Clean Eats at My Table + our mini kitchen revamp

 Clean Eats at My table by Clean Eats & Treats

Hello friends! I’m so excited to share with you a project I have been working on in partnership with DownEast Home — “Clean Eats at My Table”. Focusing on bringing the “family” back to dinner time, of course with lots of good food and even better conversation! The idea came to me one weekday as we were all grabbing food in three different directions. With our little family growing up our “sit down at the dinner table” time was no longer happening. When my teenagers were young it was easy.  Now as they’ve gotten older and started high school and college, both with jobs, our family dinner time is hard to come by.

I can remember as a child having dinner as a family every single night without fail. Sometimes that looked like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but we were all together. Sitting at the table, unplugged and sharing our day with one another. I want more than anything to create those memories with my family, which is why I created this series. One Sunday a month we have all agreed to put work, school, friends and other distractions aside to have a sit down dinner together. Once a month may not seem like much to you but for our season right now, it works!

Watching your children grow up is equal parts amazing and heart breaking. Seeing them succeed in life and take responsibility for themselves is rewarding as a parent, but it comes with less time at home and that is hard to accept. At least it has been for me. I love being surrounded by my kids and their friends. I’ve always been the parent to offer our home for parties and get togethers! As they get older those invitations are less and less. Gosh can we just freeze time? Luckily they are growing into such wonderful adults. I couldn’t be more proud of them both. I miss seeing them as often as I used to but I’m grateful for our one Sunday a month commitment and plan to make it both memorable and delicious!

 

So each month I will be bringing you a “Clean Eats At My Table”. I will share our recipes as well as our conversation! Well, I’ll skim the surface of conversation, to avoid a novel, because our family is known to be overly chatty.

This months recipes:

Maple Citrus Grilled Chicken and Roasted Fingerling Potatoes and Baby Peas with Creamy Dill Dressing.

This months conversation:

Why is there a stranger taking our picture while we eat? My teenagers were so uncomfortable with this, which led to the discussion of how awful being famous must be. Constantly surrounded by cameras every single day of your life. Which in turn concluded with stay in school, get a degree and document your life in pictures and home videos since we aren’t famous.

In the midst of this idea we decided to revamp our kitchen space. We didn’t want to invest much as we plan to sell soon, but enough to brighten the room and make a difference. I’m pretty happy with the final product and beyond grateful for a hubby who is always willing to support my DIY dreams!

We started with a fresh coat of paint from Sherwin-Williams. A neutral coat of Wordly Grey brought the perfect mix of cool and warm tones into our space. We toyed with the idea of painting our cabinets white but ended up chickening out. Maybe later. With so much natural wood already in the space we couldn’t go overly cool. I actually love the way the cabinets and countertop now pop with a lighter wall. Its amazing how a coat of fresh paint can completely change the feel of your space.

Most important was the search for a new table. This is the center of the kitchen, where we gather, it had to be perfect. We found the most beautiful table from DownEast Home. You can find it here, the Jamestown, we felt it was traditional but had a modern farmhouse feel, which was the look we were going for. Well built and super sturdy for this bunch! It blended well with our kitchen cabinets too. We paired it with two Madeline side chairs, also from DownEast to make it more inviting. Mixing and matching chairs was fun, we had so many options it was hard to choose. The table is the perfect size for the space as is, but also extends with a leaf for when we have company over. Which needs to happen more often!! Lets make dinner plans!?

Clean Eats Kitchen Revamp by Clean Eats & Treats

We spent hours searching for a rug to go under the table. I had two delivered and ended up sending them back. We finally decided on this one from Rugs USA and it works perfect in our space! Bonus its easy to clean and hides dirt REALLY well! Not to mention their prices are unbeatable!

Let’s talk bar stools. Aren’t they amazing? I’ve seen the same stools on several different online sites ranging anywhere from $80-$120 each. After too many sleepless nights surfing the intrawebs I found a company online who just happened to be here in SLC, Direct Source Furniture, who had them listed for $49! Sold!!! I’ve linked them here.

I found the greatest melamine Spring dishes at Costco and had fresh Sunlit Meadows arrangements delivered by FTD Flowers to invite spring into our home! How awesome for an online floral shop to allow you to order online and have local florists on standby to craft your arrangements!

Our first “Clean Eats at My Table” was a huge success! A huge thank you to Travis from Travis J Photography for capturing the memory. As awkward as it was eating while someone snapped a picture, I have some seriously epic outtakes I’ll cherish forever!

My striped dress, my older daughter’s Ooh la la top, and my younger daughters top and skirt, along with all jewlery can be found at DownEast. Talk about a one stop shop!

As always, thank you for being here. For allowing me to share my journey and a little about my family with you. It means more than you know. I hope in some way I can help and inspire you along your journey too.

Xo,

Shannon