My Steampunk Dining Room

Sorry for keeping you guys in suspense for so long! I'll post the curtain tutorial soon - for now, here are some shots of our still-evolving-but-mostly-done steampunk dining room.

First, a (badly) spliced together night shot of the whole room:

Our main area is all open, so the dining room only has these two walls. You can just see the hallway leading to my office on the right and the doorway into our back room on the left.

Here's the room with the curtains closed:

You can barely see the penny buttons from here.

We've had the table and chairs since our second year of marriage, although when we bought them (used) they were pickled oak with pink seats. Needless to say, they were refinished before ever entering the house. :)

The full "cabinet of wonders:"

Better view of the top half:

This entire top was made from scratch by John. The center starbursts were metal wall art pieces purchased at Old Time Pottery for $15 each. John hammered them flat, refinished them, and installed them into the doors. As you can see, we store our dusty alcohol bottles in there. :) No handles, because you can reach your fingers through the grate to pull the doors open.

John installed puck lights on a dimmer switch both on top of and below the cabinet. (The switch is hidden underneath.) The glass, silver, and mercury glass all twinkle very prettily at night.

Here's the bottom, which I posted earlier:

Close-up of one of the drawers:

The apothecary came with the handles and those awful silver screws; we added the label holders. (Notice how OUR screws match. Heh.) And yes, that reads "Iocaine Powder."

[Tip: the metal label holders are actually for scrapbooking, and cost less than $3 for a set of five right now at JoAnn's. They don't come with screws, though; we had to paint these to match.]

I also have labels of Mandrake, Lembas, Wolfsbane, and Felix Felicis, among others. (You score three geek points if you can ID all those.) The font is darn near illegible, but it looks fantastic printed on parchment paper. It's called "Schoon," and is free at most font sites. [UPDATE: the original 'Schooner Script' and other great handwriting fonts can be found here]

On the left side of the cabinet we have this:

Airship art!

I love the colors: lots of oranges, golds, and even a little fuchsia. I purchased the print from the artist on Deviantart, and we matted and framed it ourselves.

You can see a little bit of the frame better here:

There's a peak at our curtain tie-backs, too.

We just bought that bottle at Ross on Monday. It's hanging on a wreath stand I've had since Christmas. Don't you love bottle green?!? It's so vibrant. I hope to use more of it in the ray guns we're planning on making. We'll hang those on the other side of the window:

The artwork there now is a (reproduction) illuminated Haggadah I got in Israel as a teenager. We recently re-framed that, too, using burlap, a $12 frame, and a brass plaque from a trophy shop. [Tip: trophy shops are awesome. This engraved plaque was only $7.]

The clock is an antique my dad gave me, and it's sitting under the glass vase from this post. I recently added a round wooden plaque under it as a base, too, to make it look more like a display dome. I'm not wild about how it all looks, though, so it will probably be changed out for something better in the future.

Going back to the other side of the room...

Next to the apothecary cabinet is this stand:

Which may get a better paint job soon, along with wooden shelves over the wire ones.

The bottle is actually glass covered with leather, and was a $2 antique flea market find. I've had the gumball machine since college. This is its 3rd paint job: bronze and aged copper. The porcelain balls inside it are from TJ Maxx - although since everyone who sees them says, "Look! Lotto balls!" I now wish I'd purchased the alphabet ones instead of the numbers. Hah!


I already had the gold bottle, so I'm going with it for now for the seahorse dangle. Below that is the first thing John ever gave me: Agnes, the 15-pound gargoyle. She's solid cast iron! Under her is leather-bound "parchment" - a super fun project I made from an old textbook and leather belt. (I used the cover of the book to make a purse last year, so the paper was left over.) Tucked inside the leather strap is a wooden level that belonged to my great grandfather, who was a carpenter.

Oh, and there's also a Lord of the Rings sketch book under there. (Thanks, Tim!)

And that's the room!

Again, we're not completely finished: the biggest thing we've yet to tackle is the chandelier. These hanging paper lanterns don't clash too horribly, but I reeeeallly want something that uses Edison bulbs. Something simple, but more than just a hanging wire with the bulb. I am open to suggestions!

So far, I'm kind of partial to this design:

Candelaria Chandelier by Robert Abbey

Of course, when the bulbs alone cost over $150, and the chandelier is another $700-$950, that's a hefty incentive to DIY. (Not that we can fake the bulbs, of course.) I'll let you know what we come up with.

And lastly, I have to give a shout-out and huge "thank you!!" to The Steampunk Home for being such a great inspiration. It's the only blog of its kind that I know of, and I've spent many, many happy hours poring through every single post in the archives. If you've read this far, then you'll probably love it, too, so go check it out!