When new floors lead to new place mats

I am slowly putting my house back together after having to move everything out for the repairs. Prior to the great ruptured-pipe incident, I had a distressed-white table in the foyer, and it's now being used as my TV display stand since I wanted a change from the old one. But when that white table was in the foyer, I had displayed on it a cheery silk flower basket a dear friend gave me for my birthday this year. I loved it and wished the spring colors would work for fall too. Well, I went to T. J. Maxx and found some pretty scalloped floral place mats by Rachel Ashwell of Shabby Chic fame, and with the light-orange colors, these work great with both the flowers and the olive-green ruffled dishes I scored at Goodwill a year or two ago.

I love the way the fall light hits the dishes, especially the teacup with its pretty ruffled saucer.

One change that shocked even me was that I realized how much more spacious my small dining room seemed without my beloved tea trolley in it. When I moved it to the garage a few weeks ago before the flooring went in, I discovered how rickety it had gotten. The wheels wobbled precariously, and that cart was probably a dangerous place to display some of my most treasured tea wares. I'm sure I'll come up with another place to display tea wares, though, so stay tuned. Meanwhile, I now have LVP flooring everywhere downstairs except the kitchen, which is a renovation project for another day. I'm loving the clean look but didn't realize how much sounds would echo without the carpet there to muffle them. Amazon will be bringing me a nice big rug today to help take care of that. And I may get one for the dining room, too, to use underneath my dining table and chairs. I'm so glad I bought a distressed set twenty years ago, because I still love that look today. And now that I've enjoyed my first quiet week with no workmen traipsing in and out of my house, I can say that I'm glad the only thing "distressed" in this house is some furniture!