Too Pretty To Eat In

So I meant to post this in the morning but got totally engrossed in Candy Crush Saga! If you're my Facebook  friend please send me lives ;)

The dining room is complete!

We've already painted, added shutters and purchased a brand new dining table and chairs. Although its a huge improvement over what we had before, it still needed the final touches. You know, the stuff that makes it pretty.

Please excuse my face in the photo below but I had to send my mom a photo!

It looks so much better with a that new mirror. It's from a Kirkland shopping trip with my mom. It looks so much better in person but I couldn't get a good photo without being in it. The original price was $99 but it was on sale for $69. Thanks to a 15% off coupon it rung up at $59.49. I had a gift card from Jon's old coworkers (thanks guys!) and I ended up paying $2.04. Does anyone else notice I get these amazing deals when I go shopping with my mom? Remember our $120 dining set?

Jonathan hung pretty close to centered. We had to work around the studs. I think once we get rid of the overhang (you can see it in the corner of the second photo) from the kitchen counter it will help it seem more centered. And can you believe they called that little overhang part a breakfast bar?

My personal favorite is the new vase. The size works way better now and its actually a focal point of the table. You can see the old here from the Deeply Discounted Dining post. Its actually two vases. The outside one is the large oval shaped one with a dented pattern. I purchased a smaller cylindrical vase that's open on both ends and just placed it inside the big one.

This works perfectly for all of our old wine corks. I placed them on the outside of the inserted tube. When we're done with a bottle I write the date, event and people that we were with. I have all the ones from our wedding and honeymoon along with a few random ones. The one photographed below is the the very first one in our collection: "celebrating our first home with the Behrs, Shirley, Jeff & Winston!" A sentimental favorite :)

The runner is from Home Goods for $10. We still don't have any placemats (can't believe we didn't register for any!) but I'm on the hunt!

Now that we've got all the accessories in place the room looks almost complete. We still need to purchase a new lighting fixture and a rug. And I really want to add wainscoting in there. I just think it would break up the darkness of the room and make the gray grayer and the table pop. And the flooring... I HATE that tile!

The end result is a dining room that's too pretty to eat it. I don't want to make it messy so we still eat on the couch. So comfy! Overall I'm really happy with the progress we've made and I think the work in this room is momentarily over. We have to look and save up for the right light and rug. Unless I can convince Jonathan to install some wainscoting.....