What's not to like?

Some rooms come together in a flash... while others unfold bit by bit. That is so in the case of my dining room. I never thought of myself as a "formal dining room" kind of girl. In fact, quite the opposite -- up till now I'd considered myself more of the "mix-n-match" sort -- a couple of battered chairs, goblets from one era sidled up to various plates from another...

But I kept inheriting things... things I love... my mother's goblets and silver, my boyfriend's mother's linens... and then I acquired these plates, Franciscanware, Desert Rose. I've written about them before. Oh, how I love these plates. And they needed a place to be.

I looked and looked for china hutches... shelves, cabinets. Keeping the buffet was crucial, whether a hutch sat on it or shelves hung above it offered some wiggle room... but still, the answer did not come easy. The search was like being stuck in the Faeiry Tale of the Three Bears -- what I found were shelves and cabinets that were too big, too small, too glitzy, too shabby... nothing was just right... till I started poking around in my workshop where I have a stash of spindles. What I thought was that a set of shelves suported on spindles would be just right And then the process continued -- some spindles where too long... too short... too delicate.

Briefly I considered making the spindles myself. I said "briefly".

Finally it struck me that the woodworking store, Rockler, might be just the ticket. And it was -- it wasn't an easy fix -- their were strill length issues and it took several trips and a special order, but finally the picture in my head is now hanging on my wall.


My brother tells me that this open cabinet is known as a Welsh Dresser. I've since looked it up; Welsh Dressers generally feature open cabinets or shelves that sit on the buffet, as if attached. Strictly speaking mine isn't really like any Welsh Dresser I've ever seen... but whatever it's called, it's this cabinet, these dishes, this formal room that feels like home. Who knew?