On to the Dining Room!

It looks like a spaghetti bomb has gone off in my kitchen, so I need a short and sweet room today - and since the dining room needed disinfecting after my children got through with it at lunch anyway, I decided that today was the day for its feature.

We eat all our meals in here and I really love having a formal dining room - especially just off the kitchen.  It has a nice feeling to me - especially because we have it furnished with a dining room set my grandparents handed down to us.  It's the same table where my mom remembers eating, coloring and doing art projects as a little girl - and I just love that my girls are growing up around the same table.  

There is something so fundamental about family meals - something Scott and I never had as a couple-before-kids, because most of our dining was done in the living room in front of the news.  Or standing in the kitchen.  So much of our life was on the run then.

But after Elizabeth was born and was able to eat finger foods, we found ourselves gravitating around a table because it was easier with her in a high chair.  Scott began blessing our meals and it really became a way of life for us - so much so that now, the girls automatically link their hands together and both chorus a strong "Amen!" after his.  I swear, my heart overflows.

So you can see why this room is sentimental for me, even though we've been living here a couple months.

Susie (my MIL) and I found the new, awesome chandelier on sale at Lowes and I could have died when it was only $35.  It's a slight improvement on the old one, don't you think?  

I want to do all the curtain rods on the lower level in wrought iron to match it - plus I think that will go with the style of the house.  Well, and I just love Tiffany...even faux Tiffany...  The pictures on the wall are old ones of our families.  I have a handful more to frame, but I'm pretty anal about the frames matching - so they are waiting for my next trip to Michaels sans-little children.  (I have no idea why I don't want to take my offspring shopping for breakable things...silly, silly, silly...)

We're also looking for a matching buffet to go on this wall under the chair rail to hold the rest of the china we have still boxed in the garage (also from my grandparents).

I can hardly believe this china hutch is full - but again, we've been handed down so many antique crystal and sets...I was thankful to be able to pull some of these things out of boxes and give them a home. 

Of course, we won't need the wire rack once we find a buffet, but for now, I use these things so often, there's really no other place to store them.

 

Are we ready for a dinner party or what??  I love that everything is a mismatch between Scott's and my families.  Other things are wedding gifts that have been packed until now.  And then of course, you have the mug that my best friend Amanda and I painted (see far left top shelf) when we were visiting sometime after college and I love it because I still remember how much fun we had at that pottery shop and we just seemed so young then and ready for the next chapter of our lives.  It's filled with seashells from the beach trip when Scott proposed and his dried boutonniere from our wedding.  So what may look out of place, has a pretty high spot on my list.  

We have crown molding in almost all the downstairs rooms, which I didn't realize made such a difference until we had it.  It just puts such a nice touch on everything.  I don't like the carpeting in the dining room, but like I said yesterday...we're hoping to eventually hardwood the entire downstairs eventually, so it isn't a huge deal.

 

So there you have it folks...that's where we eat!  Still no curtains in there, as you can see.  I was thinking purple...suggestions?