Virtual Home Tour: Dining Room

When we first purchased our house it took a while to fall in love with this room. It was barren. Worse, we spent the first 6 months sleeping in a tent in the yard because we couldn't breathe in the house. The kitchen and dining room were okay to be in, but they inevitably acquired an immense amount of junk in them while we renovated. Also the doors were very drafty and it was stifling in the summer, frigid in the winter.
This arrangement of the shelf, mirror, and glass changed my attitude toward the room.



The classic checked tile is a winning feature as are the vaulted ceilings. The cedar beams are also nice, and of course the stone is lovely. I replaced the puffy valances with clouds printed on them in favor of tailored linen, and the blue plastic blinds gave way to bamboo roll shades. Wherever possible I tried to replace "fake" things: plastic, crazy prints– with real materials like wood, stone, or natural fibers.



The front door is cedar too.



Okay. From the top. First I found the mirror at Goodwill. It was covered in stickers, but I saw potential, and I watered down some old yellow paint and slopped it on top of the blue.

Then I needed something to hang it on. Anthropologie had these lovely butterfly and sunflower brackets for way too much money. I got them for my birthday. Since then I have found places that sell them for about $2.00 apiece. I just refuse to think about it.

Then I needed something to put on top of the brackets as a shelf. I rifled around the lower barns and found this trough-type thing in terrible shape. I scrubbed and scrubbed it with vinegar and water and then after it dried coated it in restorative wax.

Then it all just sat there forever needing something on the shelf! (Will it never end?) And finally I tried a lot of things but ended up putting different shaped glass and crystal objects up there, plus shells in a hurricane lamp. The effect is so subtle I think no one will see it, but everyone comments on it so I guess they do! The rock wall is nearly impossible to mount things on, but has such a strong pattern of its own, it is like art.



So this is funny. When we first moved in that door led from the dining room into the bedroom, which is an odd connection, but you see that piece of art? behind it is a WINDOW into the bedroom! We sheet rocked both, Thank you very much!



This is what the door became. The immense thickness of the walls gave us room in the doorway to make a hall closet, which makes the whole room more suitable to be the entry hall cum dining room it is.