Dining Room Planning

Chatting with a work friend over email today, I realized that my daily shifting of how I feel about this new house adventure in pretty in line with when we bought our first house. One day I'm so excited about how I'm going to decorate a specific room that I can't think about anything else... and the very next I am convinced we should walk away and find a house that doesn't have any issues or setbacks. I suppose if that's the way I feel, we should stop buying foreclosures, huh? Regardless, right this very minute I am excited about the potential this house has, so I'm using the positive attitude to my advantage and dreaming about the dining room.

At our old house, the dining room was used more than any other space. It's where we gathered when we had friends over, it's where we ate dinner when we actually managed to both be home in time to cook, it's where we planned and crafted nearly our entire wedding (we dubbed it Wedding Central at the time). It's where we found out some of our best friends were engaged, it's where we played left-right-center year after year on New Years Eve. And, it's where we signed the paperwork to officially sell that house. Our dining room table has seen a lot of love, and while I'm planning to replace the current set with something new, the memories that come from gathering around the table meal after meal will remain. 

Here's some basic thoughts for the dining room - 

I'm 110% planning on getting (or making?!?) a big reclaimed wood farmhouse-style table for the new house. I absolutely love the idea of something that will look better over time as it inevitably gets dings and scratches (and crayon and crumbs from kiddos down the road) all over it, and I get all warm and fuzzy thinking about friends and their kids squeezing in on a long bench on one side of the table for a birthday party or a holiday. Pinterest is bursting with tutorials to make these tables, so this is a project I can't wait to tackle. 

I'm also more and more drawn to oriental rugs lately, which is a shift from my usual style. I appreciate that something like this is a bit more traditional, and like the idea of something that like the table, will look better over time as it fades and flattens from foot traffic. 

I've loved the West Elm capiz orb pendants since they were introduced, and think two in different sizes clustered together over the table would be a little different and look perfect. 

And oh, the wallpaper. Talk about obsessed. Honestly, I can't even believe I'm allowing myself to think about using this, since it's uber-expensive at $125 a roll, but hear me out!... 

We're fairly certain the dining room was actually a bedroom at some point, as there's a big wide closet with sliding doors on one wall. Knowing that we won't have our beautiful built-in hutch from our previous house that we used for EVERYTHING, I'm planning to remove the doors from the closet and turn it into somewhat of a built-in myself. The bottom half will have cabinets and a countertop of some sort which will automatically gain us a flat surface for a couple of decorative items and a place to set out appetizers or drinks during a party. Above will be simple wall-to-wall white shelves for glassware and the like. And behind those shelves... this gorgeous wallpaper, designed by one of my all-time favorite bloggers, Oh Joy! for Hygge & West. SO, since I essentially only need to actually wallpaper half of a closet, and it will be there as long as we own this house... I'm thinking I can justify this purchase as a birthday present for myself this summer (hint hint, hubs)... right?! I have no doubts it would be stunning.

Add in a couple of big prints or a gallery wall opposite the closet, my fabulous bar cart that I cannot wait to get back out of storage and a bunch of friends, and I'm certain our new dining room will be as loved as the last!