Monday, May 4, 2009

Dining Room Redo & Thrifty Treasures

Hosted by Rhoda and Sally


This creamer set, bought from a Boy Scout garage sale, $1.50

This beautiful serving bowl is from a much sought after manufacturer... I'm so excited because it's my very first!
See how great it looks? It's a SPODE!!!
I think I may have found my official Summer pattern! Yay, Me!

See the red tag on the bowl, I've seen this listed online for as much as $36 and as low as $18, but I paid only $7.50!
That Tiger Lily "spoke" to me...



Thank you Rhoda and Sally for being our gracious hosts for these memes!

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Hosted by "Between Naps on the Porch"


I want to share with you today the first phase of my dining room redesign. Yes, like most of you, unless you're a pro interior designer, I do my own redesigning using Feng Shui philosophies.

I'm not quite done yet so I will have to post the completed redo next Met Monday. But to let you in on what I'm doing, I'm swapping furniture in two places.

You see, I was interrogating "Brain" as to where else can I stash my growing collection. I asked, "Brain" where else in this tiny apartment can I store my dishes? I don't want to give DH a reason to convince me to head for storage with any of them except for the overtly seasonal ones, you know?

"Brain" then told me to look at the bookshelf and the dining area then back to the bookshelf. And "voila!" I've got it!

Since I'm planning to do three tablescapes on May 5th (Mother's Day Brunch, Patio Meme and Cinco de Mayo dinner), I also needed to figure out the best way to present my dining area so the thinking began... (think, think, think...) While I thought it all out, I began the cleaning out phase of the process, so these are only few pictures you'll see for now.

This is my narrow hallway leading to our master. That's our low horizontal IKEA 10-cubby bookshelf. It holds a lot, but my children took it over and each basket in the cubby became a catch all for things we don't use! See the paper on the door? That's my 9-year old's "massage" schedule list. Bet you didn't know that I had a personal masseuse in the family, huh? It's great! All for the great low, low price of 50 cents a session!



Here's my dining area (not room). Before I can swap furniture out, I had to empty them first! So you all are getting a glimpse of part (yes, I said only part) of my dinnerware collection! I just found two other ones, and will feature them soon!


Here's a glimpse of the slow process of organizing this space. Mind you, nothing is in its permanent space yet, that's for today's agenda...

This is just a portion of my collection, some are in the storage, some are upstairs, so stay tuned...

How am I doing so far? You'll see a little bit more later. Lots more to do tomorrow!

Susan, another big round of thank yous for being our wonderful host for today! Make sure to visit everyone through her site so you can all kinds of awesome transformations happening!

TABLESCAPING IDEA: ("Brain" just loves coming up with great ideas!) I'll be doing this tablescape soon, so watch out for it... For this Mother's Day week, plan a brunch for a few close friends and create a fresh and light table. The menu, a buffet of fingerfoods that will invite conversations. Ask them to bring a fingerfood each to make things easier for you and also make them feel more a part of the celebration rather than a mere guest. For favors, give them each something that they can use and will enjoy!

36 comments:

  1. What great china storage you have! Loved your bargain finds too. laurie

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  2. What a collection you have! And this is only part? Great storage too, very neat. If I had this much dinnerware, it would be spread out everywhere and I wouldn't be able to find anything! Thanks for stopping by, band and choir kids rule! Kathy

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  3. Awesome finds Chandy. Love the dish especially. I think you love dishes too, right? LOL

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  4. Hi Chandy,
    Aren't you excited when you find a cool find !
    I love spode - it is nice quality. Dish storage
    is a problem, but looks like you have tackled
    it ! I can hardly wait to see more of your scapes in the future ! Have a great week, thanks for sharing !
    Hugs ~ Kammy

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  5. How are you going to possibly find room for more dishes?

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  6. You were in the right place at the right time for those finds! Good going!

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  7. I love your bargain blues. Thanks for sharing. Happy Blue Monday.

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  8. Looking good, Chandy!! I need to do some organization of all my dishes and glassware. I found more glasses at one of the sales, Saturday! No dishes, though.

    I love the spode!

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  9. Thanks for playing along today! And oh my, you do have a dish obsession. Love your new Spode pattern, how fun is that.

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  10. Morning, Dear One. Lovely plates you have, and Spode - gotta love 'em! Oh, I'm so excited for you getting to work on your dining room. It makes you feel so accomplished when you get all organized!
    Be a sweetie,
    shelia ;)

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  11. Hi Chandy.

    Great blue finds and what a clever way to store your dinnerware! They say necessity is the mother of invention!

    Blessings to you from Kansas and Happy Blue Monday,
    Valerie

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  12. Love your new cream and sugar set.

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  13. Hi Chandy, love all your pictures!!

    Happy Blue Monday.

    Barb

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  14. Great new finds and I love the patterns. So pretty. Your bookcase is such a great idea for storing the china. Since I started collecting I am amazed at how fast the cupboards filled up. I need to get organized too. Great idea. I can't wait to see the finished project. Hugs, Marty

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  15. You are the queen of dishes!!!!! I bow to your greatness....

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  16. Great bargains! Happy Blue Monday!

    Blessings,
    Sandi

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  17. Good morning and thank you ladies!

    I'm no queen of dishes, so many of you have way more, like Laurie and Christine! LOL

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  18. nice...your creamer set is a real bargain. pretty...

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  19. Wow, you sure do have a lot of dishes! I love the way you have them in that unit. It really holds a lot!

    I can't wait to check out the rest of your blog!

    Kady

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  20. Snoopy and Kady; thank you and welcome!

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  21. OMG! You have so many dishes! I can't wait to see all of your tablescapes. Yours are always so pretty!

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  22. Great finds! And using the bookcase to store your dishes is a great idea. I just stack dishes anywhere I can find the room. Makes it hard when I need to find something. I need to better organize mine, but I'm afraid if I do my hubby will then realize how many I have. And I love how you always have such great tablescaping ideas.

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  23. Great idea for your dishes.

    love the color on your blog and the big flower on the side.

    blessings,
    Barbara jean

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  24. Thank you ladies, will be visiting you all soon! Got some organizing to do!

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  25. Wow fabulous finds !
    Happy Blue Monday ,
    Love the Tiger Lilly pattern great photo.
    Now I want to see how you organize all those treasures :) Please.
    I love my dinnerware but it does need organizing.
    Have a blessed week.
    Thank you for sharing

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  26. Hi Chandy! What a great idea to use a book shelf for storing tablescape items! I love it! SUPER Brainy Idea! :) ~CC Catherine

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  27. What beautiful china!! Blessings,
    kari & kijsa

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  28. That Spode plate is so pretty - I hope you can add to that and make it a collection - really cheery! Linda

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  29. Great post...love all your dishes. Someday maybe I will be able to tablescape. But right now all I have are white dishware. happy Blue Monday!

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  30. You are doing the hard "no fun" part now! Can't wait to see when you put it all together!

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  31. Chandy, This is a great idea to organize all your dishes! I would have never thought of this. It already looks lovely. Dishes are so beautiful and unique...it's great to display as many of them as you can. I can't wait to see the end result...hurry!! Thanks for sharing. Crystal

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  32. What a fascinating blog you have. I absolutely LOVE your tablescapes. I'm a nut for dishes of all kinds and you are giving me all kinds of good hints and ideas! Thanks for visiting me at Food Gratitude and leaving your comment. You asked about the Mister Linky widget. It is connected to Cpaphil Vintage Postcards and Friendship Friday.
    Come by again!

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  33. Hello all, thank your for leaving such great comments! I so appreciate it!

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Niceties first

HELLO AND WELCOME to this blog dedicated to my obsession of tablescapes, and ONLY TABLESCAPES!
That means that whatever I post will be redirected to tablescapes or you will see tablescapes or the dishes and glassware that I used AND wish to use.
I hope you like you what you see; but you can't do that unless you take the tour- the TABLESCAPE TOUR that's on the side bar! I'd also love to take you on my adventures on finding great dinnerwares to display and use while leaving some serious change in your pocket, so stay a while and see all of my great deals!
Wanna know the reason behind the madness, too? Then make sure to read, Why this blog for my philosophy.