{HOME TOUR | dining room & entry}

I've decided to restart my home tour, and kind of do it as if I was walking you through my home. So, climb the porch steps you see on the header, ring our startlingly loud doorbell, and welcome. 

Welcome to Knollwood. 

I suppose I should explain about the name Knollwood. I really wanted to name this house once we moved in. It seems like a lot of the old houses had names. Longbourn, Netherfield Park, Pemberly, Twelve Oaks, and my personal favorite, Orchard House. So I thought it would be fun to name our circa 1903 home. But coming up with a name is not easy and I really had a hard time until we were in North Carolina and saw a road named Knollwood. And I thought it was perfect. After all, our house does sit on a little knoll. 

Anyway, when you walk in the door, you enter this little...foyer? I suppose that would be the best word to describe it. My sister helped me hang and decorate the mirror while she was here. It was previously on my mantle, and it may end up there again someday. I like to move my decor around until I really love it. 

 If you turn to your right you'll see this handy little key shelf that my husband and I made. It's twin is in our master bedroom for my necklaces, if you recall from a previous post . I searched Pinterest for a key rack I liked for a while before deciding on the shelf I saw on someone's Instagram. It was simple and quick and I like the added shelf space to decorate. I still haven't decided whether or not to stain/paint them {I take forever to decide, ask anyone who knows me}.

 And now for the dining room. Originally we had the dining room in the room with the fireplace, which is off the kitchen to the left. But several people convinced me to try it in the front room here, and I have to admit I like it a lot better. The flow into the kitchen with the double doorway is what sealed the deal for me.

 The cabinet in the corner holds sewing notions and small swatches of fabric, and the printer sits on top. It really should be moved into the back room with the sewing machine and computer, but without it I feel like the room would seem empty. Lord-willing I'll have a sideboard in here someday along that left wall. 

For curtains in this room, I wanted to do drop cloth ones again. This time we bought them at Menards. I was hoping to get white drop cloths but, since these are lighter and a little more gray than the ones we bought for the bedroom, I'm pretty content with them. Instead of hanging these to drape on the floor {like the bedroom ones} I folded over the top and clipped it on the fold, so it looks like there are valances hanging, too. 

If you turn back towards the door a little you can see the opposite corner of the room. I left one of my bookshelves in here, once again for furniture reasons, and I also keep our salt, pepper, and napkins on it.

Here's a close-up of those pictures. Some embroidery work, a former bulletin board that I just clothespin a calendar and some other things on, and one of my first watercolor paintings. I had painted it to sell at a craft bazaar, but no one bought it and now I'm glad they didn't!

Lastly, here is that little shelf area I mentioned in my last post. We made these floating shelves out of pallet wood and 2x4s for our bathroom in Texas and had them hung one above the other. I was thinking about doing the same thing here but Trevor suggested that we hang them this way and I'm glad he did. This is probably my favorite wall in the dining room. I'm still switching the decor out to see what I like best, but that feather picture is staying for sure, and the little glass jars with succulents will stay too.

I still have these partially decorated for Christmas {!} and Valentine's Day, so I need to figure out something new. But I love the way this little corner has turned out!