Brent and I love to entertain at our house. We often have people over for dinners, bbqs, yard games, game nights and more. We had a need for a larger dining room, but didn't have the money to tear out walls. So one day I told Brent my plan and he thought I was a little crazy...
(Just for a reminder here are two pics of how the front room and dining room were set up)
My crazy plan...Convert the small-ish dining room into a sitting room/wine lounge. To do this, I moved the small loveseat from the front room under the wall of wine art. I also pulled in a small white coffee table, two side tables and two wonderful chairs I'd found a couple years ago at a flea market. I left the bar and hutch in the room.
I love the result! And since we've had the room arranged this way, people have already been sitting on the furniture. When those pieces were in the front room, they were NEVER used.
The room is cozy and comfortable now. It also feels more appropriate for the square footage in the room.
And it's just off the kitchen, so guest can sit in there and enjoy a glass of wine while I'm finishing up meal preparations.
Someday...in my dreams, I'd really love to make that window a set of french doors that open out onto a larger deck in the back yard. It would create really nice flow in and out of the house to the yard. Even better for hosting large gatherings.
For now, we'll enjoy this new lounging area.
And soon, I'll share what we did with our dining table, because I'm sure you're wondering where we're eating our meals now. :)
I've been saving wine corks for several years now. To start my collection, I purchased several bags at a flea market one year. I do admit that I was, however, personally responsible for several of the corks in my collection.
I keep my corks displayed in old glass candy containers on wood shelves in my kitchen, (pictured here.) Also see this earlier post on things to do with corks.
My cork collection seems to be growing so I decided to use up some of them. I've had this wood tray for several years and thought it would be perfect to fill with corks. I'd never been too crazy about the design painted on the bottom anyway.
My hubby helped me one evening.....this project was a little like a puzzle. The snow outside was deep....what else did we have to do. We laid out our corks in a 2 x 2 design (two up and two down) filling the space perfectly.
I then glued each one down, one at a time, using Liquid Nails and weighted the entire tray down with books and those glass candy jars. I let it sit overnight.
Here is the completed project:
The tray can lay on a table or it can be hung on a wall. Since the holidays are here, I'd really like to make more of these and give them as gifts, but I need more corks.............a perfect excuse for more wine drinking.
