Foolin' With the Dining Room

My bouquet of garden roses is pretty much finished, but the petals are still giving off a wonderful scent. I have them in the center of the dining room table for now.

There's quite a different feel to this room since we sent this old family table home with the oldest son at the end of the reunion. I've done a lot of blog posts from here, and I wanted to show the difference in scale from these earlier photos of the old table. (It's dark oak like the sideboard, refinished and looks like new, but I always found the dark finish too heavy for this small dining room and kept it covered. I like a covered table anyway.)

I've used its surface more for projects than anything else in recent years. It's shown here with one of its extra leaves in it. There has never really been space to extend it entirely in this room. (Although we've done that too sometimes.)

There has always been a bench at the end in front of the window, and for a few months (maybe longer--I lose track) we have been using metal garden chairs around it too. They have worked to give more of a lift to this room and are remarkably comfortable with their recovered padded seats.

It's been the center of everything for thirty six years!

We brought in this matching glass topped garden table to take its place for now. Maybe temporary, maybe not. Mr. Cottage likes it a lot. The size is a lot more cozy for just two people. And I've always loved the look of garden style indoors. At least in summer!

I'm always deluding myself that I'm paring things down, and going for a more clean and spacious look, but the first thing I did was pile layers of linens on the new surface! (This quilted runner from France needs a few more washings to soften it.) 

I'm enjoying a recent find in here too. I loved all the curves on this antique chair, and I love the built in "handle" on these types of chairs too. Now I have four of them, all different.

I've parked a small wicker table in front of the window (out from storage for the recent wedding). The man of the house is thinking it's a great spot for morning coffee, and I'm thinking it's a great surface for more linen! But it will probably need to go back. . . . 

I've changed the lace sheers since you last saw them too!

So much for playing house! The sun is going down, and the weekend is over. Hope it was a good one for you!

 Have a great week ahead folks!

Jacqueline

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Between Naps on the Porch~Metamorphosis Monday