[Edit: Check out the changes I've made in here since this post at this link.]

 As promised in many previous blog posts, here is my dining room. I hope you enjoy! Please, don't forget to follow me! Leave me a comment letting me know you follow me so I can follow back, also grab my button to add to your side bar! Let me know you did, so I can return the favor!

Here is the view walking in from the kitchen. Please note the stack of silver plated plate covers. If you didn't know they are supposed to keep your food warm until your entire table has been served, or to keep a dish covered. I searched and searched for these all over the internet, estate sales, antiques malls, thrift stores, etc. The ones I found were all over $100.00 each!!! I paid about $5.00 for all four of them! I got them at a couple's yard sale who used to own a large bed and breakfast. They used them for room service. For now they live in the chair until I add another china hutch to the dining room (in the works...).

By far a terrible photo; however, I love how the chandelier peeks in.

More cloches and some vintage boxes. They make great storage, plus they are pretty (to me, at least...)

I had those Craftsman style doors in a closet and decided to put them to use or get rid of them, so here they are! The marble column remnant is actually a pair of bookends a friend of mine bought nearly 40 years ago when he was in the Navy. I had admired them in his home for some time, then they appeared in his shop, so I snagged them up!

The porcelain doll heads were a buck at a little junk shop near my house. They sold mostly really junky items, but these were jewels in the rough! It's amazing how much more important things look like when you put them under glass!

This is the view from the living room. I'm not sure if I'm happy with the window treatment yet. I still need to tweak it.

This is the view head on from the living room. You may ask, why such a small table? Because the room is small, and I like to be able to get around it and have some flow when friends come over. I can seat four at it, if need be; plus there is a tilt top table in the corner that I can set up as well. With the two small tables, it is like you are in a tea room.

Here are some close-ups of the current buffetscape. I went with a white on white theme.

As always, I get a little carried away. I really wish I had a more edited style. Still, I love all the varying textures.

I will probably hang the platters in the background above the window. I'm not sure, but I do know this display won't be there long, as I plan on having a Halloween gathering, and have a very cute Shabby Chic/Gothic buffetscape in the works. I will keep you posted!

[Edit: Since this post, I've remolded my kitchen on a $1,200.00 Budget! Check out what it now looks like here and here! For photos of construction, click here.]

Since my posting on the Hoosier cabinet the other day was a hit, I figured I post on the rest of the kitchen...

Here is my new picnic table that Ronnie over at Through The Garden Gate built for me. If you live anywhere within driving distance of Hanover, VA, check this place out! I try to go at least once a week.  You can find them on Facebook

This is the view from the mud room.

Lemons in a pink pitcher complete with embossed Fleur de Lis, and aqua cake stand topped with peaches and a funky wire cloche. This burlap table runner is really a coffee bag--I cut it down the side seams, put the label side facing down, and tucked under the edges. No sew and free, as my mom gave me a ton of empty coffee bags.

Looking from the dining room. Don't mind the blue tape on the ceiling--it has only been there for a year--I keep putting off doing the final paint touch ups on the cabinets....

Vintage bottles in the window sill.

Again the view from the dining room.

Here is the very shabby and French terrarium I got on clearance at Marshall's a while back. I love having it up against a window with natural light filtering through it. I did a mock cafe curtain with vintage picture frames and yards of lace to give it a softened backdrop.

Here is the Hoosier again, it will looks so much better once it is painted white!

Do you see it? That's right more Mercury Glass!

This table runner is another coffee sack! This is an old medical cabinet that used to be mahogany. I painted it to look like it had been in an old farm house with many layers of similar colored paints and glaze. You can also peek into the dining room in this photo, so now I will leave you on a cliff hanger for my next post.

I'm linking to lots of places on my side bars, and as a first time here:

I got this really great French bottle drying rack and beautiful wire French basket.

I displayed them with a beautiful cloche (what else?) on my antique Hoosier cabinet. This Hoosier belonged to my great-grandmother. My grandfather (her son, he's in his 70's) says he can't remember them not having this in their house. My grandparents acquired this from her when she moved into a senior apartment complex in the late 70's or early 80's. That is also about the time my grandmother had it stripped and refinished, as it had been a shabby distressed white painted finish...eeek...the horror. Why would anyone want to take beautiful white and make it oak? I may (probably will) paint this flat white in the very near future. As a good friend always says, oak is only good for toilet seats and firewood. Sorry to offend any of you who like oak.

I love the chippy enameled top. It really pops the crusty rusty patina of the wire basket.

The bottle rack is a convenient place to keep cups and mugs handy near my tea and hot cocoa stash.

I got these great metal bins at Through The Garden Gate, one of my favorite antiques shops. They are from an old hardware store. The nicely fill in the space where the roll-top door is missing.

I love this really unique shaped cloche. Please stay tuned this is part of many future posts on my kitchen! Happy bloggin! Update: I got the drying rack from Wisteria. They have the one above and a much larger one. Thank you Dotty Waters for funding this through the BB&T Visa gift card you gave me almost a year ago that I forgot was in my wallet!!!  I love this site and all the goodies they sell! Thank you, Wisteria for the picture.

Here is a nice close-up of the star rhinestone brooch and the intricate snuff (?) box. I hope you have enjoyed this quick glimpse of more of my Shabby French Cottage! Please check back often. My new master bathroom is nearly complete! Photos soon!

A comment I left Cindy over at My Romantic Home inspired this post. Generally I have to carefully stage and crop my blog photos to hide messes, as I constantly have something torn up to change things around--either re-arranging furniture, replacing furniture, shuffling accessories, etc. My walls are starting to look like swiss cheese from moving around pictures, but of course, I carefully hand new items to cover the holes! I have had 8, yes eight different dining room tables, four different kitchen islands, and have replaced nearly every chair in the house 3 or 4 times over in the past 2.5 years!!! In fact my laundry room is packed to the brim with several old chairs, a pair of old end tables, a half dozen lamps, loads of great framed artwork, candlesticks, serving platters, tidbit trays, and more waiting on a dealer to come and pick up! All things I once loved and had to have and didn't think I'd ever part with, now they are piled up like old junk and I can't wait for them to be gone! It's funny how thing go like that! Seeing how I am in one of those 'change' moments, I will spare you with the horrors of my home right now and share a few photos of previous times, hopefully these are all new to you. I apologize if I repeat any photos!