Dining Room Diva

Two posts in one day.
There's just a slim chance I need a new hobby.

At Thrifty Decor Chick, it's a Show Off Your Dining Room party,
and at Between Naps On The Porch, it's Metamorphosis Monday.

So, the dining room at That Old House.

We buy the old gal in March of 2008, and here's what we get in the dining room:
heavy pinch pleat stiff flowered draperies, a rusty-look contemporary light fixture,
and flesh colored walls, heavily stencilled.

Loads of indecision about color, and a painting crew later, we have this by April '08:

There's nothing wrong with the metal chandelier, but I'm hearing the house ask for crystal in this room.
Yes, for a humble farmhouse, she is quite the diva, our home.

In May of 2008, I buy a crystal chandelier online.  It's delivered in 3 boxes, in 9000 pieces.
With almost no instructions, and just a few diagrams.
I decide this is not a do-it-yourself Happy Homeowner project.  I am right.

It takes two electricians pretty much all of a day to assemble and hang it.

And I'm sometimes still surprised when I walk into the dining room and see it there.
She's a big gal, our chandy.

Our first furniture purchase for the dining room -- a vintage pine breakfront

from an estate sale at a Manhattan apartment on Central Park West.

Next, a very beat-up sideboard that needed major refinishing,

although its marble top was thankfully pristine.

Also a big vintage cast brass mirror from a New Jersey moving sale.

Also in the room -- my grandmother's French Empire china closet,
its finish restored by me more than 30 years ago, in our Pittsburgh apartment.

We buy our first-ever "good" rug for the dining room, and move a too-small dining table
and 6 chairs in from our former house, and I cobble together simple draperies.
True confession:  They puddle because I didn't hem them.

 This, above and below, was Christmas 2008.

Now it's . . . Summer 2009.

And Thanksgiving 2009;

our Turkey Day dishes waiting on the sideboard.

 In February 2010,
we buy a vintage Henkel-Harris mahogany dining table in a seedy garage near Newark Airport.
During a snow storm.
Howard and my brother-in-law Bill put it together; it replaces the smaller table, which we sell on Craigslist.

Finally, a table big enough to fit the extended family!

 I do love a beautiful table, and even more so when it's a bargain.

Tablescaping the new table.

These chairs end up being sold with their partner, the smaller table.  Hooray for Craigslist.

Our beautiful big old table ends up with a screwball assortment
of mismatched dining chairs in three styles and woods.

October 2010 -- as we redo our kitchen, the dining room handles some of the overflow of stuff.

No dinner parties during those weeks!

By Thanksgiving 2010,

the kitchen is done, and the "grownup" table in the dining room is nicely filled.

 June 2011 -- the dining room gets spiffed up for a wedding, as our daughter Alida and Josh are married.

Any excuse for over-the-top flowers, right? 

In the Fall of 2011, a big gorgeous blue and white bowl turns up on my doorstep,

a gift from Martha of Lines From Linderhof.  Woo-hoo!

We like us our blue and white china, Martha and me.

December 2011 -- and it's staging time for Christmas,

as the boxes of decorations are unloaded and sorted in the dining room.

The Christmas magic starts in this room.  Possibly because it is red.  

March 2011 -- and this is the dining room as it usually looks.

Fairly tidy.  Only one leaf (out of 3) in the table,

and the usual wackadoo collection of chairs scattered around the room.

I have new fabric for the windows in this room.  Ask me if I've sewn the new draperies yet.
No, don't ask.
You already know.
And now you also know way more about our dining room than you ever wanted to.

Visit the websites for Thrifty Decor Chick and Between Naps On the Porch for their Monday memes.
Enjoy! -- Cass

Tablescape Thursday, A Giveaway, and the Sisterhood Award!

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(... plus a giveaway and an award.)

It is Tablescape Thursday, hosted by Susan at Between Naps On The Porch. Visit to see some really creative table settings!


Whew... lots going on -- china and a giveaway and an award -- so let's get going!
I am not sure when table settings morphed into Tablescapes, but I'm late to the game. Here goes nothing! (All comments will be entered to win a blue and white Johnson Bros gravy boat, see below. Giveaway "entries" will close on 2/27 at midnight.)

Let's set the stage:
Imagine. . . It's a cold February night in a creaky old house; a fire is lit in the parlor, and in the dining room . . . it's time for a bowl of bubbling hot stew, ladled out of a big tureen onto china that echoes the Chinese Export ware of centuries ago:

A bit of wine adds to the glow. The stemware is a crystal reproduction of an old form; the same shape wineglass might have been on the table when this house was new.

Nearby, a small cake plate and cup and saucer await dessert; maybe a slice of hot apple pie, and cup of good strong coffee.

The china is Mikasa Far East, and I bought it nearly 30 years ago at Kaufmann's Department Store in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I was very into simple "colonial" then, and this was the closest I could get to an antique look pattern, at least that I could afford. Luckily, I still like it, because by now I have service for more than 20.

Lenox made the crystal wine glass, the tureen is Fitz & Floyd,
and the silver ware is my old Ebay flatware.

Don't look too closely at the folded napkin. It needs ironing and a good soak in Oxi-Clean, but it's such a sweet old linen piece, with lovely hand crocheted edging. I can't remember where I got the small lace topper cloth, but I thought its angles nicely reflected the angles of the dinnerware. Upon reflection, I think I should have used something less busy.

Ta-da! The giveaway! Kaufmann's had a "no one else wants this stuff" department back in the day, and I found a Johnson Brothers gravy boat there, blue & white, in a pattern I had never seen: Old Bradbury. I still haven't seen much of this pattern, even on Ebay.

It's a lovely piece. There is some underglaze crazing (like much Johnson Bros.) and a small chip on the underside of the boat itself. The liner plate would make a gorgeous soap dish in a blue and white kitchen, with a big chunk of fragrant hand-made soap in it.

I love the pattern, and will miss this pretty piece, but I have enjoyed it for years. And that's the whole point --
you should like the things you give as gifts!

If you leave a comment on this post, you might win it. (You can always decline it if you think it's the fugliest bit of china you've ever seen!) I was going to list this little bit of ironstone on Ebay, but this is much more fun.

And. . . I have gotten my first blog award (another mystery land to me, but I'm learning!).

Thank you to Nanna K of Blessings from Nanna's Cottage for The Sisterhood Award!


Nanna K posted these lovely words:

"Sometimes, I just cannot believe what an awesome world our blogging world really is. We need to go out and teach the world how to get along happily, don't you think?

Everybody here in our new world cares about one another and shows it. We pray for each other and help each other through hard times and happy times. When there's a problem here, everyone comes.

Sometimes you wonder, how did they know so fast? I just love my new world ladies. I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart. We all are carrying some kind of burden, whether it's our own or a loved ones. it is so grand to always know we all are there to catch each other when we fall."

If you accept this award, the rules are...
1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post
4. Let them know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received the award.

And my nominees are (the envelope, please!). . .

Molly at Molly's Mellow Moments
Blondie at Blondie's Journal
Becky at Holiday In The Sun
Deanie at Deanie's Space
Susie Q at Rabbit Run Cottage
Bobbi Jo at It's Good To Be Queen
Elizabeth Ann at My Place In Cyberspace
Barb at Grits and Glamour
Paula B at In The Shade Of The Oak
Heidi at Bargain Hunting In The Corn

Many thanks to so many wonderful bloggers and readers; I had no idea there was such an extensive network of talented and caring and creative women "out there," until I started exploring the blogging world.

You are all truly remarkable.

Dining Rooms and Draperies and Decisions, Oh My!

Once upon a time we bought an old house; among its charms was a dining room of gracious proportions and great possibilities. That was eleven months ago, and the dining room is still an unfinished work.

Below, early days. Walls a sort of pinky-beige, overprinted with a stamped design, with deep maroon woodwork and heavy curtains. There's a patch of test paint; I really wanted this room yellow, but the room just wouldn't cooperate.

It insisted on being painted red. I chose Benjamin Moore "Tuscan Red," blissfully unaware that the color is actually "Tucson Red" (#1300) until daughter Anne told me.

Kids are useful. They are very good at pointing out our mistakes.

Painting progress, below. Tinted oil primer, and lots of plaster wounds being repaired. We used professional painters, first time ever, and they were good. Bless their hearts.

Jump ahead a couple of months, to May of 2008, and we are moving in: boxes everywhere,
and swatches of possible drapery fabrics blue-taped up on the window moldings.

The room's breakfront is an Ebay find, and I learned a valuable lesson -- never bid on two similar things at once, no matter how much you need furniture, because you may end up with One Breakfront Too Many.

The former chandelier was perfectly fine -- a rusty finish and opalescent glass shades --
but the room said it wanted crystal. Swarovski crystal (well, I wanted Swarovski; it's so sparkly).
As usual, I obeyed the house.

I found this crystal chandelier online, and am still somewhat startled by its size and brilliance when lit, but it's become a member of the family. The old fixture is looking for a new home.

A few months ago, and things still all a mish-mash, the front hall and parlor still full of boxes. That's an old buffet (above) -- a Craigslist treasure -- with a lovely old marble top. It critically needed refinishing and repair, and again I used a pro. Getting lazy in my old age.
No rug, no curtains. But progress goes on....
Voila! A rug, switched from our study, and what appear to be draperies. Ha. Fooled you. We installed drapery rods and, the night before Thanksgiving, my girls and I cut 9-foot lengths of fabric and lining and just clipped the raw fabric to the curtain rings.
I blush to admit that the fabric panels are still there. No proper draperies yet. And I can't make up my mind. . . .

I have the gold-colored "faux" silk (budget doesn't run to the real stuff!), which is hanging there temporarily and goes well with the rug (which is reds and olives and golds), but I also have the same fabric in a beautiful red which is a spot-on match for the walls of Tucson Red.
We are having a House Blessing party on March 14, and I want something at my windows by then, so (left) is a picture of both colors of fabric. I am leaning toward using the red, perhaps because I am so tickled that it is such a good match to the paint. Annie says the gold is best, for a bit of contrast.

(The red fabric is still uncut, and is just tossed over the drapery rod!)

Which color?
What do you think?

My sewing machine awaits!