This is our....dining room

When Michael and I were looking for our first house it was really important to me that we have a dining room separate from the eating area in the kitchen.  I really like entertaining and serving dinner in a dining room.  We eat dinner every night at the kitchen table, but there is something so special about eating in the dining room when company is joining you. 

 

 For some ridiculous reason home builders in Arizona like to design the big room that you enter from the front door to be split in half where part is the formal living room and part is the formal dining room.  This is how our first home and our rental home were.  It technically fits my criteria of the separate dining room (at least you couldn't see the dining room table from the kitchen table, which I find to be extremely annoying) but I was always bothered by carpet being in the dining room and the dining room chairs being right next to the couch.

 

When I walked into this house for the first time I knew within a millisecond that this was the house for me.  In this house you walk in the front door and to the right is the living room.  To the left is a completely separate dining room.

 

I took this picture with my back touching the inside of the front door.  That's the dining room doorway on the left.  The previous owners used it as an office and had glass paneled french doors on that doorway.  We obviously took them down.  They are in the garage if you want to buy them.  We considered taking down the door frame, but then we'll have to deal with gaps in the flooring.  Someday I'll get around to filling in and painting the holes the missing hardware left.



This is looking in from the other (further) side of the entry way.  And yes, that is a dog bed on the floor.  Ginger loves napping in here.

 

And this is looking straight in. 

 

A bit closer.

 

This is standing in the kitchen looking in the other doorway.  We took down that door too.  I love that you can get into this room from both the kitchen and the living room.  I actually cut through the dining room almost every time I have to walk from the kitchen to the living room or the front door. 

 

A closer look in from the other doorway.

 

This is standing with my back to the window looking into the hallway leading to the kitchen.

This is the dish hutch that I refinished a few years ago.  It fits just perfectly on this angled wall.  It's like that wall was built for this hutch.

These are prints that we got in Paris on our honeymoon.  We have had them in 6 different homes- 3 apartments and 3 houses. They have been in our living room, in our bedroom and in our hallway.  I think they look the best in the dining room. 

I bought this huge picture to go in our bedroom, but it didn't fit with the new canopy bed.  I like it even better in the dining room.

There is a very cool tray ceiling in here. 

 

When we bought the house there was TRACK LIGHTING (GASP!!!!!) up there.

We got rid of it immediately.  It was about the 2nd job I gave my dad to do.  I have not, however, filled in the holes left by the lights.

I want to do something totally awesome on this ceiling.  I just don't know what.

It has been suggested that I recreate the ceiling on the Sistine Chapel.  That seems like a tiny bit of overkill though. There are all sorts of issues with getting the copyright too.

 

I really like these faux finish deep red ceilings. 

 

I also considered doing a faux pressed tin ceiling. 

There is a group consensus (the group being me, Michael, John and Maryellen) that a cloud print ceiling would also be lovely. 

Perhaps a night sky even.  I have always loved how the Blue Bayou restaurant at Disneyland looks.  I could totally get on board with that.

Any other ideas?

 

Are people still enjoying the "this is our...." series?  Is it boring? Should I stop?  Do you want a tour of the linen closet next?