Dining Table!

When we bought our new house we knew that some aspects of the layout would be a little tricky.  For example, it had this great fireplace right off of the kitchen in what is called a "hearth room."  The previous owners had a TV on the mantle (there's even a cut out for one!), a love seat, and a recliner in the room.  It looked beautiful and super cozy when we walked through the home.  .

Listing Photo of hearth room

The problem is: once we moved in, that didnt really work for our family.    Where the previous owners had their dining table - it wasnt functioning well for us.  It was right as you walk into the house from the garage and it was just really tight with the bar counter and the wall.  Our girls love to run laps around the house and that just spoke of disaster.  Not to mention - it just made the space feel so so squishy.  After a few weeks of laboring over what this "hearth room" would be, we decided that it only made sense for it to be a dining room.  We hated to block the fireplace (but lets be real: how often does anyone actually use a fireplace..?)  The only other area for a dining table to go was in the "office" space that is currently our playroom.  Even that was weird to us because it was actually OUTSIDE of the kitchen area.  So this space HAD to be our dining room.  

We had the same table we've had since we said I do.  A $178 table that my mom gifted us from Walmart.  It has been wonderful and in the last year I gave it a facelift.  But: we found out pretty quickly that this table wasnt fitting for the space.

When we first moved in, before paint, etc!

I found a style I loved on pinterest and I set out to find it.  We searched at every online retailer and even some major furniture stores in the area.  For the table alone we were looking at $1800 MINIMUM... and I could scratch the tops of these tables with my fingernail.  The chairs were around $250...EACH. We shopped and shopped and could not even come close.  Keep in mind we had JUST bought a new house and so spending that kind of money on a dining set was not something i could stomach.

dream table.

Steven's built our bed, the girls bed, and numerous other things around our house.  Building furniture takes time: time that he doesnt always have, but I asked if he could just build me one if I found plans for one that I liked and he immediately jumped at the opportunity.  You guys, my husband is EVERYTHING.  I'm serious.  He's EVERYTHING.  And so he did!!!  It took him a couple of months to get this done because of work and all of the other things that surrounds buying a new house, but he did it.  For around $200 he made my DREAM table....and it is beautiful.

The dining room itself is still a work in progress as we decide what to do about the giant TV hole above the mantle and we work to decorate, but the main attraction is finished!!  I am so in love!!  When friends come over and compliment the table and ask where we got it, I can't tell you how proud I am to say "Oh Steven made it."  I foresee lots of laughs, lots of conversations (both fun and hard), and lots of memories being made at this table  over the course of our lifetime.

Steven Alexander.  You. Are. Everything.

(We found the chairs on Overstock for about $75/each!  Now why I thought it was a good idea to buy WHITE dining room chairs, that's beyond me... but so far, so good. In a few months when I come crying to you guys because someone spilled spaghetti all over them, you can say "I told you so."  But don't, because Ill be too sad. #scotchguard)