Dining Room "Hutch"

Not sure the exact word for this built-in. I think it served as a wine cooler and bar area for the previous owner. You can see it in the left side of this photo.

My first step was to remove the glass shelves and add in a wood one. Then, in the door where the wine fridge had been, I created several shelves and we store all of our games here. The kids can get their own games and sit at the table, and I like the convenice of it. But here is a better "before" photo.

 

And this is my original after:

 

 

I used a washable crayola marker and wrote Psalms 1 on the back of the wall.

 

But when I painted the dining room a washed gray, I stuck with a simple solid background

 

 

In the basket is our storage for all the birthday, christmas, wedding invitation, graduation, and other cards that we get in the mail.

 

At meal time we pick a card out of the basket and pray for that person.

 

Then we throw the card away.

 

It gives us a chance to revisit a card at least once before tossing it, and actually connecting with that individual person as a family.

 

I like this tradition :)