Fall Home Tour -Part I The Dining Room and Living Room

Today I’m sharing Part I of a Fall Home Tour, starting with the Dining Room and Living Room. I realized I’ve only ever shown bits and pieces of my home, like the mantel in the living room, or the dining room as the backdrop to parties It seemed like time to do a bit of a tour, and show you more of the layout of our home. Starting at the front door, I shared the entrance way with you here. It’s all dressed up with lime green and white for fall, I’m really enjoying my unusual colour scheme -something a little different than the traditional orange, red, and yellow.

Just inside the front door, there is a full length mirror, and a little stool (with great storage inside for hats and mittens).

Looking up is one of my favourite lights. It’s the Tord Boontje garland light, that you buy flat and twist around the light bulb. Hard to dust, but so pretty and the perfect amount of whimsy.

From the doorway, beyond the half wall, you can see into the dining room. I have a little console table at the side, with the great bird mirrors over top.

I have my antique typewriter here, and I change out the message depending on the season. Right now it says “happy fall”.

My paper flower pumpkin also found a home here. The pretty dahlias are from my mom’s garden and her visit on the weekend. The silver mint julep cup is a recent thrift store find. I am intending to polish them (I found 3) but then fell in love with its age and tarnish.

Moving into the dining room, there is a table and chairs, buffet and china cabinet. This room was originally staged as a living room and dining room when we looked at the house before buying it, but the space seemed too small for both and a little repetitive, since the table it would fit would only be for six and we have an eat in kitchen. We made it into one big dining room, and I really like that it has a little empty space and breathing room that way.

We’ve lived here about 7 years, and one of the reasons I loved this house was because we could have a dining room. The chandelier was found on ebay and is still one of my very favourites. The drapes were a splurge, they’re lined raw silk. I love how neutral they are, pretty they are, and not fussy they are. They were worth the investment, and I’m pretty sure I’ll love them for years.

The china cabinet is a family piece, we had it refinished when we were first married to match the dining room table in our eat in kitchen. It wouldn’t fit in the kitchen at this house, so it needed to move to the dining room. We painted it black to match the more modern pieces. Of course there were a few who couldn’t believe we were painting the wood, but I thought we could always re-finish it if we wanted to in the future, and this made it work in this space. No regrets. On the table is the chevron table runner that I made here. I like how it goes with everything. On top of that the twine pumpkins I made a few years ago. They look great with some flameless candles at night.

And behind the table is the buffet table and the reason this post is going up so late in the day today.

After getting it all set up for this photo shot yesterday, something bad happened, something very bad.

The chalkboard fell and knocked everything off the buffet table. The buffet table was scratched, the corner broke off the chalkboard, a teacup and two saucers broke, the lid from the small apothecary jar broke, and I cried. After lots of clean-up though, I put the pieces back together again…literally. I have a new appreciation of super glue. The chalkboard is looking a little more antique, with it’s cracks and gaps showing, and the turkey, well he’s best viewed from a distance. 😉

Here it is all put back together. (I maybe should have been there for humpty.) More neutral fall decor, a nice mix of seeds, nuts, corn, and white pumpkins.

The dining room opens into the living room.

When we first moved in we thought about changing all the wood to something quite dark, and trendy. After living with it for a while I fell in love with the light maple, it makes the whole main floor of the house so bright. At the bottom of the stairs, a toy box, I do have two smallish children. 😉 To the side is the fireplace, see more about this white fall feather mantel here.

The couch and chair and ottoman are a green chenille. It has served us very well, the chenille has worn great, and the green reads as pretty neutral too. I love the fluffy pillows, a birthday gift a few years back -so cozy in the fall and winter. In front are the tree stump tables.

I still really love them. The tops could use a new coat of paint, but overall they still look great. On top, the acorns made from Easter eggs -my most popular post ever, mixed with a few pine cones, and another of the tarnished silver julep cups.

There’s a book case that holds baskets of toys and lots of books and magazines. And my TV, my husband tends to watch in the basement.

And here is my most comfortable, favourite chair. (And a little peek at my new cuckoo clock that doesn’t seem to work, but is still in line for a bit of a make-over in the new future.)

There is also the kitchen, which you’ve all seen most of before. Next time, I’ll show you the basement dressed up for fall, and after that our Master bedroom which is in the middle of mini-makeover. Thanks for stopping by for this little tour, with fall decor and you for company, life really is a party.