The Whole Dining Room

This week, I posted pictures of two of the walls in our dining room here and here.  Here is the rest of the space:

 

Shortly after we moved in last summer we made a few 'new house' specific purchases that all ended up in our dining room.  They included:

this drum pendant purchased at a local lighting store,

this jute rug from Pottery Barn

 

and this chair x 2 from Pier 1. 

The drum pendant replaced this chandelier that had been in the space:

My original plan for the room included a blue table, and we did have a blue table for awhile, but why we don't have a blue table anymore is a post for another day.
Here is our current table:

And a close up:

It is a solid Indian Rosewood piece that we purchased from Dock 86 for $274 (with a coupon!) earlier this year.  It coordinates nicely with our World Market Sourav Buffet that we picked up in the spring of 2009 at our local World Market store closing sale.

We love how sturdy these pieces are and the fact that they have 'imperfect' tops with grooves that make any additional dents and dings that happen over time seem to blend in.

My future plans for the room include:
1. Curtains on the back wall of windows that are hung from floor to ceiling to draw the eye up in the room.  They have to be cheap, washable curtains because odds are they will be covered in greasy toddler hand prints quickly after they are hung.

2. I want a chalkboard in this room.  I originally wanted the basket wall to be painted in chalkboard paint to achieve an effect similar to Janell from Isabella and Max Rooms office chalkboard wall:

The hubster isn't sold on chalkboard walls, so I have a back up plan that I'm working on.  I want to make my chalkboard vision a reality.  Then I can write a weekly menu in the dining room, just for the fun of it.

3.  I'd like to accumulate a set of mismatched wooden chairs for around the table to replace the pleather brown chairs and the Target modern chairs that we picked up for $17.48 for 2 chairs (on clearance, of course).

4. I'm already thinking about switching out the jute rug for something a little more fun, like this:

Milliken Black and White Vibe Rug
http://www.rugsusa.com/

The jute rug isn't holding up the best and was meant to be placed under a bright blue table.  I fear that the chevron pattern might be a little crazy with the basket wall, but if I go with plain curtains, it might be alright.

So there you have it, our whole dining room.  Now, have a great weekend!  Ours will be spent playing outside with the kids (finally!!) and introducing Tropicana 2 to her new home.