Dining Room: New Rug meant New Tabletop Decor

I LOVED my old dining room rug. It was a Pottery Barn Outlet find. Reuben loved it too. He loved to relieve himself on it to the point that we had to get it drycleaned. Fail. And then roll it up and replace it. Enter the new rug, which is a much more intense print which meant our printed place mats were no longer going to work.

Me, my mom and my sister all went up to Pottery Barn outlet today. They were setting up a display with a runner and these cool, heavy, awesomely rustic, candlesticks - with no candles in them. I loved it. I picked up 5 candlesticks (only $53 total) , my sis found the runner (only $15) in the store and game over - I was going to copy PB's tabletop for my living room for only $68. Here's how it turned out - not a major transformation but i'm much happier with the rug, and the room, now!

BEFORE: this is the new rug - you can see how the 'poppy' placemats were just kind of meh. As far as not just doing a single centerpiece in the middle - I was worried it would compete with the huge light that hangs over it! (not shown in this shot!)

AFTER: Candlesticks and runner instead - not competing with 'beehive' light... do you see little Reuben? LOL

Close up shot of candlesticks

The completed room - new tabletop and new 'party central' buffet!

Dining Room: "Entertainment Central" says BH&G

So, I was at the gym on Thursday and picked up a Better Homes & Gardens magazine. Not usually my bag, but I flipped through it and a page caught my attention. It was all about making your dining room buffet functional, and decorating with items that are great to have on hand for entertaining - even if it's last minute. Examples included a glass jug with napkin packs, baskets with appetizer plates and spreaders, a lazy susan with liquors, etc. Well, we already have a "beverage station" - our kitchen island has two cabinets with all of our liquors and mixers, and two drawers with all of our bottle openers, wine stoppers, spouts, etc. So I wanted to focus on making our sparsely decorated buffet a great location for: a few of my favorite serving dishes, party napkins, paper plates, plastic silverware, appetizer plates, spreaders, plastic cups, koozies, beer & wine charms, etc. - all of those things I dig out when we have company (usually kept in the pantry). In order to do this, I got the following: a couple of new servers at Crate & Barrel, new appetizer plates and spreaders, a big jar for napkins at Homegoods and a basket, green dinner napkins and a water goblet for displaying the spreaders.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

Now for some detail shots:

Top shelf: new $10 server from C&B; new $6 server from C&B - narrow for crackers or olives; already owned two pottery barn servers, 3 Ikea mini servers and 8 Ikea sauce dishes

Bottom shelf: silver bucket that came as part of one of Austin's birthday gifts - it's filled with clear 16 oz. solos, clear wine glasses and our Martin-branded cups; new $12 basket from Pottery Barn outlet; filled with new $2.50 green cloth napkins from Pottery Barn, 8 new $3 Crate & Barrel appetizer dishes; new $10 Crate & Barrel mini tongs and already owned Pottery Barn pitcher.

Top shelf: Cutting board (wedding gift) - we've never used it but hope to use it more if it's out - maybe for cheese & crackers or something?!

Bottom shelf: Already owned Home Goods jar with wicker balls from Target; new $2 Pottery Barn Goblet with new green PB napkin; filled with 6 new $2 Crate & Barrel spreaders and 3 already owned Ikea mini spoons; new Home Goods $10 jar filled with new PB napkin and already owned paper napkins in brown and white (I plan to get more brown, white and green for it).

So what about the stuff that doesn't match the scheme? IT'S IN THE DRAWERS! Yes, novel concept using the drawers i'm sure. These used to be EMPTY. This is theme in our house... empty drawers!

Drawer #1: Already owned container and filled it with clear silverware; remaining is filler pinecones and rocks and extra runner

Drawer #2: Already owned clear plates and assortment of beverage napkins in different colors - room for more!

Drawer #3: Already owned assortment of plates, beer charms and extra bamboo placemats.

So that's it! I'm really happy with it but am open to recommendations? What am I missing? Is it cluttered or does it need more? There are a few items I have my eye on for it. They include:

some fancy toothpicks!

potentially this short storage bin for the low shelf - could replace servers? Could house more cups or koozies? May not be necessary and may be too "officey"

More appetizer plates - great price on this set of 12!

P.S. You can see a bit of our new dining room rug in these pictures. Reuben ruined the other one by making it his personal pee pad. Dry cleaning didn't even work. Sigh. More pics to come of it later.

P.S.S. SPECIAL THANKS to my mom and sis - I couldn't have this without them and their help today - I had so much fun with them and SO APPRECIATE their advice and ideas!!

Master Bedroom Update

I've been meaning to post our bedroom switcharoo! I know I mentioned that we switched up our bedroom from chocolate/cranberry to chocolate/green. Here's the new pics! (the green came from our guest room and the cranberry moved to our upstairs den which used to be blue, but now Austin's home office is blue). :)

Basically - we just got two new nighstands, added the green bedding, added some pillows from other rooms, a bit of new art and some green accents!

Austin wanted the closed-off Pottery Barn nightstand

I wanted open shelving - although I need to work a bit more to keep it clean!

Random shot - and poor Reuben has given up! LOL

New art and some new green accents

Here are some before shots:

gotta love nightstand shopping - only took me a year! haha

So much darker before - and we ultimately had to toss the moss A and K from our wedding - they died!

Still love the red- but really like the lighter colors now!

Hope you like the changes we made! The great thing is we can always go back - stuff is just shuffled all over the house. I could see going darker in the winter!

Hi Kitchen, Let me Introduce you to 2010!

Yay - I have finally have a modern-day kitchen - woo! Here is some before and after. Note: I realize that my "old" kitchen was a 90's kitchen, not trying to be dramatic. However, I feel the 'before' kitchen SCREAMED 90's and that the new one is much better for the new millennium. Just sayin'. Here goes....

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

What we did:

• Had granite installed.
• Had a new sink and faucet installed.
• Bought and installed new hardware for all drawers and cabinets.
• Bought stainless steel appliances to replace white appliances (had them installed; had plumber fix gas line).

What we didn't do:

• Replace backsplash. If I replaced it i'd want white subway tile. But it's already white tile so it's hard to justify changing it for a different shape!

What's left to do:

• Rip out all lighting. Have two pendants installed over island. Have one pendant installed over sink. Have pot lights put in kitchen and under-cabinet lighting installed.
• Have ceiling painted white.
• Have crown installed.

The last project isn't just the kitchen - it's that WHOLE room. It's going to be the last big project we do and I think it's going to make a big impact!!

What do you think?!

Half Bath: Before and.... During

Here it was in all of its red glory...



And here it is toned down with new art and a cozy rug!





Now it needs the following: a new sink, a new mirror and a new faucet!! Here's some bathrooms I REALLY like...

I don't think I have much room for an actual cabinet (nor do I think that we would use it). Here is something I like... and LOVE the idea of having a round mirror over it and a single light coming down from the top! Here are some sinks i'm loving....

Late Breaking News: Dining Room Before and After

Disclaimer(s):

a. I have not put the furniture back into the room or hung the new mirrors on the wall!
b. This photo was taken at night with a camera whose lens was slightly dirty.
c. The table is not set right (those are the mirrors on the table!)

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE



AFTER

AFTER

BEFORE

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AFTER

So what do you think?!

Recovered Stool!

BEFORE



AFTER

Yay! I think it turned out nicely. Thank you, Joann Fabrics, for having super helpful employees with great ideas to keep it simple, and thanks, Stacy! Couldn't have done it without your heavy duty staple gun and your calling the very minute I needed your help the most! I love the final product!