5 Favorites: Dining Room Edition

I absolutely love my dining room.  It's the one room that Max doesn't play in (with his toys), so all the pick up involved is straightening the chairs he moves around.  It's fantastic. Here are five things I love about the room:

ONE
The paint color:

Valspar Cut Ruby.  I didn't pick it out.  My agent did.  But I approved.  I love it.  This is a horrible picture to show the paint color, but my mom wanted to see the table.  There's the table, mom.

TWO

This is the buffet.  I think that's what it's called.  I've also heard the word credenza...and I think people who use that word may be referring to the piece of furniture in the crappy phone photograph above.  Don't worry, mom, it matches the table.  It just looks like it doesn't.  I promise they are from the same collection.
Resting atop the credenza/buffet/china cabinet without the cabinet part you see my grandmother's tea set from the 1940s on the left and a decorative plate from 2006 on the right. Do I blend antique and modern effortlessly?  Probably not.

THREE

I love this little sitting area.  The chairs and slip covers are from Pier One via my own money and the table is from Homegoods via a gift card.  This is such an improvement from when we first looked at the house and there were chairs AND heavy curtains AND a sofa AND a coffee table AND end tables in this little area.  Less is more.  Less is always more.

FOUR
Let's take a closer look at some of the books on that table.

 I don't have time to fiddle with the position of the picture, so just turn your neck.  Or the screen. Ok?  Ok.
This is my grandmother's copy of The Scarlet Letter.  From 1936.  I am in love. Wait.  It gets better.  See that dried rose?  I didn't put it there.  It fell out of the book when I picked it up to take the picture.  My grandmother was 12 in 1936.  Of course, my grandmother may not have been 12 when she pressed that rose, but maybe she was 15.  Or 17.  Or 22.  Who knows?  That's the point!  Who was the rose from?  Did she pick it herself?  Why did she save it?  I love the mystery.

And this little book is my mom's copy of the original Bobbsey Twins series.  The copyright is 1950.  (Note:  My mom was too young to read in 1950).

FIVE
Now let's move back to the buffet and take a look inside.

This is my grandmother's china from 1948 all neatly packed away.  Here is the pattern:

I'm so glad to have my grandmother's china.  I never registered for fine china of my own because 1. I knew I had my grandma's, and 2. If you require fine china when you eat, we're not going to be friends, so you're not going to be invited to my house for dinner anyways.  Also, I remember how fun it was to use the scanner to go register for our wedding and I like to imagine my grandma picking out china during her whirlwind engagement to my grandfather (3 months of dating, 1 month of being engaged, and my dad was born 10 months after the wedding, get those thoughts out of your head).  

And that, mom, is my dining room.  (Andres would like interject that he is the one paying for my dining room.  Noted).  

To see other people's dining rooms 5 Favorites go here.