Seller's Remorse and the Ugly Duckling or ... A Storage Solution for a Working Dining Room

At the beginning of summer I switched a few things around in my living room. It took a while to get things right and part of what was hindering me was a very large corner armoire. I blogged about it here and shared how I finally decided that the armoire just had to go.

THE ROOM BEFORE

The armoire was  purchased when we first remodeled our house twelve years ago as a place to put our TV in. You know, the kind of TV that is like a huge box. As it turned out, we never did put the TV there and it ended up being a storage closet for all my extra "stuff". It kept me from doing a lot of things I wanted to do to the room because of the color (a distressed green) and because of its size. I worked around it for years!

The day that I finally decided that maybe I should just get rid of it and stop decorating around it was monumental. Taking it out was like a breath of fresh air but a little scary because I was getting rid of a very large storage area (not to mention a daunting task emptying it of all the things I had stuffed in there). 

THE ROOM AFTER

It felt great taking it out ... but then the problem arose ... what to do with it. It needed a new home but finding someone with a large empty corner was not as easy as I thought. I finally found a home for it (thanks sis!), and although it is not a "perfect" fit ... it works.

But first it needed a new coat of paint.

Clients always want to know what the name of a paint color is ... I think it is kind of silly. I mean, what if you love the color but just hate the name ... so sometimes I think that just using numbers makes more sense ... but then there are other times when I think I would love to have the job naming all the colors - I mean seriously, how much fun would that be? 

So when I was choosing the colors for the "ugly duckling" armoire, I think I may have been a little swayed by the names ...

The outside is Tropical Waterfall and the inside is Quack Quack (both Dunn Edwards). Are you smiling? The inside will not really show unless it is opened but I thought it would be fun to have a little surprise inside. Quack Quack!

A fresh coat of paint has turned this "ugly duckling" into something beautiful! And it looks so nice with  it's new colors that it makes me wonder if maybe I should have kept it ...

Actually, I am just kidding - I love it so much better in its new home and thrilled that it will be put to good use. It will serve as a much needed storage "closet" in a dining room that doubles as a workspace for scrapbooking and other crafty projects. My sister can now spread out on her large dining room table and when she needs to clean up, everything can be stashed out of sight.  (Note: The photograph shows the walls much greener than in reality - it really does look nice in person). 

TRANETORP DINING TABLE - IKEA

The dining room table / workspace is actually two of these pushed together. They make a large square and they also have leaves that can extend the tables even larger. 

It was an inexpensive solution for a dining room that also doubles as a workspace. 

Hope your week is going well... I'm off to look for a new chandelier for this room - one that is lighter and brighter!