Work in Progress // Dining Area

With the heat finally starting to wane around here (hopefully for good this time!), I've found myself growing more and more anxious to jump back into busy work around the house and with that of course, comes added anxiety over what to tackle first. While much of my focus still lies outside our front and back doors, there is one particularly high profile area inside the house that I'm calling priority on. 

For the past couple of months, we've been sitting on a half-finished African Mahogany table top for what would be our more formal dining area. It's in need of sanding, stain and sealing before we add custom built hairpin legs that will take it to counter height.  Each day, I walk into the living room and spot that lonely, beautiful piece of wood just propped up against the wall in an otherwise barren space in the house and admittingly, I feel frustrated and a bit wary. It kills me to look at it sitting there, waiting. We are two years in at this point. Will it ever all finally come together?

In need of reassurance and renewed commitment, I recently returned to my boards to revisit the intended direction for this room and realized progress is taking place- albeit slowly. I'm sharing two different views of the same plan here.

Navy velvet curtains were purchased and the perfect basket for that fiddle leaf fig was plucked from Home Goods a couple of weeks back. We hung the Sergei Sputnik chandelier long before we ever slept in our home and a custom flokati rug was installed (I'll be sure to share a related DIY this week). We also hung the large scale mirror we inherited from my in laws- though it's currently frameless. 

Chandelier aside, the barstools and the Slim Aaron's print will be big purchases for this room. In the end, we'll go with four barstools at the counter height table. The long loved print (the house we were married in had a mural sized print that I swore would hang in the house we would buy someday) will be displayed in a plexi-glass frame with shiny gold mounts to balance out and warm up all the chrome in the dining and adjacent living rooms. The more I stare at that bold, beautiful mirror, the more I want to have a little fun with it and perhaps frame it up in a faux snakeskin leather. Natural elements like the large geode centerpiece on my wish list and tall potted cactus in the corner will eventually add one more layer of texture and color.

But first things first. We need to get that table finished and up on it's legs. I just know that seeing a piece of furniture in that space will make it feel like things are finally starting to roll on that front.

Stay tuned...