Excitement and clarity, but still work in progress

Well yesterday was new-table-Tuesday and I can't tell you how excited that made me!

We knew our new table was about due, but the call on Saturday afternoon to arrange delivery took us by surprise. By chance MOH was already planning to be at home yesterday so I added a task to his workload for the day - wait in for the new table!

It arrived within its timeslot and it wasn't long before it was assembled and I received this photo from MOH. 

PARTIALLY EXTENDED - IT EXTENDS A FURTHER 0.5M

PARTIALLY EXTENDED - IT EXTENDS A FURTHER 0.5M

As I said, it's still a work in progress. As while yesterday was new-table-Tuesday we're still waiting for a delivery date for our new chairs. They're due in the next couple of weeks so until then we'll be using the reproduction-style chairs because at least that way we can use our new table!

Already it's brought our dining area bang up-to-date (well if you ignore the chairs) and MOH who saw it in full daylight, said it's amazing how much lighter it is in that part of our house. Which is good as that's what we hoped would happen with a white glass table.

And I'm so impressed that he texted me a photo of it without prompting!  

Clearly my new table excitement was obvious.

SUNDAY IT LOOKED LIKE THIS...

SUNDAY IT LOOKED LIKE THIS...

THEN THE NIGHT BEFORE...

THEN THE NIGHT BEFORE...

Now I'm super-excited for the chairs to be here.

Pinpointing the issue with our study (aka my craft room)

We've made other progress too this week, quite unexpectedly as it turns out.  As we now have a "spare" pigeon shelf to find a home for - as we decided against hanging them both in the porch - clearly not really a problem as I quite quickly knew it would be ideal in my craft room, or the room MOH still calls the study.

It's a room in the eaves so only has two straight walls, and one of those is covered with bookcases. This means there's really only one wall it can go on which we measured and of course it fits. What MOH didn't know was that I was really measuring to see if I could fit a pinboard in alongside it, but I'll let him know that nearer the time. 

So with its final location agreed (well the wall, if not the actual placement) we needed to decide on the colour. I'm loathed to have another pot of paint to store, which we'll never use again but the eggshell colours we have didn't go with the cream walls. I've written before that I wasn't sure about the cream being the right colour, and now rather than ignore it I had to face it head on.

MOH agreed. But each of us knew there's quite a bit of painting ahead. So our plan is to decorate half of our top floor, replacing the cream colour with something from the cooler palette.  MOH is keen for a pale green that we used to have up there, and I'm tending to agree.

And you know what, with that decision has come clarity. And renewed vigour to get the study in particular sorted out as it's the place that is storing the things we're not quite sure what to do with.

A revised to do list

  1.  Finish painting the "spare" pigeon shelf to hang in the study

  2. Repaint the cream in the study and the top bedroom a cooler colour (including the built in floor to ceiling open shelving unit)

  3. Dejunk both of those rooms (probably before we start painting)

  4. Find new homes for our reproduction table, chairs, corner unit and sideboard so that we can reclaim the conservatory before we want to use the conservatory as it was intended.

  5. Finally hang the picture wall I've been planning in my head on the study wall.

Simple hey? There is, I fear much more to it than these five simple steps - I'll keep you posted...

Some shiny Alessi table accessories

On Sunday after enjoying a celebratory pint with MOH following his 10k run we took advantage of being in town and headed off to the Alessi flagship store for a spot of shopping. Well it would have been rude not to. 

You see, with a new table on the way we decided we wanted some new table accessories. Our new table is white glass, so we wanted something equally modern - but still practical - to show it off and after some pre-shopping internet browsing soon settled on something chrome. 

It's very likely - given our current behaviour - that we'll leave a couple of coasters on the table at all times, so we wanted some that we'd be proud to leave there. We left the Alessi store with these:

They were a bit of a bargain. They were only two in the shop and both were ex-display, so we were offered - and accepted - a discount on these.

That was handy as we hadn't finished selecting our purchases just yet.

We were also keen to buy some kind of centrepiece. We often have fruit on the table but wanted an upgrade to our Denby bowl that we currently use. There's nothing wrong with it, but a new table called for something else.

And while we wanted something practical - to put fruit in still - I didn't want another bowl to store somewhere when it wasn't in use. This Blow Up Basket (which doesn't blow up at all) was perfect for us. 

I haven't unpacked it yet, so you'll have to make do with a picture of the box!  With fruit in it's a fruit bowl. And without fruit it's a kind of modern art sculpture. Perfect.

And I finally got around to buying the trivet I've been lusting after since I saw it at the Christmas in July event I went to, erm last July.

It really is very clever as it'll fit any size dish - you just place the knobbly, jack-like pieces so they fit under your dish.

And yes, the man in the shop knew what I meant when I asked for the Jacks trivet - he had to explain it to his assistant after we left. In case you're struggling with the Jacks comparison, take a look here.

So a successful trip, and we managed to leave the shop without looking at the cutlery or buying one of their iconic juicers. Although for the latter it was a very close call...

 

I think MOH was expecting to also leave with some new place mats. And while I don't like to disappoint we already have two sets and really don't need another. I do have a plan though for giving one set a bit of a revamp. I think I should have enough time before the table and chairs arrive to put that plan into action.

Until then, I think I'm done with table-related shopping.

 

Can you hear MOH sigh with relief?

Home Etc

Dining chairs hunted down, and ordered!

Yes, so soon. Given our track record on deciding on our new dining room table, we've been positively speedy finding, agreeing on and ordering chairs to go with it. How quickly we agreed surprised us both - there's hope for us yet!

We knew that our current chairs - mahogany effect and very traditional - just wouldn't go with our new, sleek white glass table, and neither of us were keen to make do with them for longer than we needed to. So before we started to look at the installations from Lumiere London we headed over to the furniture shops on Tottenham Court Road to see what we could find.

To make things harder we weren't sure what we wanted either. No checklist or criteria this time. Well, almost. We knew we didn't want a high backed leather-style chair, but that was about it. We started in West Elm, well any chance for a look around. It was promising to see a wooden chair with a glass table, but we didn't think this would work so well with a white glass table.

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The metal and wood mix on the right above did make us think, but again not to go with the table we've ordered. Onto the next shop.

We stepped into Lom Bok and I was immediately drawn to the black chair below, the shape of which is a long term favourite. We liked the black and it ticked the box of going with the table, but I didn't like the seat cushion material. MOH, who's never really been a fan of this style of chair refused to like anything about them. I recognised this wasn't the time to fight for them, and I'll save those for another time somewhere down the line.

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The reclaimed teak chairs on the right above were lovely; they would have gone with our reclaimed teak unit (this one) so we wouldn't be introducing yet another wood into the room, but we decided they were too chunky for a glass table. They were very chunky and heavy and beautiful chairs, but not for us.

The next stop on our route was Dwell. Here we saw the replica Eames chairs, which we both liked. But we weren't sure as we thought we didn't want a solid backed chair. But they are gorgeous chairs so we had to take a look.

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MOH, who took on the role as chief comfort tester for the day gave them the ok, saying they were much comfier than he expected. They were much cheaper than the chairs we'd looked at so far, so that left us with a question about if they'd last. We ruled out the clear chair as while it is lovely, can you just imagine the fingerprints on it and the amount of cleaning it'd need to stay looking so good.

Yes exactly. 

So onto Heals, which I'm sure you'll recognise as a very dangerous shop. Usually we limit ourselves to the ground floor as there's only so much damage we can manage on one floor. As soon as we walked in though, look at what we saw:

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There was no escaping these Eames DSW chairs. We were both smitten.  And clearly it showed, as a rather keen young saleswoman took it upon herself to practice her sales technique. It was quite sweet really and we played along, getting the spiel and trying all sorts of chairs in the same style - including the one that looked like it was made from a shopping basket, which the king of comfort passed as ok, only for me to rule it out because it didn't come with the light maple legs. Sometimes you just have to use that veto!

We broke our rule and went up to the second floor, to see if the colours they stocked matched what we were after. Not that we knew what that was. So we spent some time with the samples, and a new salesman asking sensible questions like the height of the chairs, the lead times and such like. By the time we left we knew we would be buying the DSW Eames shaped chair. But in what colour, or colours?

My next job was to work on MOH and embed the idea of more than one colour chair to go around our table. We knew the sale ends on January 31 and there's really no better time to buy from Heals as when there's a sale on, is there. We left pondering colours - yes I got him to agree to two colours fairly easily, and where we would buy them from.

This last weekend we got to think about logistics. We knew our new table was 75cm high and we thought the chairs were 43cm high, however on the website it said they were 41cm - and it seems that 2cm can make quite a bit of difference. We weren't sure enough to order them online, or by phone so on Sunday (and full of cold) we headed back to the West End for some more pertinent questioning. 

We quickly learnt that the Vitra DSW Eames chairs now come in a new height of 43cm (so we weren't imagining that) because, well we're generally taller than we were in the 1950s and tables are now standardising at 75cm instead of 73cm or lower. Interesting hey? And yet another time when you'll become expert in a chosen subject, although to be fair chair and table heights is better than plumbing and kitchen unit placement!

With the height question resolved - which did involve me checking the showroom for a table that was 75cm high and persuading MOH to bring the nearest chair, from off the display so we could try it for size. Well, we needed to be sure!  Then it came to choosing colours. By now I'd mooted the idea of three separate colours and I think I'd got away with it. Although every time I asked MOH what colour he wanted, he insisted on saying Red. As I was keen on White and a Teal Blue (called Ocean) I wasn't so keen as to me, it was a bit Brit Pop.

So we settled in with the samples to work out which we'd go for.  And as you can see, the red was well and truly hidden!

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The salesmen I think knew MOH didn't have a strong hand with the red insistence, so scurried off to find us a coffee and then left us to it. And finally we made our decision: 2 x Mustard, 2 x Ocean and 2 x White (and no red in sight).  And if we're lucky they should be with us a week or so after the table.

Exciting times, but that waiting just got twice as bad!