Dining Room Home Tour| Before and After

I’m SOOOOOOOO excited to show you our dining room reveal!! This space has been a true labor of love and patience and I can’t wait for you to see not only where we started but where we ended up.  We’ve been working on it since we finished our formal living room for the one room challenge – the two spaces are essentially connected so having one side completed and beautiful pushed us to kick our dining room up a notch. I wanted a space that we could entertain in, enjoy special meals, and well…be all kinds of fancy while still staying on a budget.  This was the first dining space I was able to plan and decorate since our first house didn’t have one – I really enjoyed making it our own!

Before I get into all the nitty gritty details let’s start with where the room started on move in day! It’s so much more fun to appreciate all the yumminess that way.  Aside from throwing some mismatched leftover furniture from our old house into the room – nothing had been done since. We even made things a bit worse by removing the original chandelier and hanging it in our kitchen instead! So this room was really bare bones.

She had a lot of things going for her though – hardwood floors, 10 foot ceilings, and beautiful sunlight pouring into the room from both the front and back of the house.  Do I wish I could remove those pillars? YES. But truth be told the amount of time and energy it would take to get rid of them just isn’t in the cards for right now – so I’ll do my best to blend them.

My plan for this space was to mix feminine and masculine in a way that stayed true to my style -Parisian Chic. I wanted soft colors, pretty florals, and some glam elements to really kick the cookie cutter out of the room.  It was also important to tie our dining room into the adjoining formal living room since they are a connected space. With a calculated mix of patterns and textures I was able to pull off a space perfect for dining, entertaining, and morning coffee-sipping! And the best part? We refinished and furnished the entire room for around $1000!

One of my favorite elements are my dining chairs. While out antique shopping in January I stumbled upon these 8 Georgian chairs on sale for $325.  I know that sounds like a lot of money – and it is – but at $40 per chair you can’t really beat that! They were solid wood and already black (which is what I wanted) and I knew with a fun fabric on the cushions I could bring these chairs back to life! Thanks to my friend Jackie for reupholstering the seats for me – they turned out absolutely stunning.  There are little dings and knicks in the paint and I’m okay with that – gives them that well loved character.

But holy mama that fabric!!!! I spent more hours of my life that I care to mention deciding on the perfect fabric because I wanted it to not only be fashionable but durable for years to come. This fabric (purchased at a local design center) fit the bill and had that edginess I was looking for.

Who could ignore that stunning table in the center of the room?! You may remember I chatted about some live edge tables I was crushing on earlier this year and I had really hoped we could do something similar in here. Turns out it’s EXTREMELY difficult to find a 3 foot wide tree to cut a live edge from and if you do luck out and find one it takes at least six months for it to dry out.  So after lots of planning, scheming, and calling mills all the way in New Jersey – turns out buying one on sale from World Market for $215 can make you feel just as happy.  Win-Win. With just a quick coat of gold spray paint on the hairpin legs I had a brand new dining table – with a live edge – that came in way under budget.

I mean look at those stems…

I chose to do an accent wall in a beautiful floral wallpaper  in lieu of curtains. I didn’t want to compete with the window treatment on the opposite side of the room or limit the natural light coming into the space – plus how fun is that pink floral pattern?!

I ordered 2 rolls for about $100 which covered the one wall completely – cheaper than curtains and curtain hardware! Painting the window trim a glossy black adds a touch of sophistication and really makes this wallpaper pop.  It’s another one of my favorite updates!

Alright, let’s talk about the other elephant in the room…that gorgeous chandelier!!!! Swoon! I really debated back and forth between a more modern light fixture and something with a vintage vibe. I searched all the big box stores and wasn’t finding anything that really spoke to me. But, on yet another antique store day, I came across this diamond in the rough. I promise I don’t spend all day every day antiquing haha.

This ‘ol girl was tucked into a dark and dusty corner in the basement of the store looking oh so sad. I brought her upstairs to make sure she was in working condition (it was) and bought some replacement crystals. I cleaned her up with some vinegar and voila! Shiny and new! My handy husband converted it into a hardwire but we’ll talk about all those details in an upcoming post – I didn’t do it but it looked super easy!

I mean – GORGEOUS – right?! She set me back about $300 but honestly that’s not any more or less than I was seeing in retail stores. I knew once I had the fancy chandelier that I needed a little something extra on the ceiling. That’s where my friends over at Wholesale Millwork came in! They have a beautiful selection of ceiling medallions, custom trim pieces, and more available online. I ordered the 22″ Bordeaux Ceiling Medallion and it was super easy to install.

For a small price you can really up the wow factor in your room! It’s all about those small details sometimes!

If we take a step back you can see how this space connects with our formal living room.

It makes me all kinds of giddy to finally see these two spaces together!  There is light bouncing all around this side of the house and while it makes my heart happy it’s a bit difficult to photograph at times but I’m getting there.

This fancy lady here is one of my most favorite art pieces – she’s beautiful, feminine, and edgy – all qualities I find totally appealing. We DIY’d a floating acrylic frame for her and placed some framed Kari Herer notecards around it. A very budget friendly art gallery but more on that in an upcoming post!

 

There are still a few things I want to tweak –

• Add Open Wall Shelving
• Cover Chandelier Chain
• Possibly Add Floating Credenza

But, for the most part, I’d call this room DONE! I’m so happy I was patient with some design decisions and let the room evolve over time (even when I was frustrated with our slow progress). There is something to be said for allowing a space to grow and to carefully select some key elements because in the end you will save money by buying the right thing once instead of the wrong thing twice.

Here’s our budget breakdown!

Paint and Supplies {Sherwin Williams Crushed Ice} $50

Crown Molding {The Molding Outlet, Laporte IN} $40

Wallpaper { Home Depot Calista Beige in Modern Rose } $48/roll

Chandelier { The Blue Door, Grand Rapids }  $300

Ceiling Medallion { Wholesale Millwork } $50 (HUGE thank you to Wholesale Millwork for providing the ceiling medallion!)

Leopard Fabric { Lee Industries Calico Black } $100/yd

Georgian Dining Chairs { Lost and Found, Grand Rapids} $325

Live Edge Dining Table { World Market} $215

Wall Gallery and Plate Wall { Various Stores } $100

Rug { Borrowing from a friend for now} FREE

TOTAL: $1230

Thanks for stopping by! I’d love to hear you’re favorite part!!

Oh, and you can see the mood board I created to inspire my space here. The final reveal came pretty darn close to it!