Changes in my Dining Room

I know….I know….the last time I posted I promised that I would be back soon with a couple of big purchases that Chuck and I made in Amish country.  I honestly don’t know what my problem has been with posting on my blog.  I don’t feel like I have much time to myself anymore.  I was just kind of adjusting to the in and out schedules of Brittney working and Justin’s college classes when Justin finally found a job after being unemployed all summer.  It’s a full time job with excellent pay and after 60 days he’ll receive full benefits.  The only drawback is he works nights from 10:00 pm until 6:30 am.  So trying to adjust to a new sleep pattern and taking college classes full-time has been a little rough on him.  And let me tell you, he’s been a wee bit crabby!!  lol    I’m trying to adjust, myself, by making sure I get things done, like vacuuming, or anything else that might make noise,  done before he lays down to sleep.  I find myself afraid to do too much for fear of waking him up!!Ohhh……I miss the days when they were in school and I had the whole day to myself!   Oh well, I guess that’s life and we’ll adjust eventually!

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As I mentioned before, Chuck and I found a couple of pieces of furniture at one of the antique malls in Amish country that we absolutely loved.  We refrained from buying them right away because we knew we were going to Lancaster, Pa and we wanted to make sure that we weren’t going to find something we liked better.

So do you want to see what we bought?!!!

My new Pie Safe!!

It’s in perfect shape and has punched tin panels on the sides.  The wood is a gorgeous walnut.  The only thing not original on it is the latch on the doors and that has been on for quite some time because the wood is worn down from the latch rubbing it.

 

This is the other piece of furniture we bought:

My new farmhouse table!!

Isn’t it gorgeous?  The wood has so much character!!  You can see the square nails that were used in making it.  The wood was a little dull when we first brought it home, but after I applied linseed oil, the beauty of the wood came to life!  I love it!!

Here’s another angle:

And you know what happens after you get something new, don’t you?  lol  Lots of tweaking!!  The whole Dining Room got a makeover!!

I repainted my hutch.  It was navy blue and now it’s Savannah Red from Olde Century paints.  I’m hoping to replace the knobs, but I’m just not sure with what, yet.

This is the “before”:

And this is the “after”:

 

Besides tweaking the shelves, I also found a couple of chairs at a local antique store to place on each side and bought some matching tin candle sconces.

See that adorable little pillow with the pumpkin sitting on my chair?  My very sweet friend, Linda, made that for me for my birthday along with a very cute towel that I’ll share with you later when I post some pictures  of my Fall displays.

Another sweet friend, Pam, made the round cheese basket, also for my birthday.

This is the display on top of the pie safe.

I moved my dough bowl rack from the wall by the hutch to above my chair.  It’s a lot more visible here than where I had it.  My son didn’t even know that there WAS a dough bowl rack!! 

I was so excited because everything seemed to be falling into place with the makeover.  All I had left to do was make new curtains and the fabric I ordered from Family Heirloom Weavers came right on cue!  I had ordered 6 yards and as I was cutting the fabric into 1 yard lengths, I found out that the last yard was only 26” long!!  Oh, no…..!!!!  Well, they corrected the error, but I had to wait 3 weeks because they were out of the color I needed and they had to weave a new batch.  I just finished them a couple of days ago.  I love how they turned out!  I also made some for my Living Room.

The pictures aren’t too great.  The lighting was either too bright or too dark!  The pattern is Sea Star & Jewels in chocolate brown/linen.

 

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On the first weekend in October, Chuck and I took another little getaway to our Amish country in Holmes county.  Even though it’s only an hour away from us, we spent the night in a new hotel that’s been only open for a few months.  It’s called the Berlin Grande Hotel and it  was absolutely gorgeous!!  I’ve been watching this thing being built every time I’ve been to Berlin and loved all of the stone work on the outside.  I couldn’t wait to see the inside.  I was kind of surprised to see that the decor had a modern/contemporary style.  All of the pictures that I’ve seen of other lodge places have shown a country style decor with quilts on the beds, so this was definitely not the norm, but it was very nice!

These first few pictures are from their website:

This was the 2nd floor lounge

These next pictures are of our room, which was fabulous!! 

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We stopped at a few antique shops in Millersburg and found this unusual thing.

Any guesses as to what it is?

It’s a tub with a water heater!!  Isn’t that cool?!!  It dates back to the 1800’s!  You add fuel oil into the little cylinder on the right and the burner is on the bottom ( you definitely need to be careful of splashing!) that heats the water which is stored in the larger tank.  Once the water is heated, just turn on the spigot in the front.  And when you’re all done with your bath, just fold it up and roll it out of the way!  The man that owns the antique shop said that this style of tub is very rare.  The only other one that he is aware of is at the Biltmore Estates in North Carolina.  So if anyone wants a very rare, unique tub, it’s only $3,000!  lol

 

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Out of the few purchases that I made, these were my greatest finds!!

Are you wondering what the heck I’m going to do with all of these funnels?  Well…….you’ll have to wait until the Spring issue of A Primitive Place magazine comes out!!  If you don’t already have a subscription, click HERE and order yours now!!  I am SO excited!!! I can’t wait to show you the tutorial using funnels!  So, in the meantime, be on the lookout for some at your local antique shops. I found these in only 2 stores!  They tended to be in areas where there were tools.

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Well, that’s all I have for now!  I’ll leave you with this one last picture.  I thought he was adorable!  He was sitting outside of Rebecca’s Bistro & Tea Room in Walnut Creek.  They used dried hydrangeas for his hair!  How cute!

Until Next Time. . . . .Kris