The Dining Room Set-Up: New Table & Chairs And A Play Area

It is dining room time! As I have told you, we downsized a lot with our new house. In our old house we had a formal (not so much though) dining room and a large eat-in kitchen. This house has a so-so sized eat-in kitchen and no formal dining room. Scott and I spend a lot of time in our kitchen (him cooking and me cleaning) so we knew that we wanted to have a play area for Cora nearby. The trick was finding a dining room table that was big enough to accommodate a family of 4 plus guests and small enough to be stuffed into a space that also contained a play area, a couple of stools, and a big chair. I did my homework (aka stalked the dimensions of every single table that Ikea offered and spent a bit of time perusing Craigslist) and finally found the solution. 

Before I show you what we came up with let's take a look at the space before moving day hit:

The moving day tornado came through and left us here:

The first step was to get a bit more settled.

Then we picked up the Ikea Docksta Table and four Preben chairs.

Tada! Here is where it took us:

I know that the box collection is still in full swing and things are still not in good "after photo form" but these days the boxes are actually gone and big progress has been made! I will update as soon as I can. 

Everyone keeps American flags randomly on their dinner table, right? 

Here is one more view. I think you've got it now. 

Here is the play are that I came up with:

I took the old Expedit bookshelf that we used here in the old house and put Cora's doll house and doll house paraphernalia on it. The girl is in heaven playing at it. It is just the right height for her. She could happily spend the entire day there having conversations between her dolls that go something like this:"Hi Ernie. I'm Bert."

(Make voice really high) "Ohh hi! It's nice to meet you. Come on in."

In Cora's voice to her mom doll: "Mom it is time for you to take a nap."

(High voice is back) "Ok yeah. Yeah it is time for a nap."

"Thank you. Yes thank you very much."

The conversations change constantly. Yesterday, I heard her say, "Dora, I love you. My mom and daddy love you. Come on over and we will have a birthday party for you in the bathtub." I'm not quite sure what all of that was about but she sure does like those doll house conversations.

Here is a shot of the dining room looking a bit cleaner. This was the set up for Cora's second birthday party. Scott made fruit and vegetable trays out of a few Sesame Street character's faces. I hope to share those with you soon! 

We have made some more progress since I took these photos. Updates will come soon!