Dining Room Furniture

Man, the is becoming more difficult than I thought.
Ever since we bought our house back in April 2010, I have been dreaming about what kind of dining room furniture I would buy when we got the chance. Well, we are finally ready to purchase something when we find the right thing.
After recently becoming more crafty, and more DIY like, I have been thinking about maybe, instead of being very nice matching dining room furniture, maybe I could buy different pieces and make them my own.
Mr. Hunt and I went to a few furniture stores just to look around and get an idea on how much we would spend and we found a few sets that we liked. It would be so much more easy to just buy the expensive sets and know that they all matched and then I could make it my own by decorating it uniquely. But still in the back of my head I'm debating doing it my own way.
Once we found a few that we liked, we got the measurements of each piece to take home and make sure everything fits. In our minds it seems like our dining room is pretty big, probably because there is nothing in it and has always been one "big" open room.
It is ideal to have a table (obviously) with 6 or 8 chairs, a china cabinet (for all the great china we got from the wedding), and a server/buffet.
Here is what we came up with
Number One:

See that cute man? Thats my husband, Mr. Hunt!

So the table has two leafs and can have up to 10 seating at the table. The china cabinet and the server (not pictured) look almost black since they are so dark. Not sure how I feel about that. I also am not too keen on the drawer and cabinet pulls, I don't really like them. I really like the fabric on the chairs, it reminds me of burlap. It would allow me to use a pretty burlap runner and some "natural" centerpieces which I like.

Number Two:

This one was one of my favorites. It has a table with two leafs which can hold 10 people, and the china cabinet. It doesn't have a server or buffet. I LOVE the table, it has markings and dents which makes it look like it has character. It would also help if any littles were to put more dents and scratches on it, no problem, it would blend right in. The china cabinet to me is beautiful, but in reality wouldn't really work for us. I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but the top portion isn't covered with glass like your normal china cabinet, it is all open. I love the look of the cabinet, its like barn, farm, rustic which is so me, but imagine all the dust that would collect on everything since there is no glass. And again, thinking about littles in the future, what if the fur babies or human babies were to bump it, everything would fall out....that's really all I was thinking about when I was looking at this beautiful piece.

Number Three:

This last one is great. It table with two leafs which seats 10 at its max, a china cabinet and a buffet/server. The chairs are like the first ones, but a darker color. The wood itself is lighter which makes it looks more brown and not black. The china cabinet has a drawer specifically for silverware with felt lining (which I guess is good for the silverware to not tarnish?).  It also has a built in wine catty in the server.

Out of all three I think that number one and three are the top two for Mr. Hunt and I. If I were going on looks alone, it would definitely be number two, but we have to be realistic here.
So when we arrived home we grabbed the tape measure and tape and taped off the area to see if everything would fit. Oops, we made our dining room a little bigger in our heads than it really is.
Looks like none of the buffet/servers are going to fit. The table would have to sit there with no leafs in. If we need to put one or both in, we will have room, but for everyday looks, it will probably have to stay with no leaf. From the way we taped it out, it looks like we will have a tight squeeze.

Mr. Hunt suggested that we make the whole dining/living area into just dining. We never use the living room anyway (even though we just got new furniture for that room), and then we would have room for a buffet/server and we wouldn't worry about being a tight fit. The only down side of this is that the dining section of the room has a chair rail up half the wall and the living area doesn't. The rooms are separated with two small pillars coming from the two side walls that you can somewhat see in the picture above.

Help us. Which set do you like best? Should I just hold out and try to find unique pieces for cheaper that look like they go together for a more DIY look? Should we make the WHOLE room a dining/entertaining room instead of living/dining? What do you think?

Little side note: I will be painting this room a different color. It will be a few shades darker than what is on the walls now which is supposed to me blue, but looks more like periwinkle in the sunlight...ewww.


Until Next Time,
Questionable house decorator.