Dining Room Reveal

As we mark two weeks as homeowners, people are starting to ask a lot of questions. Are we all settled in? Is everything unpacked? Are we done decorating? The answer to all these questions (for you inquisitive types) is hell no! We've only lived in the house for less than two weeks, people! I've barely unpacked all my bags from the Container Store, let alone all my earthly possessions.

But I get it, you all are eager to see some progress, and I've been slightly reclusive and extremely lazy these past two weeks.

So let's meet half way: I will show the only room that's even semi-decorated in exchange for you not judging the fact that it's also the only room in our house that doesn't currently have a stack of cardboard boxes and paint cans.

I've known for months that the dining room would be one of the highest priority rooms. Of course I'm eager to entertain some friends and family, but the real reason is because I couldn't take one more day eating at the coffee table. I originally planned to buy barstools for the island to tide us over until I had a chance to decorate the dining room properly. But, of course, the barstools I selected are backordered until mid-November and another month of TV dinners was too much to bare. So the dining rooom took a hop, skip, and a jump to the #1 spot on the to-do list.

I guess I was truly motivated because I managed to knock it out in about a week.

If you remember from the last tour, this is what our dining room looked like on closing day:

And this is what it looks like today:

This picture was taken at night, with flash (please forgive me!), but the color is actually a very nice greige. It is more accurate in the pictures below.

Keep in mind, the dining room is still far from done. We still need window treatments (blinds with curtains layered over them) and it's a blank slate seasonally, but it's presentable in the meantime.

We chose simple tufted linen chairs with nailhead trim from World Market. This is one of the few chairs that comes with the back and seat preassembled. They seem much sturdier than other self-assembled chairs, but they are about half the price of anything from PB, C&B or Ballard.

The floral rug is off white with versatile green leaves and touches of rusty red. Through the rug definitely has an autumnal feel, it will easily transition to Christmas/winter and can even complement spring and summer designs. Very important since I don't plan on swapping out the rugs regularly. I'm a one rug kind of gal. Plus, it will be the only large piece that's not exclusively neutrals and I know I need to include some color.

The table was a tough decision; our space is only 12'x12' meaning the largest table it can accommodate is roughly 72". I'm a huge fan of the farmhouse table trend, but almost all farmhouse tables are 84", a full foot over our maximum. My other concern is that those have been in style for a little bit now, and the trend may be nearing its end. That makes me a little bit hesitant to commit on a piece of furniture I hope to have for the next ten years.

The table that we ended up with, the Carroll table from West Elm, seems to toe the line between farmhouse and another one of my favorite trends, rustic industrialism. The table features large, solid legs and a planked top.

Important note, the top only looks planked; there are no nooks and crannies for crumbs to fall into. I had never even imagined that could be a problem until almost every review for every table I liked said they had to vacuum the crevices. No thank you. I've got enough to vacuum with all the blond tumbleweeds around here (I call them Boonebleweeds).

I also love that the wood shows several tones in the grain. No worries about having to match nearby woods because everything goes. The table seems relevant for the current farmhouse/industrial trends, but isn't so style-specific that we'd need to redecorate to keep up with the trends. Accessories will be enough to change up the space.

Speaking of accessories, those panels on the wall are basically interwined pieces of wood finished in an oil-rubbed bronze. I plan on pinning decorations onto the panels with the changing of the seasons. Picture garlands or snowflakes for Christmas or pinwheels in summer. Seems like a great way to bring some seasonal spirit up above table level... I guess we will see soon enough.

And if any one is wondering if I'm worried about having off-white, linen chairs and an off-white, looped rug considering the housemates we keep, I'm slightly terrified.