A work in progress, still...

We've lived in our house for a year, and we're on our third dining table! The most recent one is it; I promised Brian there will be no more changes, because it's exactly what I've wanted! The only problem is, it didn't come with chairs. So, until I can make a decision on what to buy to go with it, we're without a functioning dining room!

When we moved in, we put our white and wood pedestal table that we purchased new for our first house, in our dining area. The table (and rug) from our first house, just never really worked in the space. They were OK, but I certainly knew I wanted to change it up eventually. Eventually came a little sooner than we expected because when I posted the table and chairs on Craiglist last fall, we got an immediate taker, and the table and chairs sold! 

We weren't left without a dining set though, because the previous owner left behind his dining set.  I hated the chairs, but the table was bigger and rectangle, so I decided we could make that hand-me-down of sorts, work for a temporary fix. I sold the chairs to his set, and over the next 6 months, we borrowed folding chairs and then mismatched wooden chairs, so that we could use the dining room and eat together (properly ;) Then, in a matter of a few weeks, the folding chairs were returned, and the wooden chairs we had been borrowing, were also sold to someone, so again, we were chair-less!

In the midst of all the tag sale searching, and selling, I sold the old rug we'd been using in our dining room. I didn't need to sell it, and wasn't sure if it actually would, but I thought I'd try. Once the rug was gone, I felt refreshed.  In a way, it was like getting rid of the curtains that I couldn't mesh with anything else. We finally had a clean slate in the dining room and I could start to piece the room together. It's very hard to try to get furnishings from one house, to all work together in a new house. I think for the most part, we did a good job, but realistically, not everything can work.

Without even looking, I stumbled on a listing for a beautiful pine dining table. It was like it was hoping I'd find it.  It had been used in a family's second home in Vermont, and they were looking to sell it. It had some scratches, it had been well loved, but I looked past that because the shape, size and style was exactly what I wanted for our dining room someday. It is a very, very sturdy table, I think each leg weighs 20 lbs! The price was too good to be true, so I decided to buy it. Again though, no chairs! This is what our dining room currently looks like:

So, here we are, after lots of back and forth.... and we have an unpainted dining room, with no curtains, no rug, and a dining table with no chairs. Our dining room is a good size, and it has so much potential. I think we'll end up putting a simple, neutral color on the walls whenever we get around to painting :) The pickle I'm in now is, do we start by buying a rug first, and then chairs, or the other way around....

These are the rugs I've had my eye on, all but one are indoor/outdoor and with a dog and kids, I'd hope would stand up really well in a high-traffic area....

Home Goods - teal

Home Decorators - green and tan

 Pottery Barn - Grey

 Pottery Barn - jute

Pottery Barn - natural diamond

For chairs, I'm thinking of something like this:

Please feel free to weigh in... I can be the most decisive and indecisive person to ever walk the Earth. So, I welcome any and all ideas or suggestions :) I'd love to get the room in working order soon, so we can get back to having meals as a family at the table! Thanks in advance!