Dining Room Reveal

My House Is Cuter Than Yours turns 14 years old today!
So I give you my Dining Room reveal!

Over the last 2 years I have decluttered twice, then Kon-Maried, and still am working on decorating, trying to get things just right.
The dining room is always my favorite place to decorate anywhere I have lived so I took it on first.
Our dining room was originally the porch of our house, from what I can tell.  Two walls are entirely windows, one wall (the only real wall) is the side of the house, and in-between the dining room and the living room is a half wall.

Since I only have one wall to decorate, you'll see it's featured in pretty much all the photos!
(Click on any photos for larger view!)

When we first moved in here 8 years ago, the first and only thing I did was paint the ceiling in the dining room.  It was a horrid shade of a beachy blue that I could not live with.  For several years after, while I was still working I rarely had the time to take on a house project.  I remember that even when I was painting this ceiling (on my one day off that week) I had to stop mid way through to go to work for a 'mandatory' meeting, which were nearly every week and always on my day off.
During those years we just lived with the existing wall colors and hung stuff up on the nails from the previous occupants. Now, thankfully that I am housewifeing, I am able to string days together more often to tackle home projects.
Projects that we have completed in this room are: painting the walls, sewing 7 panels of curtains, and the biggest was figuring out curtain hardware for wraparound windows.  We found the best and least costly option at IKEA.  It is a tension wire kinda thing with multiple supports that can be placed where ever you want them.  As with all of the misleading directions on IKEA products, making them appear so simple a kid could do them, this project became a day of my marriage being challenged.
Putting together IKEA furniture should be a test that prospective newlyweds should have to take together.  If they can have a finished project at the end and not kill each other then their license can be granted.  Mr. Husband and I have completed several IKEA challenges together over the years, now we have turned our frustrations toward the proper place, the Swedish.

I would guess that by now it's pretty obvious I have an Asian theme going on it the dining room.  It also has a subcategory of boy/girl sets and a sub-sub category of ceramic black panthers.

We bought this pagoda TV lamp (the lit area is under the pagoda roof) on ebay several years ago.  It didn't come with the little chalkware bobble heads (found those at the flea market), I think it may have originally had a removable planter in that section.  When the lamp arrived the seller had packaged it in a thin flimsy box.  When the mailman passed it to me I could hear broken pieces clanking around.  The seller gave us our money back but before I tossed out the shards I decided to give it a try to put the lamp back together.  It turned out fairly decent, I keep the really bad side facing the wall.  You can see one of the chipped broken areas on the bottom left.  Since taking these photos I have filled in the area with black nail polish which helped cover it up.

The China Cabinet corner.
It is always hard to photo this area since it is back lit on both sides.

China cabinet top.

The next 4 photos are a few details of the shelves inside the cabinet:

These "Let's Kiss" bobble heads were one of my first purchases on ebay 18 years ago.  I still love them.  Their lips are magnets!
The jewelry box on the left and the trio of ceramic geisha gals in the back belonged to my great grand mother.

I bought this drink shaker and ice bowl at a near-by antique mall that is no longer in business about 19 years ago.  I remember it costing a bit more that I like spending (probably $30).  I should have turned one of the pieces more so it showed the male Asian counterpart.
Those "Foo Chu" sticks in the back are an early ebay purchase and really fun.  "Ancient Chinese Fortune Telling Sticks...The Most Ancient Fortune Telling Method Known."  Inside the jar are cut strips of bamboo with numbers on them.  You shake the can to the side and pick the stick poking out the furthest/falls out first.  You then match your lucky number listed in the accompanying booklet to find out your fortune!

I bought these dishes from a Chinese buffet about 17 years ago.  We use them every year to eat our traditional New Year's Eve Chinese takeout on.

These shoes, World War II era hand carved souvenirs brought back by soldiers for their gals.  They were the primary focus of my ebay searching about 18 years ago, I was really obsessed over them.  I wanted a pair that fit me because I had the idea I has going to wear them out on the town.  I was messaging sellers all the time asking for weird sole measurements.  I finally found the ones and they do fit but I decided to just display them since they are so old...and they are really uncomfortable to wear.

Most of the items in the dining room were things I found nearly 20 years ago.  They were discovered on solitary trips and adventures I would take to new little shops, hole in a wall places, and even venturing out to nearby cities.  This was when I was first collecting and I would spend my off days searching.  When I look at this photo I think of the great places and people I encountered back then.  The sideboard, china cabinet, chalk ware wall hangings off to the extreme left, the metal wall pocket in between them, the paint by number geisha on the oval metal tray, the panther on the table, and the cute lamp on the top of the china cabinet all came from my most favorite little antique shop, called Little Audrey's.  It is not is business anymore, the people retired, but I loved it there.  It had a terrazzo floor and that great smell of old buildings.  The place wasn't very big but had absolutely amazing stuff.  I still have lots of things I bought from there (like this ironing board). I can still walk through the store in my mind, remembering the shelves and booth areas.  Gosh, I miss that place.  When I would go it was on a weekday because I always worked weekends, but this meant not as many customers were there. Most of the time I had the place to myself, which probably adds to my connection with it.  Once I was looking around in the back left corner which always seemed to have old electric/tool man type stuff.  I came across this pale pink metal disk with a silver metal post and an electric cord. I rushed it up to the owner and asked frantically' "Is this what I think it is?!"  He said kinda suspiciously. "What do you think it is?" I said quickly "A Christmas tree turner!"  He then said relived, "Oh, ok, yeah, it's what you think it is."  It was one of those funny, you had to be there moments, I guess.  I still have that tree turner also.

We have three of these really large plastic covered lanterns hanging in the opening between the dining and living rooms.  They were rummaged out of the demolition of one of mine and Mr. Husband's favorite Japanese restaurants.  We had just gone to eat there about a month before for my birthday and could tell something was off.  The place looked really run down, there was a bucket under a air conditioner vent to catch water, the sushi bar area looked like it hadn't been sat at for 20 years and piles of random stuff had started accumulating around all over of the place, I even saw a pair of running shoes just thrown behind the bar area.  We hadn't been to eat there in 2 years since it's a bit pricey, we go for special occasions.  The last time we went on my birthday it looked beautiful in there, they even gave me a free t-shirt.  When we went in this time no one came out to greet us for a few minutes. We were eventually seated and the only customers.  I am sure at this point most people would have ran out the door but I don't mind places like this because they are typically old cool buildings with great vintage atmospheres.  And as always, the food was divine and the hibachi show was excellent.  I think I may have mentioned this restaurant before.  The hibachi chef that owns the restaurant is quite a character. Several years ago, after pouring the special secret Japanese sauce on the searing grill, he asks PB if he had any brothers or sisters.  PB says "No".  He then gets told that after tonight since his parents are having this sauce, he will.  Luckily that one went over his head.  We were hoping to get another t-shirt this time, even if we bought one but they only had little kid sizes left.  We asked if they were going to get any more in and the answer was "probably not."  Mr. Husband Sir really felt something was up so the next week he swung by again and bought one of the kid's shirts anyway, we figured we could cut out the design and put it on a bigger t-shirt or something.  For the next couple of weeks Mr. Husband would drive past the restaurant on his way home and saw it was always closed.  Then he reported it was being torn down and a sign was put up saying "Coming soon, Hardee's".  Mr. Husband and I went down to the half knocked over building to scrounge around.  It was very weird.  The back rooms of the restaurant were still set up, decorations still on the wall, kikoman soy sauce bottles on the counters. We snagged a few things: a menu, a ceramic tile from the wall, a candle vase, and these three lanterns.  The restaurant had been open since the 1970s and was someplace that Mr. Husband Sir and I went when first dating 22 years ago.  Hardee's just doesn't have the same atmosphere.

Well, there you have it.  With a title like, "My House Is Cuter Than Yours", you would think I would have tons of photos of my home decor.  This is the only room in our current home I have fully, mostly finished and photographed.  I say mostly because I still have a few projects left like redoing the floors and refinishing the furniture.

Here are a few past posts featuring this house or past decor:

Kitchen 2006: 1 year Blogiversary
Pumpkinbutt's Nursery 2007: 2 year Blogiversary
House Tour (Front Curb) 2015: Decennial 10 Year Blogiversary

And here are several past blogiversary posts.
 The set on the bottom being the extensive 11 post series I did for the 10 year Blogiversary:

2018 Blogiversary Tupperware Party

Decennial Intro, 10 year Blogiversary 2015
Decennial Post II: Sit a Spell, Q&A
Decennial Post III: Apron Craft-a-Long
Decennial Post IV: What's Cooking? Apron and Recipe Swap
Decennial Post V: Writing For Swapatorium
Decennial Post VI: 15 Minutes of Fame
Decennial Post VII: The Lost Episode(post)
Decennial Post VIII: The Theme is Themes
Decennial Post IX: Recipe Card Box
Decennial Post XI: 10 Year Blogiversary Gala Event!