Fall 2022 in the Dining Room

Update: In May of 2021, Sailor and I packed up our home, our lives and our cats, and moved 2,000 miles, from San Diego, CA to Fort Wayne, IN. Although we didn’t find a new home in Indiana with red shutters,  we did find a cozy, airy ranch sitting on an acre of land, surrounded by beautiful green grass and trees. (I’ve nicknamed it “the Dupont house”.) But since Red Shutter Cottage is a frame-of-mind, I am keeping the name. To me, it represents an approach to living comfortably from season to season, in a home that serves as a restful haven, filled with warmth and beauty. If you are interested in reading about our journey, please click this link “Our Story”. 

I am always reading about people who walk into Target, and find the most interesting, useful, super-cute things in the Dollar Section.   I often would wonder, how do they do that?  Are they in ‘Disneyland-Target’?  Because I NEVER find cute, useful and interesting things in the Dollar Section.

Until now.  My brother lives (for a little while longer) in another town about 90 minutes south of us.  I was down there helping him with packing up his house, because he has bought a new house here in Fort Wayne, and is moving up here next week!  None of which has anything to do with this post, except the “Target” part.  

Brother and I walked into Target to pick up some packing items, and of course I beelined for the Dollar Section.  And that’s where the magic happened.  I found a small, lifted decorative board.  You see them everywhere, and they are useful for so many things.  And almost instantly, in my mind’s eye, I could see my new little lifted board looking like this!    

At this point, maybe I should mention that I am decorating for fall for the first time in 2 years.  During fall of 2020 I was recovering from a series of surgeries, and during fall of 2021 we were living in an 800 square foot apartment, waiting for the renovation work on our new NE Indiana home (“the Dupont house”) to be completed.  

So here I am, thrilled to be able to decorate for fall, and even more excited to write a post about Fall 2022 in the Dining Room! 

Even though I was holed up last year in a postage-stamped-size apartment, I couldn’t resist making a few fall purchases.  The branches in the corrugated pitcher (Walmart) are from Meijer.  A few of the pumpkins I am showing are from Hobby Lobby, and a few yards of a terra cotta window pane check fabric also came from Hobby Lobby.

For the past few years I have started to lean into a more curated look for my seasonal decorating.  Hopefully what you see here translates those words into action.  And I am by no means saying I have achieved the end goal.  Old habits die hard, and I sense there is still a bit of “go big or go home” in my decorating instincts.  

Let me introduce you to the newest member of our household: our china hutch.

Red Shutter Cottage, our home in Southern California had built-ins in the living room that stored my china and wine glasses.  But the Dupont house, built in 1976, has no storage in the dining room or living room area.  Pretty quickly I realized I would need a china hutch, and honestly, I could easily see where putting one against the back wall would help define the dining room area.  

My inspiration piece came from Bonnie Mongeau Schmitt.  She is the admin for the Facebook group “For the Love of Buffalo Check and Decorating”.

This beautiful china hutch is from Bonnie Mongeau Schmitt, who is the admin for a Facebook Group geared to lovers of buffalo check. And, that would be me.

What inspired me about her hutch was the warm color of the wood, and the simple, classic style.  Clearly it’s beautifully made (it’s a Broyhill Attic Heirloom), and would look appropriate in any home, anywhere, for years to come. 

It took weeks, actually months of combing Facebook Marketplace to find exactly what I was looking for, but that patience paid off. 

I wanted upper cabinets behind glass doors. I also wanted a few drawers. But what I REALLY wanted, and was quite hard to find, was behind that row of closed cabinet doors.  Behind those doors are 2 shelves that run the entire length of the hutch. Storage galore!

Those doors! Those doors! Hard to find, but worth the wait!

This little shelf in the middle with the mirror in back is just gravy.

I will leave you with a few pictures of the renovation work we did in this part of the house. The dining room is actually the back section of a long room that includes our piano and tv, a living room sitting area, and then finally the dining room.  Please keep in mind that this room is far from finished.  We’re at a sort of ‘here we are for now’ stage in this room. 

Here are some pictures, both before and after, that help with understanding the layout of this room.   

This is one of the listing pictures of the Dupont house. You are standing in the foyer; the front door is to your right.

New paint, new flooring, crown molding and baseboards. Done.

This is one of the listing pictures of the Dupont house. From this position you are looking towards the foyer; the front door is to the left of those closets.  

This is one of the listing pictures of the Dupont house.

All we did in here (and the rest of the house) was change the flooring and the paint.  This flooring was already in the kitchen and breakfast nook.  We extended it into the family room, living room, and hallway.  We painted most of the house with Sherwin Williams Cotton White, and then added crown molding and baseboards.  As you can see, this south-facing room gets lots of light.  (In the winter with snow on the ground, it’s like klieg lights!).  I will do another post about the ‘living room’ part of this room soon!

Happy Fall from the Dupont house!

Kristine 

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