My Dream Dining Room

Ever since The Husband and I moved into our house 2 years ago we have been having a dining room debate. We both want to finish out the house with a dining room set but we don't really see the point in having one. We have a breakfast table with seating for 4 and we don't have big dinners over at our house. When I host Book Club or showers, we typically hover over the food table anyway, and our living room offers plenty of comfy seating. Plus, my "art studio" is currently housed in the dining room. Even more reason not to get a table and hutch.

But......don't think I havent imagined what it would look like. Here are all the elements I would incoprorate into my dream dining room:

I want a 6 person table that expands to seat 8. I love the chunky wood look of the Hooker Furniture Wynterhall collection. The leather chairs with nailhead detail are perfect:

On the other hand, The Husband doesn't like things that match. I kinda agree with him but it makes shopping for things like a dining room or bedroom set much more difficult. If I had to buy my pieces a la carte, I would go for a chunky table from Pottery Barn like the Benchwright. I love how it looks like an old door:

For chairs, I want the heads of the table to have armchairs and the rest to be armless. I like these Pottery Barn slip covered chairs, especially the green paisley patterned one. If the print goes out of style I can always make new slipcovers.

The walls of our dining room kina of blend into the rest of the living space, so they have to be the same color as the rest of the house. But, I would love to add a tone-on-tone stripe treatment to our exisiting khaki paint. Something like this, but without the faux finish look:

I also want a great big iron chandelier with hanging crystals......I could go on for days with these ideas! Look what getting my Grandma's china started!