Dining Room

Brian loves to cook, so we often have friends over for dinner.  In our first apartment we only had a small table, pushed against a wall, with 3 chairs at it.  We didn't get to entertain as much as we would have liked.  Now, however, we have seating for 6!  It's great!

Today we had our friend Kelsey come with her husband Robert.  They are always so much fun.  We played a game of farkle, while the turkey was finishing up in the oven, and then the feast was served.  Brian and I don't much believe in the notion that one should only eat a meal like this at Thanksgiving.  I'll eat a bird whenever I feel, thank you very much!  So today, at 1:00, the four of us sat down to turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and mashed potatoes, and to top it all off, Kelsey brought a homemade apple pie!  Yum! Yes, world, it was a lunch on a Wednesday!  No special occassion.  Nobody got a promotion.  It wasn't somebody's birthday.  We were just celebrating being alive and being friends!  A long time ago I heard someone say that we shouldn't save our good china for special occassions because it infers that today isn't special.  Every day should be special!

Now with that being said, I must confess that I fall into the gay stereotype of loving to decorate.  I really do.  Even as a kid, I took great pride in cleaning my room and arranging things a certain way.  My locker was decorated with photos and whatnot all through school.  I love for my space to reflect me, even if it is temporary.  Now that I'm all grown up with my own apartment, I can't help but want to decorate.  Unfortunately, Brian and I aren't the wealthiest of people.  We don't exactly have a lot of extra money to be spending on furniture and nick nacks.  But I feel that if one is creative and thrifty, a beautiful room doesn't have to break the bank.

To illustrate this point, I'd like to share a photo of our dining room.  This is where all our dinner parties are hosted and in my opinion it's the most "complete" room we have (there are still a few more things I'd like to get in the other rooms before I'd cross them off my list).  So check it out!

I know.  It's breathtaking.  I'll allow you a few minutes to let it all soak in.  Yes, yes, that's it.  Take a deep breath.  It is beautiful, isn't it?  Now let me tell you how inexpensive this was:

Table: $10, and that's just for paint.  The table belonged to our roommate, so it was free, we just updated it.
Chairs: $20 each from Ikea
Placemats: $1.50 each from Walmart
Plates: $2 each from Target (we also have them in red, not pictured)
Glasses: free, they were a gift from Brian's mother
Utensils: $1.00 for four from Walmart
Centerpiece: $15 from Pier1 Imports, because we had a giftcard from my mother.
Mobile: free, it once had orange hanging butterflies in it as a prop from my store, but I glued construction paper circles over them.  It's my substitution for a chandelier!
Wall art: $5 for each big frame and $1 or less for each of the smaller ones, all purchased at Deseret Industries.  We spent an additional $1.50 each on acrylic craft paint in charcoal and red.

So for about $200, I created a dining room that we all enjoy.  I hope you can go out and do the same!