Evolution of a Dining Room

Well, last weekend’s closet “makeover” was a quickie. We were in and out of that one in a matter of hours. This next project has been a long time coming. I spend at least a couple of hours each week envisioning how I could improve the appearance of our living space… whether it be new linens for the master bedroom, a clean rug for the bathroom, or just a re-arrangement of furniture to freshen things up.

The dining room table we used since we got married was one DH has had since college, a great Kmart pick-up by my wonderful MiL (aka mother-in-law; and “DH” is for dear husband, for those who don’t know). It’s worked pretty well for the past several years, but I’ve been yearning to fill the dining space we acquired ever since moving into a new apartment in 2009. Here is what it looked like for pretty much the first 1 1/2 years of living here…

Around the beginning of this summer, I decided it was time to spruce things up a bit, even if we could make major changes (like painting). I did put some paint samples on the wall for a couple weeks, but DH was adamantly against it (even though he wouldn’t be the one painting). But there were certainly other things I could do…. shifting the furniture and a few great purchases made all the difference.

The rug, from World Market, was a steal coming in at $35! The other new purchases include the two throw pillow on the chairs ($7 apiece), some fake apples (in the bowl on the green hutch), and a few other knick knacks. The mirror and candle-holders (un-hung in this photo) were pieces we already owned that were sitting around elsewhere. So the room sat like this for a little while… until today! We are regular World Market shoppers and during our closet-makeover shopping trip last weekend, we happened to stop in for a little look-see. There we saw a dining set that fit our various specifications (style, size, color, wood-grain, etc.) and was 50% off! Well, we didn’t buy it that day (you can never be too hasty about an investment like this), but we had been considering a new dining set for a while so it wasn’t a discussion we hadn’t had before. That being said, after a week of consideration…. we decided to go for it! And here are the lovely results:

DH was not so happy about getting this thing home from the store and assembled from the six very heavy boxes it came in, but it only took about 4 hours start to finish (with a lunch break in between) and I think the results are pretty perfect. It’s a set that will last us a lifetime, and I really think it fits our dining space well. It seats 6 (or even up to 8) in this setting, but it also came with extensions for each end that would seat up to 10! And did you notice that the hideous old hanging lighting is gone? I just wasn’t feeling the stained glass lanterns, so the building engineer was kind enough to replace those with a less obtrusive fixture.

So, all I have to say now is… dinner party at our house, anyone?