The Formal Dining Room
I learned that American homes (at least in San Antonio, where we did our house-searching) typically consist of 2 living rooms and 2 dining rooms. The first set of living and dining areas are actually called "Formal Living Room" and "Formal Dining Room". Our realtor told us that usually, that's the part(s) of the house where you are supposed to entertain guests.
We tried putting on our Ikea dining table in the Formal Dining Room but it looked so cute (and weirdly small for the space), so we scrapped the idea and moved it back to the other dining room (or Joanna Gaines would often call it "Breakfast Nook").
We figured that we needed a new Dining Table. And today, our "formal" Dining Set arrived.
We've been going back and forth at Rooms to Go because their showroom are really light and nice. We were just disappointed with the delivery of our previous buys so we didn't buy from them anymore for our succeeding ones. Mega Furniture on the other hand, has somewhat "darker" show-room. It appeared all so rustic to me until I followed Joanna's advice on "picturing it". Their furniture are a little cheaper, but the quality is amazing. We were also satisfied with their delivery - nothing broken and nothing missing.
Having a new home and filling it up with furniture is a long and winding process. From the moment we closed on the house, we starting going to multiple showrooms, wondered what furniture is going to this and that room. It was a tiring but enjoyable experience, sometimes even overwhelming. I always wanted to buy right away but we were always reminded of "not rushing".
My formal dining table requirements are kind of simple - I just wanted it to be not so formal - or not-matchy-matchy. The bench instead of two chairs fulfilled that requirement. Plus, the bench kinda makes it a little open to the formal living area.
I was eye-ing for a lighter leather color but figured it won't blend with the walls of the room (unless we paint them all, which is not in our priorities as of the moment).
We have a lot of plans for this formal dining room area. The chandelier and the curtains are all left by the previous owner of the house, and we plan on changing them. We also plan on changing the red wall into something lighter, or actually we plan on removing that wall to make it open to the entertainment/non-formal living area. We had a lot of inspiration from Fixer Upper :D . But this house was really well-maintained by the former owners, we never really needed to do anything.
Our goal is just to match the character of the house like ours. That's why we have a lot of house projects in our pipeline. But for the mean time, I'm thinking I need some area rug here..