As of about two months ago, our dining room finally looks like a place where you could possibly enjoy a nice meal! Of course, we still haven't actually had a meal in there yet, but it's nice to know we could if we wanted to. :)
Let's back up about 18 months to when we first moved into the house. We sold our kitchen table from our last house and plopped our old dining table down in the kitchen of our new house. That meant we no longer had a dining table to go along with our large china cabinet. So for months our dining room consisted of just the china cabinet and a couple of leftover chairs that we didn't have a place for. (These pictures were taken before we had the hardwood floors refinished.) (I just looked through the pictures from that old post and man, our house has come a long way since then!)
Like I said, the room sat like that for months. It had grey walls, a chocolate brown ceiling that I love and that ties into the walls of the adjoining kitchen, and that hideous shell chandelier. And some of those boxes may still not be unpacked, but at least they're up in the attic now!
Shortly after we moved in, I found a table that I immediately fell in love with. Like, capital L love. But I didn't buy it because A) it was expensive and B) it didn't come with chairs and C) we were focusing our energy (read: money) in the living room instead. About a year later, though, the table was still for sale and I could get a deep discount on it if I bought the floor model with the so-small-no-one-would-ever-notice-it imperfection on it. Um, yes please. Mama likes a good deal. :)
With the table purchased, I felt motivated enough to start pulling this room together! I usually don't drag my feet so long on things like that, but the table was ordered in early September and we didn't get it to its current state until this past February. Life just kept getting in the way, I guess.
Also, I painted the room twice. After picking out a rug and fabric for curtains, I decided the existing grey walls wouldn't work and that green might be nice. I wish I had a picture of the first shade of green I painted. It was like a green screen that the weatherman stands in front of to give his report. Way too limey and way too bright! My mom took pity on me and helped me repaint it in January.
With the new table that I capital L love, a new light fixture that is WAY better than the seashell monstrosity, the freshly painted chairs, and some homemade chunky floating shelves, the room now looks like this. Still not complete, but much further along than before! (Crappy photos, sorry.)
I love the way the fixer-upper chairs turned out and look with the table. We have seven of them so one end of the table remains empty right now. The plan is to find a pair of affordable chairs - upholstered? wicker? - to use at the heads of the table and then that 7th chair would just be extra for when we're feeding a crowd.
The bar is something I found at Pottery Barn Outlet a while back; it was a deal I just couldn't say no to. :) So far our sweet toddler has only thrown down and smashed one martini glass, despite our repeated "no touch!" warnings. We made the floating shelves one afternoon in the woodshop. I didn't take any in-progress photos or I'd type out a quick tutorial for you. They were super easy though! When I took the photo below in February, I had to borrow a few pitchers from my mom. Now I've upped my collection size thanks to some birthday gifts so they've since been rearranged.
The table top shows all kinds of pretty wood grain in shades of brown and grey and even some red.
Even with all this progress, there's still lots left to do. I'd like to get a sidebar of some kind for the big empty wall and then there are lots of places that could use some artwork. In time, I suppose!
Our dining room opens up into our front entry hall (the first four pics were all taken from standing in the entry hall if that helps give you a reference?) and while we still haven't really done anything to it yet (we're painting it tonight though!), I did get one new project up on the wall. I copied off several friends and had all of our Christmas cards framed to display. I dug out all the ones we've sent since we've been married (5 Christmases) and then, since I wanted a fuller display, also found all the ones my Mom has sent since we're pictured in them too. All ten cards got a white mat and a coordinating silver frame. I can't wait to add to this gallery as the years go by!
I'm glad to finally have this Dining Room update post done so that I can move on and show you the progress we're making in the new nursery. Things are coming along nicely in there and I hope to have some progress pics for you soon!