Dining in Style

Right now my dining room is the furthest you can get to dining in style, any style for that matter. Our dining room & kitchen is an open kitchen style all in one TINY room. If our house was bigger I would consider the space to be a breakfast nook. Alas the tiny space is our dining room. I often wonder what the builders 1956 were thinking building a home with such a tiny dining room. My guess, most people who bought their home in my area in the 1950’s must have used TV trays – so not me.

Even though our kitchen and dining are combined into one room and I want the dining room to feel like its own amazing space that flows into the kitchen seamlessly. I want to be able to entertain family and friends. Eat waffles on Saturday morning, and then host a Fab dinner party that night in our dining room/kitchen. Right now our the room looks purpose; its main objective right now is the dreaded dumping ground: groceries, my purse, mail.

Here are a few dining rooms that inspire me.

I love dining rooms with dark tables and parsons chairs and intesting light fixtures. I'd love to have a fireplace in my dining room! { our a fireplace in my home for that matter, yup we are oneof the few homes built in the 50's with no fireplace }

I like the idea of mixing chairs and having the light fixture be the focal point in the room, swoon

I love the artwork and high ceiling in this space + I'm loving the super large vases on the table....hmm they would also look nice on a dining room floor.

{ images for bhg.com }

Here's my how I plan to have my family dining in style soon (and on a budget)

My Objective

• Sand and restain dining room table a dark color, our current dining room is simular to Pottery Barn version above.
• Sand and paint buffet a semi gloss white. I like the one above, but ours will do for now
• Find the perfect drum shade ligth fixture of our dining room, at a good price
• Paint our walls Woodrow Wilson Putty - they color is more grey then biege
• Buy 4 parsons chairs from Ikea
• Find oval of round Mirror for dining room - maybe paint white?
• Gather frames for gallery of photos on wall
• Find a simluar style rug in our price range
• Find affordable laminate flooring for our kitchen & dining room
• Curtains, simple Ikea curtains