gray to green: dining room

After finishing up making improvements in the kitchen, I moved on to my next project: the dining room.

Despite my previous best efforts, the dining room still looked unfinished. After much perseverating, I decided that what was missing was a bit of height on the wall opposite our built-in. Although I love our cedar chest, it just wasn't the right piece of furniture to fill the space. I started scouring Craigslist. I ultimately decided on the Expedit bookcase from IKEA in black brown, my IKEA color. This might be the best piece that IKEA makes. It has infinite customizable options, and oh, so many uses. Luckily, these are a dime a dozen on Craigslist.

I ended up purchasing one for $90, and it came with two baskets. A 4X4 Expedit sells for $140 new, so this was a savings of over $50, with the baskets. I immediately posted my pick-up/delivery job to TaskRabbit, and as usual, easily found someone to complete the task. Part of what works so well with TaskRabbit is the accountability. Because both people posting tasks and people completing tasks are reviewed, there is follow through. I wish the same were true for Craigslist. The seller of the cabinet ended up forgetting to send along the baskets with my TaskRabbit. Thus, I did not get what I paid for. Sigh.

As soon as my TaskRabbit had left, I started moving in. I quickly realized to really get the effect I was going for, I needed the missing baskets. I ended up borrowing a car and making a trip to IKEA. Even though this was exactly what I was trying to avoid. As it turned out, I ended up with some baskets that I'm digging way more than the ones I would have ended up with had my Craigslist purchase gone exactly as planned.

And now, I have the dining room that I was imagining.

Kottebo Baskets

Kasset storage boxes

My goal is to keep the dining room as tidy and useful as it is in these photos, but Ryan and I own, and this is not an exaggeration, five bicycles. I should also add that I only own one of those bikes. Three of them hang in our laundry room, but the other two are our day-to-day commuter bikes. Since we use them so frequently, they need to be accessible. This means they live in the dining room.

Lately, I have been likening the bikes to the war on graffiti in New York City. Having graffiti around is just asking for more, and sometimes even less, desirable offenses. Our bikes are the same way. Having two bikes permanently parked in the dining room opens the door to other, and definitely more, heinous offenses. Mostly, leaving mail on the dining room table, and stacking cast offs for Goodwill in the corner. It can get out of control. My next project will be attractive bike storage. Preferably one where the bikes can be stacked in a corner.