We love food and spend A LOT of time around the kitchen table so I knew this space had to deliver.
I'm a work from home mom with two kids so if we're at home there is a high likelihood that we're at the kitchen table. Between three meals a day, multiple snacks and weekly craft projects, this space gets a lot of use.
Designing with Dining in Mind
“When we planned for this space I knew we needed a cozy area for daily family meals, but enough space to host our families and friends during the holidays.”
I debated endlessly about whether or not we needed a formal dining room. I even took the debate to Facebook and created a poll on my personal page. I asked friends and family how they felt about dining rooms - are the a must? Outdated? A necessity or a waste of space? The truth is that everyone's answers only made me overthink these questions more!
I grew up with a dining room that we used maybe three times a year. All of our big holiday gatherings were in that room and all of those memories made me long for my own dining room. But truthfully, I wasn't sure we needed it. Thinking about the cost, did I really want to pay X amount of money for a space we'd use two or three times a year at most? For us, I decided the answer was no. Instead what we needed was a sizable eating area off the kitchen and substantial space for bar stools.
Furniture
Being the youngest in each of our families, my husband and I are the king and queen of hand-me-down furniture. In our old house almost every item of furniture was a hand-me-down item or a piece leftover from my college apartments. Eventually, after months of saving, I bought a custom farmhouse table and matching bench which I LOVED. I was so proud of that table and loved how it brought some personality to our cookie cutter starter home. Unfortunately, the table was too small for our new home and was swallowed up by the space.
Because of the dimensions of the space I knew we needed an 84" or 96" table, but that 84" would be more comfortable if I wanted to have chairs at the heads of the table. We looked and looked but finally struck oil on a trip to Fort Worth.
Just north of Fort Worth is a Restoration Hardware Outlet, otherwise known as a high end furniture oasis! Imagine my sheer joy when we stumbled upon this table, wrapped in bubble wrap and in excellent condition (which is sometimes hard to find in an outlet store).
Now getting this table from Fort Worth to Stillwater was no easy feat, but luckily my in-laws selflishly agreed to load up this table on their trailor and deliver it to our house on move-in day.
Once we got the table we used our mismatched dining chairs (half hand-me-downs of course) for months until I finally found some chairs that met my requirements:
1. Stylish
2. Affordable
3. Easy to clean
In fact, aren't those three requirements necessary for ALL furniture purchases? We also picked up this gorgeous black, white and gray low pile area rug perfect for looking great and hiding stains because remember, I have two kids! My number one styling tip when picking area rugs is to make sure they aren't too small. In fact, for a dining rug to truly "fit" the space, make sure all of the legs of each chair still remain on the rug when they are pulled out to sit.
That's our dining area in a nutshell. Next on the list for this area is floor-to-ceiling electric drapes. Once ordered those will take approximately 4 weeks to make so until then, my family and I will spend our time around this table enjoying the view into the backyard. Until next time!
All the Radness,
Jenna
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