Since our home was built in 1968, formal living rooms were still a thing. I will admit that I struggle with this space. It is long and narrow with a dining room at one end and the formal living room space at the other. I am all about useable space and functional design. Things don’t just have to look pretty, but they have to work for you and your family as well. This space is not very functional! I really feel like there is a way to rework this space in the future. Until then though, it is our formal living room and our dining space, which I am going to focus on in this post.
One end of the space has our dining room area. The room is so large that I needed something other than long white walls to anchor it. What better than a chalkboard wall?! I LOVE my chalkboard wall! It allows me to change the words and the design with the seasons or for events. I also knew immediately that this wall was the perfect place for my bull head. This is Rodrego. As I have mentioned before, I have a serious thing for mounts. This guy isn’t real, of course, but who doesn’t love a huge bull head hanging on the wall, especially when he wears a flower crown?!
The table was my Grandmothers. It is one of my absolute favorite things in the home. I have mixed and matched the seating using a few of the chairs that actually go with the table but have been recovered, as well as my other favorite piece, the church pew. This fantastic pew was sitting in my Momma’s garage forever. Finally, I had the lightbulb moment to pair it with my dining room table and it has been there ever since. I will never forget her suggestion that I paint it. Blasphemy! The beautiful rustic grey of the pew tells such a story. There is no finish on it whatsoever, as I imagine it has been worn away by years of repetitive use by the faithful congregation of some tiny little church. The rough, primitive cuts and joined pieces are everything.
In our old home, I didn’t have room for a china cabinet; a piece that I had always wanted due to the plates, tarnished silver and my husband’s Great-Grandmother’s china that we have. I needed a place to display these things SAFELY with little ones running around! There is absolutely no shame for me in the fact that the majority of my home decor items and furniture were given to us or “found” at thrift stores, yard sales, ect. I think that is part of what makes our home so special to me. Most things have a story behind them. I know where I got them and when. Anyways, coming back to the china cabinet! It was offered to us by Matt’s parents when they got a different one and I love it! I love the tone of the wood and the hutch style of this piece. I do have plans to replace the glass with chicken wire and to change out the knobs, but it is exactly what I wanted.
During the renovation, we did the pine ceilings in here, just like the rest of the home and I found this great orb fixture at Target. As always, I was on a very strict budget and the fact that this great light was just a little over $100 made it a home run! Target no longer carries this light, but it can be found here.
I do love the dining end of this room. It is where my children sit and do homework and where we gather around and share our meals. It is where I set up my computer and put my lists up on the board. It is the centerpiece of all our Birthday parties and family Christmas events. It is even where Santa choose to leave his gifts this year for our sweet babes to find on Christmas morning. In the Bible, many events take place around the table. The same can be said in our home. Whether we are filling our tummies or folding laundry, the table is at the center of our lives.
Leave a Reply