My Favorite Room :: Our Dining Room

I’m excited to share another post in the My Favorite Room series from my darling friend and fellow collaborator for The Lovely Buzz, Sara Beth!

(In case you’re not sure what this series is all about, it’s where I ask some of my favorite bloggers to give us a little insight into their favorite room in their house!)

This series has been so much fun for me because I love seeing the unique interior styles of those whose blogs I so admire! 🙂 And Sara Beth does not disappoint! I hope you enjoy learning about her favorite room as much as I did!!

1. What is your favorite room in your house?

My favorite room is our dining room. It’s semi-open to our living room, but it has a style that is different from the rest of our house. I wanted it to have its own unique feel. It’s a little fancier, but it still has a warmth about it that hopefully says, “Come dine with us for awhile. Let’s sip wine and eat well and have great conversation.”

2. What about this room makes you love it so much?

I love the mood of the room. We mixed traditional furniture and silhouettes with modern textures and color. I wanted the room to feel different than the rest of our house but still flow well. It has the most contrast of any room in our house, and I love the bold paint color mixed with some of the softer, more elegant pieces.

Another reason I love this room is because it contains a lot of our most prized possessions. It holds my grandmother’s heirloom china, a repurposed wash basin that was my great-grandmother’s, a wine rack that was my grandfather’s… The table and china cabinet belonged to family, as well. I feel like a lot of family history meets in this room and gives it character and backbone, and that makes me really happy.

It’s also the place where life stops, and relationships are undistracted. We have formal dinner parties around this table with china and crystal, and we also have dinner just the two of us, most every night. We unwind here with no cell phones. We savor the meal and slow down. We both love to cook, so it’s nice to spend some time cooking and then sit down and actually enjoy it. Some of our best conversations happen here. Something about this room just stops the rest of the world for me…even if just for a few minutes.

3. If you had to pick your favorite element in the room, what would it be?

Definitely the painting on the wall by Brent Funderburk. It’s called “Beyond”. It’s special for many reasons, one being my love for dance. I love the abstract elements, as well. It really leaves room for the imagination and for symbolism. My husband bought this painting for me secretly and surprised me with it in a gallery on Mississippi State’s campus on the anniversary of our engagement. He and Brent were in on it together, planning and scheming the perfect reveal. Jonathan knew that I loved Brent’s watercolors (and he was one of my favorite professors in school). He had followed his work since we were in college together.

On the day of the reveal, he casually mentioned that we should stop by and see Brent at the gallery on campus. We walked in and Brent gave me a detailed tour of the new gallery, and finally, his work. I was in awe. I read every single title, and when I got to this one, the tag read, “Collection of Mrs. Sara Beth Parks Cobb.” It took it a second to compute, but once I understood that it was mine, I lost it and cried like a baby. It was one of the most thoughtful things anyone has ever done for me, and it was my first real piece of nice artwork. I will treasure it for always. I’m glad I married a romantic. 🙂

4. What’s your paint color?

It’s called Bark, and it’s Valspar Waverly Series.

5. At what time of day do you most enjoy being in this room?

The light is beautiful in the morning. I love to open these curtains before I start the coffee pot and look out at the new day. But I enjoy evenings here the most. There’s nothing like finishing a long day with a good meal around the table.

6. If you had to describe this room in three words, what would they be?

Eclectic, Special, Romantic.

7. Anything else you want us to know about your favorite room?

We have put a lot of love into this room. The furniture was handed down to us from Jonathan’s side of the family, and it was in almost perfect condition. The chairs had some nicks here and there, so we sanded the places that needed to be fixed and painted them black to give them a modern pop and break up some of the cherry. I recovered the seats with an art-nouveau inspired fabric that is yellow and off-white.

My mother gave me my great grandmother’s old wash basin table. I had always loved the piece, and my great grandmother and I were very close. The paint was chipping and it needed to fixed up, so my husband stripped it and painted it a beautiful glossy black. We loved the idea of getting some newer hardware that had an antique feel to them, so we got some glass hardware pieces from Restoration Hardware. We had some space in our dining room, and we thought it make for a fun little bar space. We’ve enjoyed it so much, and it’s stocked with vintage drink glasses that belonged to my grandfather. My husband is also into mixing classic cocktails, so he loves to use the vintage drink mix book that one of our dear friend’s gave us. We feel very “Mad Men” when we’re at our little refurbished bar.

I really love decorating the dining room for Christmas, too! I like to play with different tablescapes and hang Christmas cards all around the room. It just gets me in the Christmas spirit!

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LOVE IT! Thanks Sara Beth! This room is extra special, indeed! Y’all be sure to check out her fun blog, My Latest Buzz to see all of the fun trips she takes and amazing work she does (among other things!!)

If you enjoyed this post, you should check out the past posts in the MY FAVORITE ROOM series! Hope you have a great Monday (if that’s even possible!) 😉