I'm glad we are still together for her, for me, for you.  I love our house. Thank you for finding it and working for us to grow in it. 


xoxo   
-a.

I see a white wall and I want to paint it black

D went to Dallas on Tuesday for work.  I wanted to do something major to surprise him when he got back.  To be honest, when he's gone I feel I have a bit more leeway to experiment.  Both of us are full of opinions.  With him away I only have to deal with my own.  

 We've talked about painting the dining room wall with chalk board paint many times.  We discussed several options from doing the entire wall to painting wide stripes or one big section across the middle.  Neither one of us has had the guts to do it.  I think getting the dresser and hanging the dining room lamp gave me the courage to jump in and paint the entire wall.  

Lately, I've also been feeling that our house is too white.  It needed something bold to tie in the "childish colors"  of the kid toys and accents and the mellow "adult" brown hues.  I think it worked well.  It made the chairs and hanging lamp pop.  The table looks much better as well...in my opinion. 

D loved it.  I knew he was going to be tired at the end of a long day...aka crabby. So to avoid too much shock at the wrong time I sent him a picture when I was half way done at about 2pm.  He thought I was playing a practical joke on him. He thought I had photoshopped the black in until he took a very close look at the picture and saw the blue tape around the edges.  

It was no practical joke. I had managed to paint a wall black while juggling a 2 year old!!! P was actually incredibly good. She helped me paint for 5 seconds and then realized painting in the real world is a lot of work and Mom is full of opinions about technique.   

Dining Room Lighting

From the day we first set foot in this house my husband and I have hated the sconces that came with the place.  It was item number one to change on our list.  The kitchen light got replaced because my dad did it.  The rest have stayed the same for fear of touching anything electrical.  


Yesterday Hubby took the Pea to Travel Town in the afternoon and I decided to get brave.  I finally changed the dining room light fixture!  It was pretty easy to do. The fear in my head was larger than the task by far.  


The hanging lamp is the Ikea 365 Brasa.  It will do for now.  Inexpensive, but more our style.  My dream dining room lamp is the Artichoke pendant by Louis Poulsen.   I saw them in wood in Houston's Restaurant in Pasadena and they look beautiful!  However, priced at anywhere from $3,500 - $14,000 I don't think I'm going to ever have an original or a repo.  Only if I got as lucky as I did yesterday with the dresser could I have one.   

The Ikea lamp makes me happy.  I love that the light now falls on the table. When we eat I don't have to turn on any other light in the living room or kitchen.  The one above is perfect. The big struggle was figuring out where to hang it.  Hanging it from the beams wouldn't make it center to the table. Hanging it from the other part of the ceiling would require setting in a cross beam that in my opinion would look ugly.  I compromised. It's off center from this angle but not from the perspective of the living room.  I'm ok with that.