Sometimes people see formal dining rooms as wasted space. But not me. I love a specific place to gather the people I love around the table. Friends and family, old and new, there's few things that bring me as much joy than putting together some plates of yummy food and sitting down together to share a meal.
Our new home has a beautiful dining room. It's simple, yet elegant. It fits our beloved table perfectly. I love the natural light that radiates in through the large windows in the morning. I also love that I feel just as comfortable serving off of paper plates as I do my Christmas china. Somehow this space has a way of fitting every occasion.
When we moved into our house, the walls of the dining room were lime green. Now, I'm all for an accent color, and truly it did match the previous owner's decor, but for our style and furniture, that just wasn't going to work. So we had three rooms painted before we moved in - the dining room, kitchen, and laundry room. I chose my most favorite paint color of all time, Sherwin Williams Repose Gray.
We kept the walls fairly bare, with only two pieces on the walls. First, we have our metal "GATHER" sign that we picked up from Magnolia Market when we went to Waco when Brighten was a week old. I fount the complimenting frame at Hobby Lobby for $10 and we had this displayed in our old dining room as well. We also hung our wedding shadow box, which contains my dried bouquet, a handkerchief that my mom also carried on her wedding day, and our wedding invitation that I designed. These two pieces are special to us, and I love that we don't have something on every wall. This is the type of room that I truly think that less is more.
Our farmhouse table is probably my favorite thing that we own. About five years ago we met Joshua at The Market at Pepper Place. We were newlyweds living in a small apartment with dreams of someday having a home to fill with friends and family around a beautiful table. Joshua had several of his pieces on display and we stopped to talk to him. He is the owner of UpCycle Birmingham, and he creates tables (and much more) from lumber that has come from houses that have been torn down in Birmingham. I got his card that day at Pepper Place and held on to it for the day when we'd have enough space for one of his creations.
About six months later, we were in the process of buying our Cresthill Cottage and I knew just who to call for our dining room table. Joshua invited us out to his warehouse and we got to pick the wood that we wanted for our piece. I knew better than to get too excited because this was all seeming very custom and custom usually means expensive. However, when we asked Joshua the price for our custom 6-foot dining room table, we were shocked at how affordable he was! In fact, he finished our table early and it was the only piece of furniture we had in that house for a few days before we moved in!! I'm so thankful that it fits so well in our new home too.
We did upgrade the dining room chairs when we moved to this new house. After realizing how often we have people over, I decided that we should upgrade our dining room seating to something upholstered (aka more comfortable). The only thing is, upholstered chairs are not cheap, and we have a toddler (expensive + toddler = stressed out mama). Thankfully, I found these chairs on Amazon and they were the perfect price point for comfort, style, and the reality of having children in our home!
A few other favorites from our dining room:
the natural light from the two large windows
the white wainscoting
the floor to ceiling curtains that were left by the previous owner
the recessed lighting in addition to the chandelier
