Mid-century dining space for a cat

My dear readers, we're finally getting to the point where we're thinking about decorating projects in the house! I think we're settled in enough now (it'll be 4 months this week) that we can actually start to contemplate things like painting, curtains, and all the dozens of other little household projects around our 1955 ranch.

One issue that needs to be resolved in our kitchen is a place for our cat, Dinah, to eat. Her eating area has always been on the kitchen counter, both in the condo and now in our house. This drives me crazy. It's kind of gross, and also takes up a lot of counter space, but it's been necessary to keep it elevated away from our dog, Pia.

I've been searching and searching for ideas that could work and be vaguely mid-century or at the very least not horrible looking, and always coming up short. I thought a little vintage stool would work, something like kids use to step up to the sink, but they're just too small for food bowls and a cat butt.

{Source: frostline on Etsy}

It really needs to be something tall enough that Pia can't reach (so something like this is cute but not suitable), but big enough that Dinah can jump up on it and not knock over her dishes. I've been looking for months for ideas, and finally just decided I think I need to make my own! And if it's the right height, I may even be able to slide Pia's food dishes underneath it, for sort of a double decker pet dining area, which would mean we don't have to have two separate spaces devoted to that. That would be pretty nice as it's a small kitchen.

Here's my plan: decide what size table top I want. Cut a board to size, sand it, and attach hairpin legs of the appropriate height (I'm thinking at least 12" off the ground). Perhaps ordered from here, or I'll find a vintage set, like these:

{Source: CoMod on Etsy}

Then paint the top in a fun kitschy design and seal it. (More on that in a minute.)

So just where will this kitty dining area go? In the eat-in area of the kitchen. This may be one of your first real chances to see it as I'm not sure I've really photographed it before. Of course, this is completely without decoration so far.

And now an annotated version! You can see some of the plans we have for this space. What I didn't annotate below is to the right of the hutch on the wall will be a newly-acquired shelf for teacups and saucers (a new collection I've just started, squee!), and to the left on the wall will be a yet-to-be-acquired shelf for salt and pepper shakers.

You can see the cat dining area will be on the ground to the left of the hutch.

Do you like our ceiling fan? I hate that we need them but we desperately do since we get no cross-ventilation, so when my dad was visiting he replaced two of the ugly ones the house came with and added one in our bedroom. Yes, I'd rather look at an awesome mid-century chandelier, but I also want to be comfortable. :) I had to look at about 100 ceiling fans before finding this one, but in the end I think it's actually pretty nice above our dinette table. I think it helps that it has lighter blades than you usually see.

Oh wait, let's go on another tangent for a moment here... there's one more photo for you, which will definitely be the subject of discussion on the blog in the future. See our nice, light-colored baseboards and trim? (Though to clarify, what you're seeing as 'baseboards' on this wall is our crazy 50s baseboard diffuser for our heating system that no one else ever seems to have seen anywhere.) All the trim and baseboards are painted. That's right, that means it's wood... painted to look like wood.

(Don't mind the ugly dustbuster in the background, I need a less obtrusive place for it.)

We know some of the trim was painted white in the kitchen at some point in the past (they didn't bother to paint the baseboards behind the stove and fridge), and now it's painted to look like wood. I know, it's crazy! Stranger still, a few pieces of trim in the house are indeed stained wood in a similar tone, not painted. So I'm not sure if those are original or were replaced at some point in time.

It really is a conundrum for us. We're totally not going to strip all the trim in the entire house, but it definitely needs major touching up. And while I like it 'wood tone' I'm not sure I can in good conscious paint it... well, paint it tan-ish. Does anyone really do that (other than the previous homeowners)? So the discussion on whether or not to just paint it white will come up in the future (and of course will involve headaches like what to do about the back door, broom closet door and all the trim around the pocket door between the kitchen and hall). Stay tuned for more on that subject...

Anyway, back to the cat! I'm debating on what to paint on the top of the table. Overall, the kitchen colors will be aqua and red. The walls will be aqua, and eventually that part under the chair rail will feature a Bradbury and Bradbury wallpaper (though for the time being, it will probably be painted a darker shade of aqua than the upper walls... we may save the wallpaper for a year or so down the road when we do a bit of renovation and re-do our counter tops and the tile walls in the kitchen). There will be colorful cafe curtains on the big picture window, and lots of fun and colorful things on the walls.

Right now, I'm considering trying to reproduce something like one of the designs from vintage Dutch decals that I've been loving so much lately. I adore this girl in particular, although I know the table will be more of a rectangle shape, so it couldn't be this alone:

{Source: Tias listing, via Pinterest}

But then I've seen lots of great designs that have a mid-century vibe that are inspiring me, like this cat illustration I spied today on Pinterest via Ruth from No Pattern Required. (Incidentally, you should totally check out more of these on Orange You Lucky, her illustrations are fabulous!)

{Source: Orange You Lucky, via Pinterest}

I'm looking at works of mid-century illustrators I love like Mary Blair and Jim Flora, and finding new illustrators I'm enjoying like Jim Whittamore and Sol Linero. All to decorate a mid-century inspired dining area for our cat. Pretty funny!

I haven't bought the supplies yet for this project and need to think pretty seriously about the design, as it needs to be something simple enough that I can draw it onto the table in pencil and then paint it in, kind of like a paint-by-number, as I'm very detail-oriented but I'm not a natural painter.

What do you think? Crazy idea? Fun? Any suggestions to make the perfect mid-century dining space for Dinah? What would you do?

More sewing with pets

Okay, what are my pets trying to tell me this week?! First it was Pia and the muslin, now it's Dinah and the sewing machine.

Apparently she, too, is eager to find out how the collar will work out on my muslin (see previous post). I just sat down to work on it and suddenly there she was.

You can just get a little glimpse of one of my prized possessions in the background, which I hope to photograph in detail sometime when the sun comes back (I'm thinking that'll be about April). It's a vintage hutch that we got last Fall from one of my favorite antique malls in Chicago. In the meantime it'll have to remain a bit of a mystery, but you can just make out some of my collections... jadite plates, my snappy snail Enesco teapot, salt and pepper shakers and sugar bowl, my primrose Fire King and several pieces of green depression glass that I've inherited from my step-grandmother. (Can you inherit something when someone is still alive? That sounded awkward. She gave them to me. There, that's better!)

I can't wait until it's the season when it's daylight when I get home from work again. I sure hate never being able to take any decent photos! Okay, the Artic weather isn't so great, either...

uniform sewing

This afternoon, I sat down to make a muslin. I admit that I'm really not a big fan of doing them anymore than I'm a fan of knitting a gauge swatch. But like in knitting, I know when I need to do one and when I don't. This weekend I finished up my blenders blouse and I'm extremely happy with it. (I hope to get some photos next weekend when there's sun.) I'd do a few things different next time, but I know I'll be making the pattern again and again. In fact, it turned out the neckline was high enough that I can wear the shirt to work, so that was a nice bonus considering yesterday's rant.

I love the idea of having a few 'uniform' sewing patterns to make wardrobe staples, and got the idea from my friend Brandy. A pattern that I really like, that fits me well, that I know how to sew and that I can whip out different versions of to make each one unique. I definitely know the pattern I used for the blender blouse will be my first uniform pattern.

So I'm working on a muslin for a second basic blouse pattern. I admit I didn't make one for the blenders blouse. But this time I'm going to, partly because I think the pattern size I bought might end up being too big for me so I may need to do some alterations, and partly because I've never done gathers at the shoulder before so I need the practice. It's a Simplicity pattern with no date, but I'm guessing from the hairdos perhaps late 50s or early 60s. Just a classic style. Even better, another work-appropriate one if it turns out well. Once the muslin is complete, if I get it to a place where I'm satisfied, I plan on ordering up a bunch of fabric to make myself 'uniform' blouses for work.

Making muslins are kind of a drag. But today, what was my biggest obstacle?

That's right. That's my muslin fabric under her butt. This photo was taken the third time I had moved her and moved the muslin. She was too cute to move again, so I just worked around her. Fortunately the ironed part that I needed was up on the table above her. It really only proved problematic when she changed position and my fabric started to scoot its way down to the floor.

Welcome to my sewing in my house!