A Fall Visit in the Dining Room

Now that summer is over and I have thoughts of spending cooler days inside, I've been feeling the urge to do some fall cleaning.  First stop last week was our dining room and once I had the room organized and put back together, I thought I'd attempt to take a few photos.  

I think I've mentioned before that I find our dining room the most difficult room in our house to photograph and because of that I have not taken many photos in this room since I first started writing my blog.  Since then I've discovered that I have a real love of photography, but I'm still learning, especially when it comes to interior room shots. 

Seasonal cleaning always leads to a few seasonal decorating changes for me.  Remember those branches I collected from the dogwood trees?  When my Country Living magazine came this month with an article about decorating with branches, I was so excited because I finally knew what to do with them.  While the girls played outside one afternoon, I took all the leaves off and left the berries intact.  I am thrilled with how the branches look now and I'm hoping the berries will last throughout the winter.  

 I placed the branches in an ironstone pitcher and displayed them on the table with a couple pumpkins.  The built in cabinet you see on the far wall is original to the house (see the wavy glass?).  It's one of my favorite features in our home, but lately I've been unable to completely shut the doors (one of the many quirks of living in an old house).

I also moved the table around for a little change.  (Do you move your furniture around frequently too?)

 Speaking of changes, I realized I forgot to share a small update I made to our dining room a while back.  I finally reupholstered the seat covers on our chairs with a nice linen I found.  Although it's a simple fabric, I felt that a neutral, clean look paired best.  I will say that reupholstering with linen is not the easiest... I recruited my mom's help one evening and when she finished three covers in the amount of time it took me to attempt one, I let the expert finish.  (smile)

Out of all the projects we've done in our home so far, returning the beadboard dining room ceiling to its original state, as difficult as it was, is still one of my favorite things.  After the damage we saw to the original ceiling in the living room, I'm so thankful for the near perfect condition here. 

 Because our house is a foursquare style, the dining room is located between the kitchen and the living room and therefore is one of our most used rooms.  I have kept the palette very neutral since it is the "center" of our house and connects so many rooms.

 

The room is large; in fact, because of the foursquare design, it's the same size as our living room.  I still have one wall in this room that is almost entirely bare... but I do have plans for it.  (My poor husband.) 

The dining room also has one of four fireplaces in our house, but sadly none of them work (the chimneys were cut off by the previous owners), although the fireplace here does have gas logs.  I love the look of the brick inside showing all its wear.  I can only imagine a time when this would have been their source of heat.  I sometimes wonder if this room would also have served as their kitchen in the beginning.  The back of our house, where the kitchen is located, was actually originally a porch and was enclosed later on.  I'm not sure about a lot of details, but it is always fascinating to me to think back on the years when our house was built and what it would have been like then.

It's nice to take a little break every now and then and reflect on improvements that have been made.  Thanks for always sharing in my reflections, thoughts and dreams too.

Have a wonderful week!

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