TRENDING WHITE DISHES

Welcome to Wednesday!

Today's all about change in the dining room. Just like our seasons change.....I felt like it was time to change-up the contents of my china cabinet.

I've been paying particular attention to new trends. They appear to be moving away from the traditional china cabinets filled with china and crystal to those filled with more casual collections reflecting much more personal style. I really love this idea!

You only get one first chance to wow your guests. Keeping that in mind I've got both the dining and living rooms that are open to the 2-story foyer. Because of all of these rooms melding together I was careful not to make things too busy in the cabinet.

First I removed everything and replaced it with some of my white Mikassa French Countryside pieces. Just by doing this the cabinet is taking on a much more casual feel.

Then I scoured my house for other white pieces that I've collected over the years from Homegoods and other stores. I added in a few fallish items, keeping it pretty simple.

I always like a bit of shine! The silver candy dish above was a thrift store find and the silver trivet that it's sitting on was one of my birthday gifts from my sister and brother-in-law.

While back in WNY a trip to j Ellen Goods resulted in this purchase. I LOVE this little sugar bowl beauty! At first I thought I would polish it, but I much prefer to think that the tarnished look gives it character. I wonder where this little guy originated from? Whose table did he grace all those years ago?

Because my china cabinet has grill decorated doors, placement of the interior items has to be strategically displayed so that they may be seen when the doors are closed. By adding crystal candlestick holders topped with cute little silver pumpkins.....a little glamour was introduced.

A touch of mercury glass adds a bit more shine too!

With the doors open you have full view of another way to display items without the grills blocking the view.

By rotating a few things around....everything is now in full view even with the doors closed. When the cabinet is lit everything is more visible in the evening too.

The wedding china is put away for a while and the casual, crisp, clean Mikassa has taken it's place.

I'm happy........I think change is good! What do you think?
Now go make some fun changes in your house and tell us all about what you've done.

Have a wonderful day!

Kathleen

***See you on Foodie Friday for a delightful seasonal dish!

Renovation Wednesday!

Welcome to yet another renovation project! Our projects spanned a three month time period, with our plan being all major renovations would be completed before we moved in. We had rented an apartment for six months. The plan was for me to find a home, and us to close, and renovate all within the six month time period.

It was a very ambitious plan and a very busy time for us. To move things along quickly, we interviewed and selected our vendors ahead of time, prior to closing. This meant that since we didn't own the house yet, our awesome realtor, Ginger, had to stay with me for many hours while I walked through the house showing each vendor what we wanted done so that they could work up their proposals. I am happy to say that she and her husband are now our friends......thank goodness! (Go Lehigh!) As soon as we closed on the house, we signed our contracts with our vendors, secured dates and we were off!

 My days were spent at the house working as the General Contractor. With this being our "13th" home, it was business as usual for me. My husband spent his days adapting to his new job, and the building or renovation of our homes, depending on which one was required, was up to me. I guess this is why I LOVE building and remodeling so much. Each time acquiring more useful knowledge that ultimately saves us money in the relocation budget..........until I find something else I
just can't live without to add to the budget!

Below photos reflect before we started the renovation, the process of making the changes, and finally the completed dining room. Fortunately the dining room required minimal work. New wall, ceiling and trim color, removing  an old chandelier, and installing a new one, adding a dimmer switch, removing a swinging door that led to the kitchen, and ripping up old wood floor, and installing new. Whew!

It was so worth it.........hope you like the final look of our new Dining Room as much as we do!

                                                            Final Dining Room