Belgian Style Dining Room

Well, hello there, rabbits,

I really am finding myself thinking about dining rooms a silly amount at the moment. I have a million zillion ideas floating around in my head.  
It's moved firmly into obsession territory. 

Regular readers will know that Modern Country Style always reflects my current fixations so please fasten your seat-belts and prepare to enter my head-space.

{Drinks and psychologists may be provided.}

One aspect of my enthusiasm is how to make dining spaces work 
b e a u t i f u l l y  w e l l. 

To really and truly earn their keep. 

It's a fine line between wanting the kitchen and eating areas to flow well but still allowing dirty saucepans to be hidden from guests. 

A very fine line indeed.

I love the way this Belgian Style kitchen and dining room have been planned (for more beautiful Modern Country Belgian Style spaces and tips on how to get the look, simply click on the link). 

The change of flooring between the two spaces allows a degree of separation between each room.

Over the next couple of weeks, 

I'll be sharing how I've tried to create that link 

between kitchen and dining room in our home.

Did I say obsessed?

Image via Belgian Pearls

Modern Country Girls: Sophie Dahl

Today, let's talk about Sophie Dahl. 

A real Modern Country Girl.

I have the most enormously embarrassing girl-crush. 

Yes, Sophie Dahl at first seems to be utterly intimidating: A perfect face. A ramshackle-country kitchen. Extraordinary culinary skills. A modelling career. Oh, and she's Roald Dahl's grand-daughter. 

Everything to envy.....yet she somehow has a charm that makes us all fall head over heels for her doe-eyed loveliness. 

Sophie exudes warmth and homeliness; as though you could just pop by for a quick bite of whatever scrumptiousness it is that she's been rustling up that morning. 

{Why, thank you, Sophie, I will have a third helping.}

Sophe Dahl manages to at least appear to perfectly juggle the demands of a busy modern career with a calm, countrified home-life; and that in itself is a no mean feat!

Modern Country Miss.

What's not to love?

Images via: Cooking Up A Storm In A Teacup, Telegraph, SuperMomza, tumblr_m9wqvg8dxd1rsyisotumblr_m9wqvg8dxd1rsyiso, The Times, The Swell Life, Regan cameron 

Modern Country Georgian Cottage House Tour

Did you love the house I featured showing The White Company's Christmas 2012 collection as much as I did?

 Want to see more....much, much more? {Like, enough to satisfy the stalker in you?...Yes, I know it's there...} Then come on over to the very lovely Relics blog today and take a peek at how to get the look.

Those lime-washed floors? They could so be yours.

Come and see how...

Modern Country Fashion Round-Up 2012

Before we dive headlong into all that 2013 has to offer, shall we take a moment to glance back over what has been an extraordinary year on the pages of Modern Country Style?

30 for 30 was a series I ran earlier this year, when I was five months pregnant: 30 items mixed into 30 different outfits over 30 consecutive days...phew! Just click on the outfit of your choice to be taken to that very post for more shots and details of the clothes. 

There they all are!

30 outfits, 

over 30 days, 

using 30 different pieces. 

{All you eagle-eyes out there will have spotted that there are only twenty-five photos. 

That's cos we didn't take photos on five of the days...but I did still wear different outfits. Honest!}

And, to answer the question that so many of you have asked, YES, there will be lots more Modern Country Fashion a-coming your way, as well as the usual lovely mix of renovation, inspiration and creation!

Modern Country Dining Room

Wouldn't it be lovely if we could all sit down together in this gorgeous Modern Country Dining Room and sit and while away the afternoon chatting over whether we would hang that mirror on the wall (too dangerous?) or leave it leaning there for the sake of aesthetics....and then whether linen slip-covered chairs are as hopelessly impractical as they seem? Yes, you can wash them but are the blackberry jam squished-in stains ever going to disappear? My sensible-mummy-eye tells me a big Fat NO.

But isn't that precisely what would be so enjoyable? We could toast in the New Year making the very most of the hostess' kindness, and then skidaddle the moment it came to any hint of tidying up....and onto the next house, I say!

Are you with me?

Image via Alex Macarthur