Turn a boring corner of your room into a gorgeous cafe style eating nook

It takes a while to figure out how to use different spaces in a house well. We’ve been in our new house for six months now, and we’ve only just worked out this corner of room that extends from the kitchen. (I suppose you’d call it a family room. It’s really the hangout, functional space where we cook, eat and get ready for the day.)

When we moved in, we started out using this area as a homework place, with two desks, a computer for kids and some bookshelves for school stuff. The formal dining table is in the next room, and we decided we’d eat mostly eat there. Both intentions didn’t work out. The kids prefer to do their homework in the lounge room, and it feels too hard to set the table nicely every night. We ended up eating our dinner on our laps most nights. And there was never anywhere easy to eat a quick breakfast.

Enter the idea of the breakfast nook/informal table area.

We started pursuing the idea of a bench seat set up against the wall. I have fond memories of built in table and benches from a holiday house as a kid. Both my husband and I like bench seats at a table; it feels more communal, somehow.Budget constraints meant we were limited by what was on offer on Gumtree and Facebook marketplace. After an intense search, we found a table with two matching benches. The owner said he’d deliver them—bonus— and the price was too good to miss out on. (The table will need to be sanded and varnished, but that’s a school holiday project for my (very) busy hubby.)

Then there was the need for better lighting. The room doesn’t get a lot of natural light, and the ceiling lights are a bit ordinary. We wanted to have some lighting directly over the table so that it could also be a work space if necessary. The problem is: it’s not our house, and we can’t just get an electrician in to put up new lights. We would have to create something that hung overhead… but which looked suitably cool and funky.

After multiple trips to IKEA and Bunnings we decided that the combination of an outdoor string of globes and greenery would be pretty awesome and give us a cafe vibe. (We chose lights for which the bulbs are replaceable. A little bit more expensive, but in the long run, it seems smarter.)

Then it was a case of how to put it together.

We used a light weight metal frame, hanging it from the ceiling using four steel hooks. Attached to the frame are two spotlights that my husband spotted in the lighting department of Bunnings and convinced me would be perfect. The string of globes is threaded through and around the frame. We cut up some small IKEA fake plants in different styles and threaded them through the frame so that the electrical plugs and wires are hidden from view. (Unfortunately I had to run a cord down the wall so that the lighting will turn on, but that’s just the way it has to be. If I was doing it again, I’d probably take it down the corner, but it’s up now, and I can’t be bothered changing it.)

There was still a lot of blank wall to cover. We found some picture frames for 70% off in the End of Financial Year sales and filled them with printouts of some artwork I had previously purchased in a bundle for another purpose. (Printouts were $10 from Officeworks.) My job was to measure and mark the wall so that the frames were hung evenly.

The space on the side needed a little extra something, so I found some t shirt yarn from a previous project and knotted a macrame plant hanger for two little IKEA fake plants that needed a spot. The same yarn turned into a crocheted plant pot cover for another fake plant. I’m currently crocheting a rope table runner that will add texture to the whole look.