Home Tour: My Dining Room

I'm in the process of updated my Home Tour page and decided to share on my blog every Friday a tour of my home week by + share some flash backs of how my spaces & style has evolved since buying my first home. My dining room has evolved dramatically, since 2009, I can remember a time with our space felt too tiny to even 4 people at the dining room table, you can see how our dining room looked before we re-built our house after a fire here

If you also have a small dining room and are looking for ways to make better use of your space, my recent blog post is for you: 9 Way to Maximize a Small Dining Room & Give It Style

I love how our dining room has evolved from teeny tiny room, into  a dining space that feels grown-up and is perfect for my family of four & now open enough to comfortable seat 7 and most likely we could squeeze in one more person when our leaf is in our table. The crazy thing is our dining room is the exact same size as before we re-built our home. A few things changed to make things possible, we widen the doorway from our living room to dining room kitchen instantly making the space feel larger and more open but now too open. Next, I had the electricians more the dining room light so it was more centered to the dining room size. We also add crown molding the space which helps drawn yours eyes up and out, giving the room the appearance of taller ceilings, our ceilings are the standard 8ft ceilings. Trust me when I say it makes a huge difference, and I can't wait to add crown moldings in our bedrooms. 

When choosing our furniture, I opted from an oval dining room table which works better in narrow rooms, and impedes less on the layout. To gain extra seating in our dining room, we added a freestanding banquette that seats 3. Adding banquette seating in a small dining room is the perfect way to increase seating a room + they look so pretty with pillows & as you all know I'm pillow crazy. Below is my dining room, along with pictures of how it looked shortly after moving back in.

 

Here's a look at our dining room a four months after moving back into our home. I came across the perfect vintage blonde dining room table and gave it a makeover (see the before here) In the photos before, we have the leaf in our dining room. 

Below are more photos of how our dining room looks now. In addition to adding extra seating, I also hung a grid of family photos and recently added a bar cart, they are perfect for small spaces and don't have to only hold liquor! Down the line, I'd love to swap out the lighting for something a bit more dramatic!

I hope you enjoyed a tour or my dining room + some throw back pictures of the same room! Next Friday, I'm sharing my kitchen. That room has come a long way friends and it's truly the hub & heart of my small home. Each and every day I love it even more! 

Outdoor Lighting Inspiration

Now that the weather is ridiculously amazing in Northern California right, now my mind keeps shifting to all the outdoor projects I want to complete. I swear I have design project ADD. That's just my personality when  it comes to my home, I love my entire home inside and out which means I'm in a constant state of fluffing pillows, obsessing over fabric possibilities. Basically my home will never be 'done.' 

In our backyard just off our laundry / mudroom (mudroom update coming soon!) we have a large patio that we covered with a classic style pergola. For me, its makes our backyard & patio. One of the elements I would love to add to our pergola is lighting! Currently on our patio we have to light sources. One light right off our back door and another light in the corner of our house. Just like lighting adds ambiance inside, I want to layer in lighting outside to add ambiance to our pergola. I'm dreaming up two ideas, I'm obsessed with bringing in large baskets and turning them into light fixture and I also like the idea of swagging cafe string lights on our pergola. Perhaps a mix of both are a must.  

My style indoor & out is California casual meets modern with a dash classic, I love classic textural feeling of using baskets outdoors as lighting. My inspiration pictures, have me swooning over the possibilities. PLUS I love how bringing light fixture outside & using unexpected ones helps create a whole outdoor dining / lounging environment. 

image via Honestly WTF

image via Honestly WTF

I've been basket stalking Target. If you been in Target anytime on the last 2+ years then you already know they have a booming basket selection that's constantly changing. I saw a few basket options online that I'll be picking up this week to try out at home. I pinky promise to share pictures. 

This lighting project will be simple and easy DIY. My plan is to weatherproof the baskets and use a indoor/outdoor lighting pendant kit and hang the basket lighting from the pergola. I'm also wanting to hang cafe lights draped on our pergola for added ambience.  

image via Country Living

image via Country Living

Below are photos of our pergola and patio area, taken around this time last year. Not much has changed in this area. Right now, we're in Spring clean up / clean off mode. Cleaning up our patios and washing away all the dreariness of Winter. Which is why it's THE perfect time tackle adding lighting to our pergola. 

Can you totally picture two super large pretty woven baskets hanging from our pergola above our dining room table? I think they'll be a perfect addition to our outdoors. We also plan on finally finally adding patio furniture to our patio, so the current placement of our patio table + grill etc may change. 

What style lighting do you love outside?