You might have been wondering why I have been so quiet recently and not bombarding the internet with kids activities full of glitter and googly eyes. We recently moved house and it was even more stressful than we were expecting. Being in our new place is so lovely. It is everything we dreamed it would be. However, we didn’t really take into account that we would have so much to do once we moved in. We moved to get a bit more space and now we have it we need furniture to fill that space. Most of the rooms are now complete we now just need to finish the dining room.

This area of the house was actually the main reason why I fell in love with the house. It leads out to the garden and conservatory and is a really lovely place to eat. I love the high ceiling and the fact it flows onto the kitchen so I can chat to the girls while I am cooking if they are colouring. The problem is our table doesn’t look right in the space. Also, I have totally ruined it by letting the kids craft on it. We also need some storage for cookery books, the children’s pens and pencils and the best china.

Family Dining Room Wish List

Oak Furniture

The main thing is a table and chairs. I would love a long table which extends so that we can fit family around when they visit. I want to invest in oak because it lasts so well. Also, I love the look of the warm colour of the wood. This Barham Oak furniture set from Quercus Living looks stylish and is surprisingly affordable. I also love the matching sideboard and wine rack. This would be a great way to store all the cookery books and to keep the best china.

Homework Station

We all love to draw and colour on the dining room table but I hate to have pens and pencils all over the place. They make the place look messy very quickly. I wanted somewhere to put them and had been coveting this IKEA RÅSKOG trolley ever since I first saw people using them for stationary on Pinterest. The green is the perfect colour as it matches the conservatory so I can store it in there and just roll it out when anyone wants to do colouring. I have a feeling they are going to get through a lot of paper though!

Plates and Bowls

To finish the look I’d love to get the girls some new plates and bowls to eat from. At the moment they have a mismatch of plastic plates with cartoon characters they have long stopped liking. I really love the trend for melamine plates which look like china ones. They are incredibly convincing and would be brilliant for the girls to use. Even though they are much more sensible now they are over six I don’t really want them using, and breaking real china. These melamine plates from Homesense look like real china but won’t break. They would make them feel really grown up.

I really want the dining room to be a place where we can eat together regularly as a family and feel comfortable and cosy but still be stylish. I think that is something which is definitely achievable.