The Dining Nook!

Hello hello all my beautiful bloggy friends!!! The sun is shining, and I am feeling the approach of spring, although here in Bend it won't actually show up for at least 6 more weeks.
Thanks for all of your props on my ampersand project last week! I still love it, and today you get to see some more, since I will be showing off our dining nook!!! That's right, another room, or in this case, bump out off a room, will finally be making an appearance on the blog.

When James and I bought our house in March of 2010, it was pretty much move-in ready. The only fixes needed were purely cosmetic, a few updates to get her up to the present day in decor and fixtures. I mentioned in a previous post, an older woman used to own our home. Much, much older. And this was the dining room light fixture when we moved in.

 

Brass and stained glass... gorgeous. A unique, one of a kind piece. Not. But to our dismay, we could not find a light fixture we agreed on. For almost two years...

A couple weeks ago, Pottery Barn was having a lighting sale and I used my charms to get J to finally bite the bullet and order one. And the day I leave for Portland to go wedding dress shopping (I found one BTW!!!), this shows up on our stoop.

 

Big box of happiness right there!!! 

The process of changing out the chandelier was simple, but still a 2 person job since the install is happening 12 feet in the air. 

And here she is!!!! Hello beautiful!!!

 

It is the Graham Chandelier from Pottery Barn, and we are infatuated!!  The size is perfect for a dining nook but has a delicate presence that allows it to blend seamlessly with the rest of the room! We just swapped the bulbs from our old chandy, I would like to find some round ones, and maybe seeded glass covers... but for now its perfect!! 

Our dining nook is just a bay windowed area, just off our kitchen. The open door you see there is our laundry/mudroom, the door to the right of that is our pantry, and then on the far right is the hall leading to our bedrooms and office.

Our dining room table was a CL score for $75, from a family who had outgrown it. We love the chunky legs, clean lines and dark finish. The chairs were $60 each from Casareal, an imported furniture store here in Bend. I love their size, but ability to be pushed all the way in at the table, thus taking up less space. Gorgeous. The bench in the back was quite the ordeal to obtain.

 

I found it on Overstock, and fell in love immediately. It quickly sold out, and I complained for days until I got the re-stocking email, and ordered it as fast as I could. It arrived quickly and was already assembled (BOOM, love that), and I went to bed a happy lady. The next morn, I went in the kitchen to make coffee and sit on my new bench and the gd cats had tested it out as a scratching post!!!!! Rarrrrr!!!!!! Now, it has a blanket over it unless we have guests over. And James and I are learning not to buy nice things until our animals grow up or leave us. Sigh. But I love it regardless. 

Finally, there is one special spot in our dining nook that makes me smile every time I glance at it.

That lovely wood box on the right contains some of Cruz's ashes. The book on top of it was sent to us when he passed away by one of the vet tech's at the office where he received chemo and took his last breaths. I highly recommend to this book to anyone who has suffered the loss of a beloved animal. It is exactly how a dog would look at the situation. Kina, the vet tech who sent it to us, wrote some kind words inside and attached some photos she had taken of Cruz while he was chilling at the office with them. During his chemo, he had to stay there for 6 or 7 hours at a time, and he really bonded with the staff. The bag behind the box has all the cards we received after he passed away. We jokingly call it Cruz's shrine, but really its just a nice little moment where we can pause and reflect on our boy.

And that concludes the tiny tour of our dining nook!!! What do you think of our new light fixture? Anyone else eagerly awaiting the arrival of Spring?