Before and after: dining room

In our old apartment, while we had a dining room, it was fairly small. Not only that, but at some point after Isidora was born, we stopped using it. Instead, we brought our meal out to the living room, set up on the coffee table, and ate while we watched a movie or an episode of a television show. We did have a very nice dining room table, however. It is a solid hard wood table and was purchased at a garage sale for Clare's high school and came with two leafs to expand the table as well as table pads. The only things that I don't like about it are the seat cushions (we are planning on reupholstering them this summer), and its speckled 70's finish.

As you can see, the table barely fits in the room. Also, there is a twin bed frame in the corner that has been in our apartment unused since before Matt and I were married and in our dining room since just before Isidora was born. I was borrowing the frame from some close friends of ours before we got a queen bed, but we did not have any means of transporting it back to them. (We did end up getting it back to them just before we moved.)

Here is our new dining room. At first I wasn't sure about the chandelier, but the more I look at it, the more I like it. It is kind of odd, and reminds me of garlic, or an onion bulb. But, I do really enjoy it! Also, the room is so large, it makes our table look small! And, we actually have room for some other furniture in here (which we had to purchase - or got to purchase, depending on how you look at it.)

We bought this chest to store our china. I love the inlaid wood as well as its beautiful color. I also really love that we have a place to display all of the beautiful crystal we got from our wedding.

This is my graduation present from Matt - a secretary desk that is similar to the chest (both made by Ashley Furniture, but not a part of the same set). I absolutely love this desk. My grandmother has a secretary and I always loved looking in all the different drawers it has. The wine coaster on the left is actually supposed to be a replica of a bowl in da Vinci's The Last Supper (it is on the table on the far right) - it is something we would never have bought for ourselves but was a neat wedding present from the parents of one of Matt's groomsmen.

This is our unfinished corner. We have these wire hanging baskets that first held yarn for crocheting projects then Isidora's toys. I am not sure what is going to go in here, maybe some plants? Or cloth napkins? I am open to suggestions! The pictures above are antique maps of Oregon and Washington, Italy and Saint Louis given to me by my mother when I first moved to Saint Louis. I think they are pretty neat and they also decorated our dining room in our apartment.

Here is another shot of the dining room from the opposite corner with the desk and baskets in the background.

Here is a bonus shot of our dining room taken on the day before we moved, you can see the top part of one of the chairs in the center of the picture.

Anyway, on a side note, we bought Isidora a training potty yesterday and today before her bath, Isidora went a little pee in the potty! We are very proud of her!