dining room tour and story

Happy Monday friends! It's the first Monday of our summer break, so I'm allowed to be a little too cheerful for a Monday right?! Don't worry though, my enthusiasm for summer break will probably be over by the end of the week when my kids start talking about "how bored" they are. #thesummerstruggle

Today I'm continuing on with the room tours. As you know I'm slowly but surely updating the house tour photos for the blog, and as I do I'm resharing the makeover stories. Today, I'm sharing the story of our dining room.

The dining room is to the left of our entry foyer when you walk in the house.

This room went through quite the dramatic makeover. She was previously outfitted with wallpaper, a shiny brass chandy, and wall to wall white carpet.

The wallpaper wasn't awful at all. It just wasn't really my style. Removing it definitely helped me to formulate my plan. For me it's easier to think up a design plan when you're looking at a blank space. So maybe that could be a little tip for you if you're struggling with a space in your home. Bring it down to the bare bones and maybe that will get your creative juices flowing a bit more. That always works out pretty well for me.

Now, let's take a minute to talk about why white wall to wall carpet in a dining room is always a no. Always. No. Just. No. I can't think of anything more impractical than white carpet in a place where you eat.......and in our case where you drink red wine. Without a doubt ripping out the carpet for wood floors was the best and most dramatic change to the room.

Next up was selling our hand-me-down furniture. My first move was to give this table and chairs a little makeover and move them into the breakfast room. Then after a few years I sold them on Craig's List. There was once a time when my style was a bit more formal and this furniture suited me. However, if your style evolves I don't think you should force yourself to hang on to pieces you don't love for the sake of the fact that it once belonged to a relative. So I let this furniture go and brought in pieces that I really love. The less formal looking table and chairs (from World Market) definitely brought down the traditional feel of the room and gave it a more casual every day look which suits us so much better. To dress up the wood chairs just a bit I added antique brass ring pulls to the backs.

I went with a very light color on the walls, Waverly Cafe Cream, and I painted the ceiling in Martha Stewart Macadamia, which is the color on the walls in the adjoining kitchen. To bring in some pattern and create a focal point I stenciled one wall with an ikat pattern in Valspar Cooled Lava. I love the bold pattern, and I've not grown tired of it yet. I've toyed around with the idea of painting the dining room walls black, but I just can't seem to pull the trigger on that mainly because I still love this stenciled wall so much!

The chandy was another one of those "marriage compromises". I took the shiny brass chandy down, spray painted it pink and hung it my daughter's room. I wanted to bring in an antique crystal chandy which I thought would be great over this rustic style table, but my hub wanted something a bit more "masculine" or really just something not too girly - his words not mine. So, I found this wrought iron fixture at The Home Depot that fit his "masculine" preference, and then I added on some of the extra glass crystals, that came with the chandy in our breakfast room, with some twine. And all is right in the world as we both got a little of what we wanted. ;)

The chalkboard panels hung over the vintage dresser turned buffet were a super simple diy project involving closet mirrors and chalkboard paint.

On the wall opposite the stencil wall I hung a gallery wall of special family photos.

I kept the color palette of this gallery wall really tight only using black and metallic gold or silver frames. I know a gallery wall isn't typically a dining room thing, but I love the way this gallery of family photos makes this room feel warm and welcoming. I didn't want our dining room to feel too special or too formal to use for everyday.

And that brings us to the end of our dining room tour. Slowly but surely we're making our way around the house! And hopefully resharing these makeover stories will help to get me motivated to finally do something with our laundry room. One can only hope. ;)

Let's have a great week!