One of the things I love most about the One Room Challenge is that it gives me the motivation I need to start and finish a project in the short span of six weeks. I’ve participated in the ORC seven times before, and I’ve always managed to complete the makeover just in the nick of time without ever compromising on the design. In fact, participating in the ORC has always pushed me to go big and make bold design decisions, which exactly the way I like it.
Over the course of the last few weeks, I’ve found a dining table and chandelier that I love {and even managed to save a ton of money on both during sales}, and I’ve found a great solution for adding storage to the dining area on a budget.
Last week I shared my plans to transform our boring kitchen island by adding some bold tile, and I’ve narrowed it down to some great options for new pennant lights over the island.
And after weeks of searching, I finally found some dining chairs that are perfect for the space. I love the mid-century style, which complements the new chandelier and the small swivel chairs in front of our kitchen fireplace. The wood tone would be a nice, warm contrast to the white lacquer table, without being too much wood with our wood floors {since we don’t want to put a rug under the table}. The black metal details would tie in nicely with some of the other modern elements in the space, and the grey upholstery would be forgiving with kids. Best of all, the chairs are under $100 each.
Sounds perfect, right. Except for the fact that they appeared to be discontinued. Womp Womp!
So my search for dining chairs continued. For the last week I’ve looked at every modern dining chair on every corner of the internet. I narrowed it down to a few contenders, but none were as good as the dream chair. After grumbling about my bad luck to fall in love with chairs that had been discontinued, I decided to check directly with the manufacturer, and I heard the magic words “they should be back in stock in June.” Woohoo!!
But there’s a little problem. The ORC ends in early May. So do I want to stick to the deadline and successfully complete my 8th ORC, or do I want the chairs I really want for our kitchen? Obviously that’s a no brainer.
I’ve always said that I won’t ever do anything in our house just for the sake of the blog. And if I picked different chairs for in order to finish the One Room Challenge I’d be doing it for all the wrong reasons. I can’t justify spending a thousand dollars or more on chairs I only kind of want, when in another month I could have get the ones I want for a bargain.
And that’s why I’ve decided to slow my roll. I’d rather wait impatiently and do it right. I’ll still share the progress on our kitchen as we go, but since we’re no longer on the ORC timeline, we’ll be taking it a bit slower.
Here’s the dining room plan we’re working toward…
While I wait for the chairs to be back in stock, I’ll be continuing to shop for the perfect tile for the kitchen island project. If you missed last week’s post, be sure to pop over there really quickly to see the tile inspiration and tell me which you like best.
