The dining room and dresser revealed...

Sorry, I've been very slow. But at long last, here is the almost finished dining room and the dresser I've been working on...

Come on in.

The wine rack made a return. Husband couldn't part with it.

See what I mean about wanting chickenwire in here? I think it would add to the rustic-ness. But having just replaced all that glass having to hammer perilously close to it... I'm not sure I want to take it out just yet!

A little closer...

This was a technique called wet distressing.

and the before?

 

I had a book cull so I can display my pretties. No more using this dresser as a dumping ground! 

I have a few of these vintage glass cake stands. This one is unusual as it's square.

I found this pretty serving dish at Fridays flea market.

Moving round the room...

You can see, the room isn't huge..

and the table that took so many hours of bleaching, painting, varnishing and waxing...

All set for an imaginary dinner party. This happens a lot in blog land.

Oopsie. Left my cup of tea on the table. Bad stylist.

 As you can see, the painted window is still on the floor but my dad came for lunch today so I now know how to hang it! Just need longer screws.

I revamped a bench to match the table...

I have been working my socks off. This bench is a good for squeezing three little bottoms side by side and takes up less room than three chairs.

The before...

And the light?

My £4 boot sale lamp that was matt black before I painted it, teamed with my £4 charity shop ceiling rose. 

The black candle tubes had wax drips made from my hot glue gun and were sprayed ivory.

before...

I'm really pleased with how it's all come together. Everything you see is second hand. Apart from hanging the window *, I need to swap the curtains for floor length ones. Not now. We have a family of four arriving from Australia on Wednesday so I have some cleaning and tidying to do.

(*The window is now wall mounted and you can see it here.)

So stop by for lunch sometime? Or take away perhaps. I've given away all my cookery books and after all that painting, I'm too tired to cook.

Hedgehog update: she is now 324g and hard to weigh as she climbs out of the bowl. That's over 3.5 times her weight when we found her two weeks ago! She's doing really well. Soon it'll be time to hand her over to the hedgehog hospital to be overwintered. I just don't fancy a rabbit hutch in my kitchen until spring and she'll soon be too big for the cat carrier. Plus she poos A LOT! So it will be a bitter sweet goodbye. But mostly sweet. Bless her.