It’s been a prooooocessss to refresh the dining room. We still have changes in mind, but the room is shaping up. When we moved into this house a few years ago, the dining room sat empty for a few years. We’ve done little by little to change the room from a carpeted beige-striped room to the neutral light room it is now.
Here’s the before:
The room had the original builder grade carpet and lighting, with painted stripes, when we moved in. I was just newly pregnant then with my daughter. With one little living here and one on the way, we knew we’d be on the floor playing a lot. So we immediately replaced the carpet and laid wood floors to blend with the red oak floors in the kitchen.
One thing I did not change but plan to are the pillars. If we do floors again, I’ll take these pony walls and pillars out and square off the arches.
We originally painted this room a darker grey, which we liked until the last year of being at home so much. I really wanted to brighten this room as part of my mission to brighten my house.
As part of the current refresh, the first thing we did was update the lighting. We found this one from Rejuvenation:
Next, we painted the dining room walls to brighten it up. We planned on a soft blue-grey, but at the last minute I wanted a very light neutral wall. We did our ceiling White Dove to match the trim and the walls Pale Oak by Benjamin Moore.
Our dining table expands, and it’s been great for the few times a year we eat there. With little kids, I don’t love the extra mess in the dining room so most meals are at our family table in the kitchen. But this one is fun to eat at for fancy dinner nights or special events. I originally found the set on Wayfair. It’s a few years old, but a solid wood table with chairs I liked at the time for under $700 for the set. I’m on the hunt for new chairs, but in the meantime I found these chair covers to change the look – and more importantly protect the chairs from Fiona the Crazy Cat from further destroying them. These are washable and under $30, so if they get destroyed I won’t cry as much as I would if the upholstered chairs were ruined.
For wall art, we are making another wrapped canvas frame soon. One wall over the dining curio has a set of family pictures that I developed and put in these frames. The aluminum color was a little unique so I liked these over black, silver or grey frames.
The curtains cost me — nothing! For this room anyways. I am making some new ones for our large living room windows. I was able to repurpose the living rom curtains I purchased a few years ago from West Elm, and hemmed them about 10 inches to better fit this window. With Crate and Barrel curtain rod rings, they have a nice chunky modern look now.
To tie the rug together, I searched and waited patiently for this new rug from Annie Selke. I had not had a rug in this room (or under any tables) because of messes. This Dash and Albert striped rug was under $225, and is cotton, washable and something I can protect but also try to clean if the kids damage it (inevitable!).
I’m pretty pleased with this room so far! I’ll share our next wood wrapped canvas that ties this room together soon!
Here are more light ideas. Enjoy!
