The Dining Room
At Home with the Hastys - The Dining Room
The Backstory
New to Hasty Book List? Read about the fire that prompted this home renovation, here.
The Inspiration
I like to describe my style as mid-century modern meets scandinavian simplicity, with a sprinkling of art deco.
I remember very clearly writing my first story, sitting at my dining room table, when I was about 6. I already loved reading, and read everywhere and all the time, and actually putting my own words on the page felt completely magical. - Molly Greeley, author of The Heiress
At Home with the Hastys - The Dining Room
The Goal
When we imagined our dining room, we imagined hosting dinner parties. We wanted super comfortable chairs so that our guests could sit around the dinner table chatting and drinking for hours. It was important to us to strike a balance between elegant and casual so no matter the occasion, a formal Christmas dinner or an afternoon BBQ, the space could match the mood.
Favorite Place to Read a Book? At my dining table, accompanied by a delicious meal! - Alexandra Monir, author of Black Canary
At Home with the Hastys - The Dining Room
The Products
Kacia Dining Table
We wanted a solid wood dining table so that it would last for years, but we also didn’t want to spend a fortune (rebuilding after a fire is expensive!) This one was the best price we could find for a solid wood table in a style we liked.
Pen and Paper or Computer? We do everything on the computer, except when we’re brainstorming. In the “before times”, we used to plaster Tracy’s dining room with giant poster-sized post-its filled with sticky notes to work out our complicated plot lines. - Wendy Katzman, co-author of Girls With Bright Futures
Finley Low Back Dining Chair
Eric tried countless chairs to find one that he deemed comfortable enough to spend an evening chatting and drinking with friends. We chose the Chenille Tweed fabric in Silver Gray with Light Bronze legs.
Polaris Rug
I was so nervous about the dining room rug clashing with the Jane Matranga painting. I had a dozen PowerPoint slides with the painting side-by-side with different rug options. I quickly settled on a rug that was predominately blue and finally found this one that was a great compliment to the painting but was still interesting. I worked with Hearthstone and Terrace, a local boutique in Chicago, to order this piece.
Carousel Gumball Machine
This gumball machine was in my childhood bedroom since before I can remember. For years it was stored in my parents basement and they repeatedly asked me if they could get rid of it and I always said, “No.” After the fire, I became increasingly nostalgic for anything from my past. So I “shopped” my parents’ basement and brought several things back to replace the items we lost. I love how it brings a little bit of whimsy to this room.
Aspen Dinnerware
We hadn’t updated our dinnerware since our wedding - we still had the same Target plates we registered for. They were showing their age, so we excited to get a new set. We already owned the Aspen coffee mugs, so it was an easy choice to go with the rest of the Aspen dinnerware. Come to find out, our neighbors have the same collection so it is like eating at home when they invite us over.
Uptown Flatware
Our flatware situation was similar to our dinnerware - we’d had the same set since we got married (a cheap set we found at HomeGoods or something similar.) I’m pretty sure Eric never liked that set. Even though our flatware was not damaged by the fire, Eric wanted to replace it since everything else would be new. It was a small investment to get him to stop complaining. ha!
Tour Drinkware
We’ve been building our drinkware collection slowly over the years. We started buying the Tour collection at Crate and Barrel about 3 years ago. I love the stemless wineglasses. They are bottom heavy and the perfect shape.
Rectangle Felt Placemat
These felt placemats by Graf Lantz were a Christmas gift from my parents. We’ve had the coasters for years and we love the simple and functional design. The company describes their products as having “maximum subtlety and lingering impact.” I love that.
Wilde Lines Cloth Napkins
My mom told me about this company, Concept Fourteen, and offered to buy me a set of napkins from them. Once again, I struggled to decide on a pattern that wouldn’t clash with the art and the rug in the room. I narrowed it down to this design and the “A Spot of Denim Stain” napkin set. Eric liked this one better, so we went with it. I think the colors compliment the rug and art perfectly.
Table Runner
This table runner was a gift from a colleague when she took a group of students to Guatemala. I linked to similar one here.
Porcelain Serving Bowl
I purchased this Suite One Studio Porcelain Serving Bowl from Anthropologie in 2017. I wasn’t able to find the exact same bowl on either site, so I linked to a similar one.
Champignon Chandelier
We had these light fixtures picked out prior to the fire. Switching out all the lighting was a project we planned on doing shortly after moving into the condo…of course, that was all put on hold. But it was nice to have at least one thing already picked out when we had a million things to select after the fire.
Painting
This piece is by a former colleague, Jane Matranga. It has a funny story about how it came to be. Click the link below to read more about it.
Orange Sculpture
Eric and I purchased this at the Mosaics Art Festival in St. Charles in 2018 from Weld Made Art Works. It can be displayed vertically, as shown here, or horizontally, which looks great on the dining table.
Aloe Plant
This aloe plant was sitting on this windowsill during the fire. It was knocked over by the firefighters and two stems were broken off. When the mitigation company came to clean up the debris, they told me aloe plants were supposed to be good luck. How was I supposed to take that? My house was just destroyed by the fire, I wasn’t feeling very lucky. Since then, this plant has nearly doubled in size. Maybe the bigger the aloe plant the bigger the luck?
