kitchen table thoughts

so i've been wanting to refinish my kitchen table and chairs for a while.  but not sure what to do, it's just stayed in its ugly current state. (see here for it's ugliness)

i've recently decided to refinish the table and get new chairs.  i'm going to stain the table a weathered gray.  like this:

refinishing just a table seems so much more manageable and should happen in this decade.  and now... i need some help choosing new chairs.  

some fake eames chair.  (overstock.com)

lucite chairs (overstock.com) - is lucite too too trendy?  

another lucite chair (ikea) will ikea chairs fall apart in 2 months? 

simple modern white chair (ikea)  again, will i like an ikea option? although these look pretty solid and not much to fall apart on this. 

orange tabouret chairs (overstock.com) - the outlier.  i like these a lot.  will i regret buying orange chairs in a year?  hmm, the million dollar question i guess.

ps - i know it's fashionable to mix styles of chairs. but that's just not me.  mixing the table and chair style is as far as i can go, having all different chairs would give me heart palpitations :) 

powder room - progress

powder room is navy blue with pink accents now.  just needs a pink curtain now :)

playroom mood board

so when we last saw the playroom (dining room) on the blog, it looked like this:

we did get the kitchen cabinet doors out of there awhile ago.  and the painting supplies... but the purple walls are still there, those curtains and light fixture are still there too.

and there are approximately ten tons of toys in here now.  not to be confused with the ten tons of toys in the basement, bedrooms, family room, and garage. yikes

so the plan is to somehow make this room more functional, and a place that the kids actually want to play in (because right now, they grab toys from this room, and then take them to play in the kitchen or family room).

the china cabinet is staying, we currently use it as a pantry off the kitchen.  and i plan to keep it blue.  the current paint on the walls, curtains, and light fixture need to go.  and some storage, play stations and a comfy rug are needed.  this is the direction i'm headed (see mood board below).  i've already purchased the rug.  and we own the expedit. next to corral all the toys, paint the walls (white i think?), replace the light fixture, hang up some art (ahem, find some fun inexpensive art, perhaps just using the kiddos artwork?).  so you all should see the 'finished' room in about...  4 years. i kid (i hope)  

curtains: target

light fixture: ikea

teepee: etsy

expedit: ikea

easel: ikea

basket: target

rug: joss & main

powder room opnions

ok, so i've been missing awhile and not posted any progress of how the house looks, huh.

well, we've gotten the house pretty much unpacked, and i'm currently working in the downstairs powder room and the playroom (formerly a dining room in it's last life).

i need an opinion on the powder room.  as i discussed in a previous post,  i wanted to paint it pink.  i didn't push the issue too much when hubby requested a non-pink room.  so the other night around 930pm, i decided to tape off the room and started painting.  dark blue.  kind of like pink, right?

i used sherwin williams rainstorm.  this is the same color that ended up in the kitchen.  (and i had some leftover.  although in hindsight, it doesn't seem like i have enough to do 2 (needed) coats in the bathroom, so now i have to buy more before i can finish the room.  another 1/2 finished project, yay!)

i think it looks even darker in person...

so i still want some pink in the powder room (and not just the pink floor tiles).  remember i'm hanging this art:

i need a curtain and some hand towels, and that's where i'm thinking to bring the pink in.  i'm going to buy a faux roman shade in some kind of pattern... so here's where i need opinions.  my top choices are these:  

what do you think ?