Ta Da--the Dining Room at Sassy Seagull!

Last week's blog post was about how we turned the "dive" of an old front porch at Sassy Seagull into a dining room. It was so long that I decided to save the "after" photos for another post.

So without further delay, please enjoy....

The table was gifted to us by Meghan (my daughter) and her husband Tom. The aqua metal chairs are from Overstock. Since I saved everywhere else in the room, the capiz shell chandelier was a little bit of a splurge--even with the 30% off sale online at Neiman Marcus--but chandeliers add a lot of bling and I thought it was well worth it. 

From Dive to Dining Room!

I gave you a little peek at the dining room in the Sassy Seagull in my last post. 

It started out as a front porch that was eventually enclosed. When we purchased the cottage it looked like this...

It was a long room--21.5 feet long by 9 feet wide. The former occupants used the space for a dining area/office/overflow sleeping. There was a single door--the former front door--that lead into the living room.

We decided to divided this space into two rooms--a dining space and a laundry/utility room.  We also decided to remove the door and open the wall up with a wide cased opening to the living room. Once we had a plan it was time to get started!

We opened up the wall between the living and dining rooms. And the floor was opened up to check out an uneven area.

Then (sad face emoji) we found termite damage to the porch foundation. It had to be rebuilt  so this happened...

When the porch/dining room/laundry room was rebuilt we raised the roof line a bit to give us a higher ceiling. We had found wood beneath the linoleum and it was able to be reused. 

Next came insulation, larger windows...

...and paneling for the walls that matched the rest of the house.

The floors were refinished and the walls were painted. Voila! 

Ready for a pretty chandelier and furniture! I'll save that for the next post. Y'all come back!

Sassy Surfboard Coffee Table!

I found a fun little piece of furniture for the Sassy Seagull one day when I was killing time waiting to pick up a granddaughter from her skating party. I was bumming around a nearby store and came across this mid-century modern coffee table.

With its long oval top it reminded me of a surfboard and I thought it might be a fun piece if we painted it.

  I'm not the most talented when it comes to drawing but I found an idea on Pinterest that I liked and thought would be doable.

I was thrilled when my husband decided to take on the project of painting and striping the table....

I wish I had taken pictures of the entire process but I didn't think to do it in time. Henry sanded the table all over and then he used a tack cloth to clean it up. The paint contained a built-in primer. However I decided after he put the first coat on that I preferred the background to be white--so he repeated the process and painted two coats of white semi-gloss paint. (Such a patient man--thanks honey!)

Once the paint dried for 24 hours Henry used FrogTape for delicate surfaces--the yellow one--to mark off the stripes. Once he measured and was satisfied that the lines were exactly where he wanted, he painted the stripes with blue. We used a sample pot of Behr P460-1u called "Morning Sky" for the stripes.

Behr P460-1u   "Morning Sky"

Last step was a topcoat of glossy clear coat that is intended for use on painted surfaces. We felt it would make it look like a shiny surfboard and add durability to the

top of the table.

Here it is!

Good job Henry!

Come On In!

The Sassy Seagull is ready for guests!

Come on in friends! 

As you step inside the front door the first room is the living room...

I thought it would be interesting to show you the room from different angles 1) before we touched it, 2) then after we worked on it, and then finally 3) after we furnished it. Okay? 
Here we go...

Before...

Next...

We stripped, sanded, stained and sealed the floors, added a built-in bookshelf, new fan, and put some tile around the fireplace opening. And by "we" I mean Catskill Builders, our contracting company at Tybee Island, who carried out my husband and my ideas.


Now...

I still need to style the bookshelf but it will have to wait until there are no guests staying in the cottage.  I'm thinking some books, a large basket to hold games, etc.

And again, Before

Next...

 Now...

And one last angle...Before

The previous owner added a new front door (the one on the left that we are currently using as the front door) when they enclosed their front porch. They also kept their original front door (the one on the right in the above picture) that was their passage door to their enclosed porch. Whew! Is that clear?

We decided to remove the door on the right and open the wall up a bit to give the room more light and to help it relate better to the living room as seen next...

And finally...

Just a few more pretties...

How do you like the "surfboard coffee table"? I'll have to show you its transformation in another blog post. Come on down to Tybee and we'll have a visit!