Yesterday I chatted about our little bar corner of our dining room. Even in a small space (like the corner of our dining room), it is possible to create storage and add functionality with a little creativity and some patience to find the right pieces. As for our wine racks – they are from the Pottery Barn outlet and were originally black. (you can see the before photo on this oldie post!) After a few coats of spraypaint and some added wine glass holders (from Ikea), they are the perfect place to stash our wine glasses. Also, I found this one on craigslist for cheap so keep your eyes peeled if you are looking to add one to your own home.
But like any good participant on a reality dating show, I thought, why stop there? Let’s go a little further. In fact, allow me to forget all common sense and follow my heart. which happens to be in my pants. Seriously though…let me show you the current status of our dining room.
First, let’s discuss the sad news…our dining room table.
See that corner in the photo above? Yeah. Somehow something screwed it up. Don’t know how. Or what. Such is life. I think that means I just got signed up for refinishing a dining room table that I don’t love. Let me tell you why I don’t love our table. One – it’s huge. Which is fine except it can only hold four people. Weird right? And since I want like ten of Jeremy’s babies…have you seen this man’s tush?!….and a table that has chairs the babies can climb into without rappelling equipment. Since it’s bar height, we will have to teach the kiddos to set up a self-belay before they are allowed to dine with us. Also, the height means that visually it takes up a lot of space…not good in a small room.
Okay. Now that I am done with being Debbie Downer, let’s just chat about the rest of the room.
Right now we have two blue runners (I scored em for cheap as a Happy-Birthday-to-me-gift a while back) on the table and on the buffet. I really like the simplicity of that. I think I got my brain cluttered up in this room after the chaos of the baby shower and I needed a break from setting the table for my imaginary guests.
Since the table had a large white bowl with a few woven balls (that I picked up as an after-christmas-present), I decided that the way to go for summertime was beachy. C’mon…white, blue, and woven obviously equals the shore. So I dug out some shells that I scored for free via the ocean…and some sand that I had in a giant ziplock baggie (let’s not ask!) and my apothecary jars and…
BOWchicaBOW-ER!
Looks like a little taste of summer. And the best part is that if I want to use the buffet, all I have to do is pick up the tray. So simple! Plus, I figure this arrangement could work for any season. Like the tray+apothecary jars would be perfect for fall leaves, a little pinecone or two and a big yummy candle. And a christmas theme could work with a few ornaments, maybe a stack of christmas cards, and a little santa figurine. And don’t get me started on spring…with the flowers and the easter eggs and the endless possibilities.
All in all, our dining room is pretty simple. But I like to think that sometimes, the most clutterfree space is the best design. Helps the creative juices get flowing so that you can busy it up again.
What do you think? Do you like the shell centerpiece? I feel like it’s my last ditch effort to hold onto summer. At least until we go on vacation. (gollywhittakersthatcan’tcomesoonenough!) And I love how the blue of the runner compliments the new celery colored wine cabinet. Any one out there with a creative idea of what to stash in the apothecary jars? Or perhaps you are a bar-height table owner and understand my pain? Or maybe you posted recently your own dining space and wanna link. I’d love to see it and I am glad to share our dining room…in a nut…err…conch shell 🙂
I love this! Such a fresh, clean look. I fully intend to shamelessly copy it 😉
I like the simplicity. We usually have a bowl of fruit-it’s practical. We buy everything from Costco, so that’s the only place to store everything! We also had a HUGE table, but we recently built a new one: http://ourhumbleabowed.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/furniture-feature-dining-table/
My favorite part: “BOWchicaBOW-ER”
I’m loving the shells! I have actually been meaning to add some shells to our houe, probably in the guest room.
While our tables (yes, plural) aren’t huge, one of them is kind of in the way, but I don’t want to part with it yet because they are both from my grandparents. Argh!
I love the apothecary jars with seasonal items! That’s such a great idea. I’m going to keep my eye out for some cheapies.
I can totally feel your pain regarding the dining room table. Ours isn’t very big but it’s a hand-me-down (which is nice since it was free) but it’s not super sturdy. I think I might have to try to make a new one sometime before the end of the year.
Just a thought…why don’t y’all trim/cutthe legs of the table and chairs to a normal height. I’m sure Jeremy could work that out for ya!
Can you just lop a bit off the bottom of the dining table legs to make it regular-height?
You’ve got crazy amounts of symmetry going on in the 2nd picture! To be honest, I’m not sure I can handle the fact that the left hand chair doesn’t also have a pile of books on it 🙂
In the wintertime, I put fake snow and a couple of my favorite, albeit way-too-big-and-heavy-to-hang-on-the-tree ornaments in my apothecary jar. For now, I just put the sand & shells away and will be replacing with small various colored glittered pumpkins soon!
I love the wine racks. Functional and they look great!
I love the celadon! I think it’s a gorgeous pop off that wall, and it’s light and airy – I too love a nice red, but I think you should keep it! it’s perfect.
In a conch shell…. I LOVE IT! The apothecary jars look fantastic with the sand and shells. I am totally going to be a COPYCAT!
I feel you on the table. We have on ok dining room but the chairs (OH THE CHAIRS) they are just down right UGLY. I have some fixes in the works but need the cha-ching so I am waiting and staring at those darn ugly chairs.
Thanks for the daily dose of inspiration. If only I could bottle you up and ship you to Chicago.
I love those blue runners and am totally digging the beachy feel.
I just stumbled onto your blog and have been sitting here for, oh… about 2 hours reading it. Love it! You could try something on your table before refinishing the entire top. Just take a walnut out of the shell and rub it with the direction of the grain. It really is amazing how it can restore a messed up finish and you won’t even break a sweat.
I really need to start dinner now… lol
Love the shells, so beachy and summery! The jars are great, they’re so versatile like you said, and I think they would even look great with nothing in them. I like how glass things don’t take up any space visually but add so much fun and interest!
Also, I gotta ask- what’s the font you used on the last picture? It looks so much like a friend of mine’s handwriting! Is it a free download from somewhere (please let it be)?
I second the My favorite part: “BOWchicaBOW-ER”
I just added shells that my husband and I scouted for on a trip to Bonita Springs two years ago to my bathroom. Took me long enough to do something with them…but I love me some shells!
I hate my dining room table. It was a good table when I was living single in an apartment a few years back, but now we have a 3 year old and one month old twins. Im gonna need a bigger table soon! And one that actually matches our room.
Hi Jenny,
It is a free download! It’s Pea Hart handwriting from the free downloads off the free font section of their site.
Good call 🙂
XO – Katie
Yay! Thank you!
I’ve always loved my friend’s handwriting; now I can sorta pretend that mine is just as pretty 😀
I think the shells on your buffet look nice! Love their size.
We bought our dining room table a long time ago via CL it was a honey oak color, not cute. We refinished it earlier this and it looks great in our small space.
Have you thought about searching for a new table at a yard sale? That’s reg chair height, that might be a good solution and then you can re-stain that one if needed. Just my thoughts, regardless you dining room looks great!
Love it! I have been staring at my blank kitchen table for three days (not consistently, I break to pee) and now I have an idea! Thanks!
Also, the bom-chicka-bow-er- funny…
My 4 year old came home from her first day of pre-school today with this joke…
“What do you get when you cross a brown chicken with a brown cow?”
“Brown chick-en, brown cow!” (said in the same style as bom-chicka bow wow)
:O)
Keep posting stuff like this i really like it
I am going to be copying this! I also have a ziplock baggie or two of sand!! They are sitting in my top bureau drawer. Glad to know I am not the only one who gets strange looks while filling up my bags of sand on vacations!
Love the beachy breezy vibe! I need to get hooked up with some yummy vases and do some switcheroos!
Im loving the BowChicaBow-er comment. My maiden name was BowerS so Im gonna use that one on some relatives over the holidays:)