Happy Monday, friends! Did you enjoy your weekend? I met with a friend for lunch on Saturday (hi Daniela!) and we spent so much time catching up that we basically got kicked out of the restaurant. ;) On Sunday we had C's swim lessons (she's loving them) and then went to a playground for a bit. As always, it all went too fast.

Today I thought I'd give you a little tour of one of my favorite rooms in our house: our dining room. Since moving into our home almost a year ago, we've slowly been adding our touches to each room and the dining room is one of the rooms we recently finished. There are two things that make this room especially fun design-wise: 

1. I really had no idea what direction it was going to go in, so the final result was almost just as much of a surprise to me. At first I thought I wanted to make this room more of a dressy/formal space, but the practicality of that with very young kids just didn't make much sense. Plus, I couldn't find anything that felt right. You'll notice that the room ended up going in a very different direction -- one I am so happy with!

2. There are some really meaningful pieces incorporated into this room that make it not just a pretty space, but one that feels special, too. One of my personal "musts" when decorating is incorporating pieces that have some kind of significance to us. You'll see what those pieces are below! I've also listed paint color and sourced other items in the room at the end, if you're interested.

The first thing we did (even before moving in) was have this room freshly painted. The top portion of the walls was hunter green when we bought the house. The wainscoting and trim were already there. Next thing on the list was to replace the chandelier, which resembled something you might see in a funeral home, with a Pottery Barn lookalike. Once we bought the blue curtains (a very out of character move from the Queen of Neutrals, yours truly) that set the tone for the room -- peaceful, simple, elegant. 

I knew I wanted a buffet or console along this wall the entire time, but it took me nearly a year to find the right one. Steve requested something slim so the space could still be functional (we could still pull out the chairs, walk by, etc.) and I wanted something with plenty of place for display and a bit of storage.

We chose a simple white frame set to put our family pictures from this past June in. It felt kind of strange at first to put ourselves on display but it is our home, after all. And I smile every time I look at the girls' sweet faces. The grass plant and lantern were pieces I already had and the sail boat and wood & marble coasters sealed the deal of the coastal feel -- they are from a shop in Avalon, a beach town Steve and I have visited every summer we've been together and now take the kids for a yearly getaway. The plate was a gift from my mom that fit in perfectly.

We've had a lot of fun dinners at this table, which we bought after we moved out of our first apartment and into our townhome, which accommodated a larger table. Easter, Christmas, Friendsgiving, birthdays and more have been celebrated.

This is the most special piece in the room. My dad painted this in 1981 (that's his signature and the year scrawled in the lower righthand corner). I always knew I wanted it, and when my mom sold our childhood house, I packed it up and moved it around everywhere we went. When this room went in a coastal direction, I immediately knew this painting had found its home.

This simple mirror is also really special to me. My grandma gave it to me for Christmas right after we moved into our first place. I think of her every time I walk by it, and the girls love when we lift them up to make silly faces in it and to smudge it up with their fingers. ;)

Thank you so much for visiting today! Let me know if you'd be interested in seeing more room tours and house posts -- like I said, I'm no designer but I definitely have fun with the process of making our home reflect who we are. I know I always enjoy glimpses into other people's homes and design processes (it can't just be me!). :)

SOURCES:

Paint Color - Benjamin Moore "Shale" 

Chandelier - Lowes (similar to but less expensive than this Pottery Barn one)

Drapes - ATG Stores

Curtain Rod w/ Lucite Finials - Home Depot (not sold online, but similar here)

Table and Chairs - Old

Frame Collage Set - Gallery Perfect

Sailboat & Coasters - From a store called Kitchen Home Makers in Avalon

Console table, basket, grass, flower centerpiece, and placemats all from Homegoods

Thoughts for Thursday: Take the Trip

 I've become that person, wearing clothes on the beach. "But it's so practical, I'll be chasing after the kids!" In my defense, I was right.

 Essie's "Mint Candy Apple" is one of my go-to summer polishes. My other favorite: Essie's "Watermelon." 

Every season I create a "bucket list" full of things to do with the girls during that particular season. Summer's list includes things like make s'mores (check), play at the splash pad (check), and let Carrie stay up late to catch lightning bugs (still need to check that one off!). Also on the list was "take a day trip to the beach." We had our week long beach trip in late spring and C loved making sand castles, collecting shells, splashing in the water -- I just knew we had to get her back before the end of the summer. Luckily for us, we don't live too far away.

But distance and convenience are two very different things when you're considering a trip (even a day trip) with two very young children. It's so easy to say but it's so much work to pack everyone up, they won't do well on the drive, everyone will be sticky and hot and tired, they won't even remember this... so why bother? That sounds terrible, but if you're a parent of little ones, you know you've thought it! I get it. There are many times I've thought the very same things, and even times I've let those thoughts make up my mind.

But not this time. 

This time, we spontaneously threw caution to the wind on a sunny Saturday and, mid-afternoon, packed up our 3.5 and 1 year old plus 1000 beach toys, 1 cumbersome beach umbrella, 40 snacks, and a couple of changes of clothes and hit the road for the hour-ish drive to the shore. And you know what? It was so much fun. Don't get me wrong: It's not like the whole thing went off without a hitch. Hadley did nothing but eat handfuls of sand the entire time we were on the beach, I forgot her pajamas to change into, and both of the girls were literally covered head-to-toe in sand with it stuck in places I didn't know existed. At one point Steve was dousing them both with baby powder while they stood in the trunk of our car (baby.powder.everywhere.) and said jokingly (ok, maybe half jokingly) "This is the stuff nightmares are made of!" But it occurred to me that we could substitute the word "memories" for nightmares and look at it entirely differently. ;) 

And it's so true.

Memories aren't usually made from the times when things go perfectly smoothly. Most of my fondest childhood memories are of the times things didn't go according to plan: getting stuck in a downpour, piling way too many family members into a car for a trip to the diner, getting lost on a road trip, huddling in our sleeping bags downstairs during a bad thunderstorm. And in fact, I'm smiling now just thinking of our humid summer Saturday "down the shore:" Hadley's first ice cream cone, walking along the boardwalk while hungry seagulls swooped in and out, riding the carousel with blinking carnival lights swirling around us in a haze but our girls' joyful little faces perfectly in focus.

So if you're on the fence, take the trip. Even if the kids don't remember it, you will. :)