Hey y’all!  I’m very excited to be hosting the Fall Craft Link Par-tay tomorrow!  Over the weekend I added a few fun seasonal touches to the dining room.  And I made soup.  Because we all know soup and fall go hand in hand.

Last week, I brought home a bunch of gourds and pumpkins and scattered them across the table, then hung a few festive corn husk pom poms because don’t we all need more pom poms in our life?  Yes, thank you, we do.

I played around with a few vignettes on the table watching the 49ers win (yes!).  This one includes vibrant viburnum leaves from my yard in a vase full of white cannelloni beans (the stems are placed in water in a more narrow glass inside…) which also made me crave soup.

There is no such thing as too many white pumpkins in my book, this beauty is garnished with a few faux berries.

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My friends, I’ve been keeping a secret from you.  It took me over five years to finish my dining room, and when I say ‘finish’ I mean install a much needed countertop, a backsplash, and some hardware on the built in cabinets.  Truth be told, there was just a piece of plywood as a countertop sitting in this little nook for many years that I would cover up when company came.  Seasons passed, I procrastinated and procrastinated until just a few weeks ago.  The time had finally come to finish the job.

Here’s a peek of how it looks today.

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I love a celebratory party in honor of spray paint!  Thanks Sarah for kicking off the Home May’d parties with a topic devoted to one of my favorite transformative substances: da spray paint.  It rocks. 

I’ve often said, I’ll spray paint anything that stands still, cause so often I fall in love with the shape of something, but not the color or finish, and my mind instantly thinks, “Nothing a little spray paint can’t fix!”   I’m like the dad in My Big Fat Greek Wedding who was convinced Windex was the cure for every ailment.  For me, it be spray paint. 

Exhibit A: I found this tin container in my garage, I don’t recall where I picked it up.  A craft store?  Yard sale?  No matter, it was the perfect candidate for an indoor planter.

I pounded a few holes in the bottom with a nail, spray painted the front green and let it dry.  I placed some chipboard letters on top, then spray painted it again with RustOleum’s ‘Heirloom White’ which left green font underneath.  So cute!  

My indoor herb garden is back baby, back!  Complete with my five culinary favorites: sage, thyme, basil, cilantro, and parsley. 

I like to grow even more basil outside in the summertime, but the petite plants do make a pretty scene in our kitchen window.

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My dining space has always been tricky to decorate because it stands in the middle of a major freeway between the garage, family room, and kitchen.  We don’t have a formal dining room – there is simply no need for our laid back family of five to have anything other than a casual dining space for evening meals.  We nibble in the kitchen most of the time, don’t you?

However, I do like the idea of our dining space being dolled up for holidays or special guests.  After all, it has a beautiful set of French doors and a view that leads to the rear yard.  So a few weeks ago I decided to upgrade by adding some new window panels and a bench for additional seating.  I’m returning to the peaceful calm of white because I find it so fresh and uplifting.  Also, cream and white are such a nice contrast to rich dark wood, so I kept a purposeful neutral palette in our dining space.  I added some taller silk curtains and a transformed Craigslist bench. 

To some it’s plain, to me it’s perfect.

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