I LOVE DINING

Not long ago I was planning a dining area that looked like this

but in reality it was looking like this

We got rid of the old sofa and camp tables and for a while we lived with it all empty

It was a pretty awesome dance party/lego city space but we took a trip to Ikea and purchased a table, two dressers and some chairs - and spent a romantic evening doing this 

and now it looks way more like a dining area...yay!

I remember when we used to go to Ikea and imagine what it would be like buying furniture for our house - it still feels so crazy that we're living the dream and doing it for real- it still hasn't sunk in yet!

The table is great - I love the simple style and it can seat 8 people cozy-squwushed-up style when it is small and around 12 when it's extended. I've always been drawn to dark wood but I'm really loving the lighter tones - and because it's solid wood we can paint or stain it later if we want.  

We bought the chairs knowing that we'll upgrade when we've got the money. Our perfect chairs are these ones from Marks and Spencer but at over £200 each they are way out of our budget - so we're planning on getting these ones from Ikea and using this tutorial to make some more kid friendly covers. When we upgrade the foldable ones we've got now will be great for extra seating when we have guests. 

We're also using some metal stools I bought from a junk shop a couple years ago - I paid £40 for three of them for our old house and I still love them (I've seen similar ones here)

At over £1000 the Westelm dresser in our moodboard is a total dream item! We bought two Trysil 3 drawer chests and put them right next to each other.

We're planning on upgrading them one day either by hacking it to look like the wood tiled one (like this) or maybe just by adding a new top and hardware. But for now it's working great for holding the girls toys - and looking way better than the old plastic box set up we had before

The next things on the list in here are refinishing the floor, adding some curtains and deciding what to do with the fireplace (you can see it peaking out in some of the pictures at the top of this post - it's just an unfinished hole at the moment and we don't know whether to block it up, add a surround or just tidy it up and fill it with wood or candles) and I'm excited to start styling with art, lamps, flowers and books - but for now I'm just so happy to have a place we can sit and eat a meal together with our family and friends...100% good times!