Chandelier Shades

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday last week!  I'm a little sad to be saying goodbye to my fall decor now that Thanksgiving is over, but at the same time I'm excited to start decorating for winter and Christmas, especially with the snow we've had.

 Before I began packing up my fall decor today, though, I took a few photos of our new dining room chandelier shades. 

Our dining room has very tall ceilings, and as we sat down to our Thanksgiving feast last week, I was reminded once again that I wasn't happy with the way the chandelier filled up the big empty space above us with harsh unfiltered light, making our dining experience seem less intimate than I would have liked. So, today, knowing my husband was making a trip to the building supply store, I made a quick search online to see if they had some of the burlap chandelier shades I've been wanting and asked him to pick some up. Better late than never! :)

Even during a cloudy day you can see how the shades direct most of the light from the chandelier bulbs down onto the table, creating the warm, cozy, intimate space I was hoping for even with the candles unlit. 

  

I wasn't positive I'd like how the shades would look in our dining room during the day, but I loved them right off. I think they add just the right amount of coziness beneath our ten and a half foot box beamed ceiling without making the space look busy or crowded. I also love the informal burlap texture with our rustic farmhouse decor.

The shades are easy to install with a metal clip that fits over the chandelier bulbs. Along with the dimmer we already have installed on our light switch I can now have the exact amount of soft light I want directed right where I want it, on the dining room table.

These are the shades we bought. We had to mix and match two different manufacturers to get seven in the size I wanted, but we can't tell the difference between them. And what a great price, right? These little shades can run up to four times this much at some higher-end stores. 

A great convenience that many stores offer now days is the ability to check the store's website for the availability of merchandise at your neighborhood store before you leave home. When I found what I wanted online, I just took a photo with my husband's cell phone of the computer screen showing all of the manufacturers information, so he knew exactly what to look for. He really appreciates having that information on his phone when he runs a shopping errand like this for me. And while at the store he took a phone photo of the shades and texted it to me for approval.

If you're looking for a way to create more intimacy and warmth around your holiday table this year, you might want to give chandelier shades a try, too. They also come in other fabrics, like linen, and fun colors and patterns - how about tartan for winter or red for Christmas? 

  

Our New Dining Room Table - A Sneak Peek

Hello friends! 

We've been doing some spring cleaning around our yard while we're on hold waiting for the family room floors to be installed. I know it must seem to you like this has gone on forever! It's a fact of life that contractor schedules are a delicate and mysterious thing, and we've learned to happily go with the flow. We actually took advantage of having extra time while the family room sits demolished for a week to repaint all the trim back there.

I do have a bit of exciting indoor news to share today, though!

As you probably know if you're a follower of my blog, I inherited this 75 year-old maple drop leaf table about thirty years ago. I painted and refinished it, and it's been well loved and used for many family meals at our house over the years. However, as you can see in this photo, at 54" round it's always been a bit of a tight squeeze to walk around the table from the living room to the back rooms of our house, a regular necessity due to our shotgun floor plan.

 Back in January of last year, I asked your opinions about table shapes in this post. I cut a large rectangle of cardboard and put it on top of our table to see how we liked it. We loved that we could fit more chairs around this shape without having to add extra leaves and how we had more room on the sides to walk. So it was decided we'd get a new rectangular farmhouse style table. 

Whoa, not so fast there, Nellie. 

It turns out that almost all tables have aprons around them that would keep the 27"- high arms of our Windsor chairs from fitting beneath the table top, and we really wanted to keep our six comfy very sturdy maple chairs. We thought about building our own farmhouse style table to fit, but those big solid wood tables are so darn heavy! So, we've been shopping for the just-right table for over a year. If we found one without an apron, it wasn't wide enough between the legs to fit two chairs side by side or maybe the table was too short or maybe it was too long or too narrow or too something. 

You get the picture. Gosh, we're picky!

We were becoming pretty much resigned to keeping our old table, when yesterday we finally found one, and here's a sneak peek! 

This is all I can show you today because just out of camera range our house is still piled high with all the stuff from getting our floors redone. A mess, in other words.

See how two of our black arm chairs fit under the table top side by side between the legs with room to spare? We can now fit six chairs here, and even eight in a pinch. No more lugging heavy leaves and extra chairs to the table when all the kids are here for Sunday dinner. And the ends of the table are just right for our big wicker mom and dad chairs. This table is 72" long and 39" wide, which is just right for six uncrowded place mats and platters of food down the middle, but still narrow enough to walk around. And unlike our unusually sized round table, I can now purchase standard size table cloths and runners. And (maybe best of all) you wouldn't even believe the great price we got on the table on sale and with a coupon. 

Can you tell we LOVE our new rustic industrial farmhouse dining room table!?!

Source

This table isn't heirloom quality furniture like my antique maple table, but it's sturdy, heavy, well made, and the exact size, shape, and eclectic farmhouse look and feel we've been wanting. The finish on the metal legs even matches our new pewter chandelier. We're doing a big ol' happy dance in our dining room today because the long search for a table is over!

For now, our round family heirloom table is pushed into the corner awaiting its fate. It will be either going to my daughter's new house in her own dining room or upstairs in our loft as a game table. Wherever it ends up, it will always be cherished.

Please keep your fingers crossed for us that our floors will finally be finished this week. I'm getting excited to unpack our boxes of stuff and do some spring decorating!

Meanwhile, have a great week!

I'm sharing today at

Between Naps On The Porch 

Coastal Charm
Elizabeth & Co.
Our Home Away From Home

A Moment of Spring in the Dining Room

The sun broke through the clouds for just a moment today during a heavy rain storm here. I was sitting in the dining room drinking my tea and listening to the rain when the glimmer of sunlight on the wall next to me inspired me to grab my phone and take a picture. 

These flowers are the only bit of spring I've managed to add to our home during the disorganization of installing new floors. It's wonderful how a bit of sunshine and some pretty flowers can lift one's spirits!

Rain or shine, I hope you have a lovely spring day!

A spring party sounds fun!

Rooted In Thyme

Have A Daily Cup Of Mrs. Olson

New Hardwood Floors - Preparation

I'm sending a big high-five out to everyone because we all made it to March! For me this has been a hard winter because it was unusually cloudy here. I'm one of those people who needs the sunlight to keep my brain from turning to mush, so I've had a bad case of brain fog the past few weeks. I know the arrival of March and more sunshine means I'll be feeling more like my old self soon. 

I know many of you are sick of winter too, so 

HIGH-FIVE!

We made it to March and spring is just around the corner!

Our new floor project is progressing right along. The first weekend we packed up all our small stuff, and my husband lugged the boxes upstairs to store in the loft.

 Last weekend he moved the furniture and rugs out.

 You know how your hair always looks great the day before your haircut, and you start to rethink your appointment with your stylist? 

 We're going through that with our old maple floors. They're looking pretty good to us all of a sudden, and we experienced a little floor replacer's remorse over the weekend. I think that's only natural, since we've lived with these pretty floors for almost twenty-five years and have many good memories of fun family times on them. The reality is they're worn to the nub and can't be refinished again, and it's time to move-on.

Probably because the sun is shining into these rooms again after a long dark winter, I'm loving our wide open empty living room without the furniture. I'm feeling inspired to rearrange the furniture when we put it back in. 

Ah-Ha! I feel a twinge of excitement and motivation breaking through my fog!

You can see here in the dining room how the floor darkened around the rug over time, but not under it. I'm not sure how or if this can be avoided with the new floors. Any ideas?

 The wood for the new floor is coming on Tuesday to acclimate for a week before installation. Meanwhile, we're living back here in the family room. Do you like the new Manchester Tan walls my husband painted over the weekend? And can you believe we fit all this furniture in here? Our leather sectional is so huge, we sometimes forget how large this room really is, but we were still able to fit the living room sofa and big reading chair and second ottoman in here. Tucker's memory foam bed (usually over in the corner) takes up a pretty big chunk of real estate, too. That's his favorite blue toy with him, and his blankie. I can't believe my big old tough black lab has a blankie, but he does! He loves it!

 Here's where the rest of our furniture is, in the master bedroom, which is off the dining room. It was way easier to move it all in here instead of to the back of the house or upstairs to the loft. The coffee tables are stacked in the closet, and we have even pressed the master bathroom into service. We can close and tape off this bedroom door and tape off the opening to the kitchen so the dust will be contained to the rooms getting new floors. Meanwhile, we're sleeping in the guest room. It's working out great so far, so it wasn't necessary for me to be such a cry baby about it. I'm feeling rather sheepish about that because the anticipation was far worse than the reality. 

Thanks for coming by to check out the floor update. Demo on the old floors starts later this week, so I hope you come on back to see the mess (and fun).

I'm sharing the floor fun over at

Between Naps On The Porch
Mod Vintage Life
Our Home Away From Home
Cozy Little House
The Scoop
A Stroll Thru Life
Elizabeth & Co.
Savvy Southern Style

Dining Room Bistro Chalkboard

Today I have a new project in my dining room to share. 

But first, I'd like to say thank you to the blog friends and visitors who left such kind comments on last week's home tour over at Design Dreams By Anne. I was so moved and humbled by all the very nice things you said.

Thank you!

Have you ever noticed I rarely show photos of the wall beside our dining room table? This is because it's a difficult wall to decorate and usually is just a big blank boring wall. Our shotgun floor plan makes it so the only way to get from the front of our house to the back is to walk through the dining room between the table and the wall. That means I can't hang any artwork in that narrow space low enough that it might get bumped and knocked off the wall when we pass by. 

I also can't hang artwork on the wall higher up because the plaster there is so old and brittle we're afraid it will just crack and crumble right off the wall if we dare pound a nail or screw a screw into it. We decided there are about a hundred other things we'd rather do with our time and money than demolish our dining room walls to drywall them, so I'm left with a couple of options: lean artwork from the narrow ledge above the wainscot or line up small knick knacks there on the ledge (which looks somewhat awkward with the scale of our 10-1/2' high ceilings.) Since we repainted the walls in here last year, I've been trying to think of a solution that didn't require a big investment in new framed art. 

Last week I finally decided to make a big bistro/deli style menu chalkboard. (You know how I love chalkboards - I bet you aren't even surprised!) Call me crazy, but there's just something about bistro chalkboard menus I find so charming. They make me think of that sweet little East Hampton Barefoot Contessa shop where Diane Keaton and Jack Nickolson bumped into each other in my favorite movie, Something's Gotta Give. Charming!

So I designed a huge chalkboard that's strong enough so it won't bend and sag while leaning against the wall, but light enough to easily put up and take down from our dining room ledge when I want to write something new on it. I started at Home Depot where I had them cut a 33" x 57" rectangle of Masonite from a 4' x 8' sheet for me. (They'll make the cuts for free.) 

  I primed and painted the Masonite with three coats of chalk paint, sanding between each coat. (I find that chalk paint from the store holds up better to erasing with damp rags than my homemade chalk paint.)

For a frame I chose some fairly lightweight stock moulding that was still strong enough to keep the Masonite from flexing, and I mitered the corners myself at home. (I suggest practicing first since mitered corners can be tricky to cut, but you don't need a fancy power saw to miter corners; for years I used a little ten dollar plastic miter saw with a regular hand saw to make my own painting canvases and frames.) 

 While I was at Home Depot I picked up ten of these little $2 clamps that I don't know how I lived without until now. I just used wood glue and these clamps to glue the frame to the Masonite one side at a time. The glue made a tough as nails bond that didn't require additional nailing. I taped the chalkboard, then stained the frame to match my dining room table and sealed it with two coats of brush-on poly. 

Next came priming the board for chalk by covering it with chalk and wiping it all off. Then the fun part: writing my winter coffee menu!

I love how it looks with our new pewter chandelier, our dining room table with the same stain color, and our black windsor chairs. 

I have my eye on two taller topiaries like this one from Ballard Design for each side of the chalkboard, but they're pretty pricey so I'm going to investigate a DIY alternative.   

I think our new homemade bistro chalkboard adds some unique interest to our big blank wall and helps make our dining room feel cozy and fun. You might be seeing more of this dining room wall around here now!

Thanks so much for stopping in today to check out our newest chalkboard. I hope you have a wonderful week!  

I hope you'll come along to these fab parties!

Elizabeth & Co.
Cozy Little House
Our Home Away From Home
Cedar Hill Farmhouse
A Stroll Thru Life
Between Naps On The Porch
Savvy Southern Style
Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson
My Repurposed Life

Our New Dining Room Chandelier

I'm happy to report today that our new consignment store dining room chandelier is up and working!

Yay!

Let's party today!

Have A Daily Cup Of Mrs. Olson

From My Front Porch To Yours

Rooted In Thyme

The Charm Of Home
French Country Cottage

Christmas In Our Dining Room

Hi again! I hope you all are having a great week. Earlier this week I shared our living room decorated for Christmas. (If you missed it you can see it here.) Today, I'm back again to share Christmas decorations in our dining room. 

I decorated our dining room with a woodland winter wonderland theme this year. 

I wanted to marry our woodland themed living room with some new white decorations I purchased and made.

Our new white porcelain deer found a home on the dining room table. (I just love them!)

And some new sparkly silver and white homemade decorations have settled into the corner cabinet.

 I made these glittered Putz houses (tutorial here), bleached some bottle brush trees, and made a pretty PEACE banner from twine and craft store letters. I tucked some little battery operated press-on lights in behind the houses to light each of the six scenes at night.

This is the first time I've decorated the old white pine corner cabinet. I just moved all the dishes to the candle cabinet, which is now empty. 

Where did the candles go?

Up here on the other side of the dining room! In the evening with the candles and corner cabinet all lit up, it really does look like a winter wonderland in our dining room. 

My pretty burlap JOY banner was created from a tutorial shared by the lovely 
Yvonne at Stone Gable. 

My husband built this cute little pine bench for us, and it's come in handy in every room of the house at one time or another. Here in the dining room it holds my chicken wire plate stand filled with branch tips cut from our Christmas tree, some pine cones, a few berries, and two little white trees.   

I just love baking and cooking in the kitchen while looking out at all the Christmas decorations in the dining room and living room.

Thank you for coming by today to see our winter wonderland dining room. Next up, I'll be sharing our family room, all cozy and cute and decked out for Christmas, so don't forget to stop by again later this week!

{Visit our Christmas living room and family room and kitchen, too!}

It's a great time to party!

From My Front Porch To Yours
Rooted In Thyme
French Country Cottage

Our Thanksgiving Table and Hutch

Hello, everyone!

I finished setting my table early for Thanksgiving and took some photos to share. This just may be the most organized I've ever been for Thanksgiving! 

The first thing I did before setting the table was to put this potted rosemary on a bench by the window where everyone can enjoy its wonderful fragrance. It smells so good!

If you notice pumpkins seem to be the theme for my Thanksgiving decor, you'd be absolutely correct.

Pumpkins everywhere!

My Thanksgiving table is casual and colorful this year.

Wooden candlesticks

Pumpkins

Pine cones

And leaves.

Prickly pods for place cards.

Towle Old Master flatware handed down from my mom.

The hutch peeking over the table.

I'm not sure what I'd do without my hutch to decorate for  holidays.

I snuck in an early Christmas present to myself. Can you find it?

Sunny sunflowers.

A bird and nest snuggled into a stoneware creamer.

A pretty wine cork moss ball from my sister in-law, Caroline.

My first ever dried hydrangeas.

And a few of my mother's china plates that say "Thanksgiving" perfectly. 

And now it's time for me to wish you all a very

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I hope you have a most warm and special day with your families, loved ones, and friends.

Take a Thanksgiving break with me, and let's go to a party!

Savvy Southern Style
From Our Front Porch To Yours
French Country Cottage
The Charm Of Home
A Joyful Cottage
Between Naps On The Porch