Dining room inspiration.

So, prep-work projects are slowing down a bit in the new house. Maple and I celebrated our one month of owning it last night with chipotle, garlic-grilled chicken, home-made tortillas and mango guacomole. Oh, and sangria, of course! Anyway, there's still a lot to do (painting, mostly), but we're starting to get to the point where we can actually think about decorating and what to put in the rooms.

Maple's been diligently working on building our dining table, as I mentioned before. I don't have any pics uploaded yet, but I'll get working on that soon. We majorly scored on a craigslist find: an amazing, 7-foot barn door that's weathered but in great condition and is the perfectly perfect size to sit 8 people. It's amazing. Maple's done the most incredible job constructing it. The base absolutely rocks and is way more perfect than any store-bought find. Plus, a table of that caliber would have cost $800-$1000, if not more, and ours will total out around $100. Yes, ONE-HUNRED dollars, for an incredibly amazing and long farmhouse table. Yes, I'm a wee-bit excited about this, if you can't already tell. He put the first coat of polyurethane on it last night...it turned the most beautiful color. It's perfect.

We're hosting dinner for eight this Saturday (eek), so we're pretty much hoping to have the table and built-in bench ready to go, which means I've been perusing the web in search of inspiration. We have a pretty good idea of what we want to do in terms of textiles, furniture and accessories (I've painted three chairs high-gloss black and the fabric on the bench will be a dark gray linen), but here's some inspiration I've come across that I thought you might enjoy:

Love them ALL. If only I were brave enough to upholster a bench bright orange, or clothe my walls in big, bold stripes. I'm just always finding new things or styles that I like, so I prefer to stick with relatively neutral walls and furniture, and punch them up with bold textiles and accessories.

But these photos are good jumping off points--to at least pick out the lines/textures/colors/patterns that speak to you and incorporate them into thespace in a less permanent/obtrusive way, through pillows, table linens, curtain panels...even artwork, lampshades and rugs. For example: love the bold, striped walls but can't commit to such a statement? Throw an oversized, striped pillow in a sidechair, or paint a large white, rectangular canvas with thick black stripes (so easy and inexpensive) and hang it on the wall. That way, it achieves the statement you're hoping for but won't be such a hassle (and the guilt will be minimal) when you decide you're over those stripes.

Okay, my pretties. Happy Tuesday. We're off to the farmers' market this evening and on to a beachside restaurant to celebrate the arrival of friends' baby that will be happening tomorrow. Sounds pretty perfect to me :)