The dining room

Our dining room is the most under-utilized room in our house.  I don't have any plans to make it into anything else, though - we use it a lot for the holidays.  But I have decided that we will also start using it for Sunday family dinners.  Why not?  It has plenty of room for all of us and eating together has got to be one of the nicest ways to end a weekend!

But the table looked super plain.  I keep the placemats and napkins in the china cabinet, but I wanted a tray to put a seasonal set of salt and pepper.  I found a beautiful cream tray on the Kirkland's site that I wanted.  It was only $13 but I would have had to also pay shipping, and I'm trying to be frugal anyway, and not continue to add "stuff" to my home.  What to do, what to do...Then while I was rummaging around under the kitchen cabinets I found a Talavera-decorated tray I had almost gotten rid of:

I used it last when we had a party for a co-worker who was leaving.

After a couple of coats of spray paint it looked very similar to the one I had wanted from Kirkland's and cost me zero dollars since I already had the spray paint.

 The power of spray paint, right?

The candle holder is from Pier One, the salt and pepper shakers I can't remember where...but I love the glazed pottery look of the leaves and I only ever pull them out in the Fall.  It will be nice to change up this little tray for the seasons.

 Dinner with a touch of candleglow is pretty sweet.

And our little dining room will be a cozy place to get eat before the week ahead.