Dining Room- Before & After!

Here are pictures of the finished dining room, and a comparison of when it was the old kitchen!







Cooking in here is already becoming a distant memory (thank goodness!)

View from the kitchen doorway- looking through to the parlor

I put plates up on the top.  It's going to be a lot of fun to switch them out for the different seasons.

Currently, I put up the "Colonial Heritage Series" which was a collection by Ridgewood Fine China Company, sponsored by the Early American Society.

The images are paintings of well know colonial houses.  My dad had bought them for my mom on their tenth wedding anniversary.

The second set is a fish set placed above the buffet.

I love the way the green pops agains the brown wall, and the way the brown comes out in the fish!  These my mom & dad gave us.  They are marked with Carrollton Pottery Company on the back- which was in business from 1903-1930.  There are also the little bone dishes to go with them! They are so different, I just love them!

Some Little Additions

Between Christmas gifts & shopping the sales, We've added some new items around the house.

First up is the long awaited fireplace tools. 

We broke these babies out the day we got them home!

And they have a friend to keep them company,

Meet Mr. Mitten Drier --->

He has been on my wish list for a long time too!

Here he is doing his job---> 

Now to the dining room, for an addition to my platter addiction collection. I didn't have a deviled egg platter, and after making a new crab filled deviled egg last Easter I decided to be "on the lookout" for one. Found it for just $2!

And upstairs... My Purple Plan is coming together for the future master suite.

We received this wall plaque as a gift.  It's perfect for the purple bathroom.

These silver & purple woven boxes are going to be great for storage in the walk-in closet.


And this purple vase will replace the pine cone vase once spring rolls around!

We also added some outside items- I just have to get out and take some photos.

This cold weather is too much- luckily it's supposed to warm up this weekend, so I hope to have more to share early next week.

The State of the Dining Room

Here's a secret-
I have a weakness for serving platters... I can't get enough of them! 
So having them at my fingertips and ready to use, gives me a crazy sense of happiness.

This being the case, the Dining Room was the first room we unpacked upon moving in!  (Well, that plus the fact that there were more boxes labelled "Dining Room" than any other room in the house... so it was a good place to start.)
The walls are a light yellow/cream color, which I thought we'd paint right away.  But upon further inspection, was in good shape, so we decided to live with it for now. 

Our dining room set fit perfectly, and even allowed for the addition of the piece of furniture that was given to us as a wedding gift by Mike's parents.            --->

<--- The antique love seat sort of got stuck in here, mostly out of a lack of energy to get it up to the attic... what's the point, when we'll (hopefully soon) be ready to move it back down once the kitchen renovation is complete and this room becomes the living room! 

  



 I had actually been considering waiting  to show the dining room/living room  areas until after the room shuffle we'll do with the kitchen renovation, but since that will likely be next spring, we'll consider these the "before" pictures.

So, here's to hoping that the next post about this room can be titled "The State of the Formal Living Room"

Mom gave me this one.

Here's a few of my favorites...

This one was a wedding shower gift.

Newest in the collection-
for our Asian-themed dinners!

Found at a yardsale!

This one is very small, but so sweet!