Dining Room Furniture

Like the rest of the house, the dining room has been looking a little awkward since we moved in. This is what it looked like on moving day. Big sparkly chandelier, bright white walls, very little furniture.

The starting point.

Of all rooms in the house, I was most eager to fix up the dining room. Eating food is a major priority for both of us, and we wanted somewhere nice to do it. I think the days of eating on the living room couch are (or should be) numbered. We were hoping for something like this mood board below- traditional and formal, but cozy and comfortable. Ideally somewhere we could host a lot of great dinner parties.

1. New Bronze Chandelier
2. New Comfy Dining Chairs
3. New Buffet to hold the China
4. New Dining Table
5. Dark Gray, Cozy Wall Color
6. Our existing Copper Art
7. New rug with orange and brown tones

The first step was to paint the walls a nice, cozy grey color which I did in our first month in the house. It helped with the coziness, but somehow brought extra attention to the absurdity of the table (which is smaller than the chandelier).

 ittybitty table under megachandelier

This table has been with me since my first apartment - purchased specifically because it could fit in my car. It worked pretty well at our old condo, but in the new house, it looks absurd. For a few dinner parties, we brought down another spare table, which sort of worked but also looked ridiculous.

Double table trying to look cool.

So, when Dad offered to get us a new one for our wedding gift- we were both really excited. Having a real table that could actually fit more than 2 people was huge. We also really wanted a table that would stay with us for years, and not just be some crappy material that would quickly fall apart. We hunted around for a while and found E Custom Finishes, a company in Massachusetts that makes tables by hand from reclaimed wood.

We needed chairs to go with the table, and wanted something comfortable to sit in for a while. We picked these from Pottery Barn, and picked the parchment color so they would be a bit darker and stand up to some inevitable stainage.

Meanwhile, Mom offered to get us another good piece of furniture as her wedding gift, so we opted for a buffet to hold all of our new china. We found this one at Ethan Allen to replace the small bookcase we're currently using.

Bookcase overflowing with cookbooks, china, table linens and "misc".

After waiting patiently for the past few months - everything has finally arrived! The buffet arrived first, and was super easy.

New Buffet holds china and table linens easily

I'm just excited to have something to decorate. 

The chairs arrived next. One was damaged, but PB had great customer service, so it was easy to get a new one sent out and have the damaged one picked up. [Sidenote, even though we ordered fabric samples, the chairs seem lighter than we expected. We really weren't hoping for white furniture that now needs to be super protected and kept far from food.]

The table was a total headache. The company that built it was fine, but they subcontracted out to another company for delivery, and they turned out to be a disaster. Even with "white glove" service, they wouldn't call to schedule a delivery. It took me calling every day to leave messages that were never returned, complaining to the original table maker, and threatening them before we finally got our table.

Now everything is finally here, and it looks great. The room is super duper more functional, and we've started actually eating in here.  

with extensions-- should fit 10

without extensions- easy 6.

from the side- check out those sweet trestle legs. 

 Bring it on, Thanksgiving!

We're not done with this room yet, but it's come a long way. 

Dining Room To Do List:
Paint Walls
Get new Table and Chairs
Get a Buffet
Hang Curtains
New Rug
Replace Chandelier
Install Recessed Lights
Turn window into a door to the porch

Open wall into kitchen