What you get with one more meter of dining room

Well, its official, we are going to add the extra meter to the dining room. I feel really good about the decision, even if we have to wait longer now. If we looked at out dining room every day and said "its too small," for the next 20 years, deciding against adding the meter would be a mistake. Adding the meter makes life, and the dining room, beautiful. Plus, it gives us walls in the dining room! We will be building a small wall between the kitchen and the dining room, which would make a beautiful space for either a wine tower, or my subway sign.
But, the far more exciting fact is the wall space that will open up in the corner between the two sliders. I now have space for a china cabinet!
I was disappointed earlier, because it would really be helpful for storage. Yes, I know that the kitchen is huge, but storing the china in the kitchen cabinets would not be such a great choice for china. Well, that and with such an awesome house, a china cabinet would just be nice :)
On Friday night, we received the new plans with the extra meter, and I found the perfect place for a china cabinet. So, I began the search for the perfect cabinet. I had 62 inches of wall space to work with. After a few hours during Without a Trace, I found a beautiful cabinet:

I really liked the clean lines and the space between the cabinet and the hutch. I thought it would make an excellent space for serving drinks, or even food, when we have guests.
Amazingly enough, it is another piece from Bassett Furniture. I tried Pottery Barn, but their cabinet was too wide, as was the buffet from Restoration Hardware that matches our dining table. I looked everywhere, but kept coming back to the cabinet and hutch in the above picture. So, I called our Bassett designer yesterday. We had a good conversation, and I was so impressed how much she remembered, and how involved she was in the design of the house. I decided on a the cabinet in white.
I got an email this morning from the deisgner. The cabinet will take 5 weeks because it is a custom design. Hmm, that is okay, but cutting it so close. Then she also suggested that their white is not a stark white, like the kitchen cabinets are, and may end up looking "dirty," if it is so closely visible with the kitchen. She suggested a java finish, and also suggested another china cabinet, that is acutally part of the same set as our dining chairs.

True, it doesn't have space for serving, but it does match the chairs, so I wouldn't be adding another wood. And, I love the drawers, I have been pining for a china cabinet with a silver drawer, and now, I have one! Plus, I figure that if we desperately need a serving area when we entertain, I can always pull in a small table into the room. And of course, the best about this cabinet is that it will be delivered in two weeks! No worrying about meeting deadlines in order to make it in time for the container. So, I ordered cabinet #2. I am very excited!

Coming together

Two weeks ago, we still only had a few pieces of furniture. Okay, we had a lot, but when I looked at that list of still needs, it was a little overwhelming.
With the purchase of the chair and rug for the living room, our living room is now, for the most part, complete.
Yesterday, I was on Bassett Furniture's website. They had dining room chairs on sale, for a fantastic price. The price brought them in line with the price of Pottery Barn's similar chairs. Joern liked these more because the seat is upholstered, but they were always so darn expensive!
I immediately emailed our designer at Bassett, and asked her to order the chairs for us. She wrote back explaining that there was an error, and that the price was actually $150 per chair more. Yikes. So, I copied the link from the website where it listed the sale price. Surprisingly, and to my disappointment, she replied to my link by saying, "Wow, I think there must be an error. I will email the internet order department, but she won't be in until Monday." Not what I expected at all- I expected her to say that they would honor the price. I was going to place the order then on the internet, with the much better price, but I was annoyed with the company as a whole- because they should have honored the internet price, as there has never been a discrepancy between their internet and store prices, and nowhere does it say on the internet that this sale is internet only. I was mad!
This morning, I woke up and checked my email. There was a mail from my designer, she printed out the page I had linked to her, and gave it to her store manager. He told her that they could honor the price! Wahoo!! AND, the store is picking up sales tax this weekend, so I got the chairs for a really excellent bargain!


I think that the upholstery on the chair is probably pretty basic, but I have already started looking at material, so I can reupholster the chairs.
A huge relief that I finally found dining chairs, and another check off the furniture list!

A general idea

After lots of work, here's a general idea of our great room (kitchen, dining room, and living room.)


The color swatch is Benjamin Revere Pewter, and I'm strongly leaning towards this color for the living room and dining room.

I have some laundry and bathroom cleaning to do, but at some point, I will get back to posting about going private too!

The living room is obviously bottom left. Couch and tables are from Bassett. The blue accent chair is Crate & Barrel Azure. Rug, which I'm not too sure about, is Pottery Barn Quinn Shag in clay.

Dining room, bottom right contains the Restoration Hardware Portman table, Pottery Barn Napoleon chairs, and Pottery Barn Malika Rug.

The kitchen cabinets will be white, Joern wants high gloss, while I prefer matte. The granite is Imperial White.