A Refreshed Kitchen and Dining Area

This week I spent some time freshening up the kitchen and the dining room.

I put away my red transferware, which still felt a little Christmas-like. I also took down some potted trees that were on my dining room shelves.

It's refreshing having everything back to normal.

Though I use my brown transferware in the Fall, I quite like it back up on my shelves. It still feels neutral, though I'm sure in the next while they will change again.

I don't think I've shown you where we moved our dining area. This room in our house has been many things: an entrance, a sitting room, a playroom, an office, and now our dining room.

For practical reasons, having the table in here is nice because it's just off the kitchen. The floor is also tiled, which is more ideal for cleaning up after the boys. Aesthetically, it's also full of windows that look out into the back yard which makes for a lovely view. However, one of the greatest benefits is that it frees up some space in our living room, which used to be a living room and dining room together. Now it has the feeling of a more open, airy space.

Eventually, when we do the kitchen, I would like to install banquet seating with an old square table. It would allow for more seating, and I think it would be a more efficient use of the space.

Because of the room's windows, I don't have much in the way of decor. I do have two small shelves to display a few pieces of my ironstone collection.

The doors go out onto our back deck, and the big window looks out back over our patio area. 

Here was our beautiful view while enjoying breakfast this morning. The best part of this space.

This is the view off our back deck, out the french doors, towards our neighbors immediate back yard.

Looking out back towards our side property line. You can see the ravine all behind our homes.

And straight out back into our back yard. We have narrow yards, but they are quite long. The tree line for the ravine in the back of this photo is about halfway back. The rest is all open woods.

It's why we bought our home.