Dining Room: The Ideas

K, so do you have a room in your home that you use ALL. THE. TIME, but you just don’t love it? Like blech? And you just wanna go “ICK” every time you think about it or look at it?

 

That room for me: Our Dining Room

 

Eww.

 

This room is just SOOO not me. I hate brown, and guess what this room is? Brown on beige on tan on camel on gross. Don’t love it.

There are two main issues (besides the lack of color) about this room that help create the sense of urgency to turn it from Blah to Beautiful. The first is that this is what you see when you walk into our house. This is the view guests see from the front door. Not very inviting, I think. Plus, it isn’t us and doesn’t reflect our personalities at all.

 

The second is that we spend a ton of time in here. The boys love playing in this room because it’s…spacious? Haha. There is no furniture in the living room part yet, so it’s perfect for the boys to color and play Legos and built forts. I love using the dining table for projects, so I usually have all kinds of things spread out across it. So we’re in here a lot, but it’s not very inspiring, that’s for sure. But it takes some $$ to get it to where I want it to be, and that moolah has been divided to other parts of our lives.

 

Until now.

 

The decorating gods have smiled down on the Free Stylin’ dining room, and I feel like there a light at the end of this ugly decorating tunnel. (Hopefully it’s not a train!) It’s time to get started on creating a beautiful space in this part of the house, and I can’t wait to begin!!

 

Because we use the dining room for much more than entertaining, I want it to be a multi-functional space. Nate Berkus has the perfect solution in his dining room in New York…a dining room/library space where he can spread out books and projects across the table, but still use it as a dining room when entertaining. I love the tall bookshelves and fireplace, too. Dinner parties must be so much more interesting in here than in a room with just a table and chairs.

Nate Berkus 

 

I love how equally glamorous and useful this room is. And the tall mirror and bookshelves would be perfect with the tall ceilings in our room. Just swap out the desk for a dining table, and I’m set.

Source

 

So a dining room/library space is what I’m after, but I will have to take things slow. I want to find the right bookshelves, so I’m on the hunt but I’m not in a huge hurry. I’ve decided to start with the items we already have and go from there.

 

I bought our “new to us” dining chairs last summer and have now figured out exactly what I want to do with them. They must be painted, and I love the look of the dining space and painted chairs at Dear Lillie. (Actually, I love every room in her house!)

Dear Lillie

 

These pretty painted chairs also caught my eye. New material on our dining seats are a must, and the hint of green in these chairs are so fun!

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I won paint at Haven (!), so the chairs are in the process of getting a new look!! I’m excited to show them to you next week!!

 

Although it won’t be happening right now, I love the look of larger chairs at both ends of the table. Especially if we’re using the room for reading, too. Besides bookshelves, I’ll add large chairs to the list of things to keep my eye out for. 

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My sweet friend, Autumn, from design dump seriously knows how to pull off a beautiful space. Again, love the upholstered chairs at the ends of the table.

design dump

 

As far as dressing the windows, I really like the idea of stenciling my own curtains. Especially when you have these pretties as inspiration:

Source

 

Centsational Girl

 

Have you ever stenciled curtains? It’s not terribly hard, right? I can’t imagine it being too bad. Just a bit time consuming when you’re waiting for the paint to dry. I already have the curtains, so I think this will be a project that can get checked off the to-do list fairly quickly.

 

The last change I want to make (for now) is with the plate wall. I love plate walls because they are pretty inexpensive…you just raid your own kitchen cabinets or grab a few from Goodwill for under a dollar. I just am tired of our plate wall arrangement. These are much more interesting:

Domestic Fashionista

 

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This list is pretty doable, right? Paint chairs, stencil curtains, change out the plate wall. All while waiting to for the perfect bookshelves and large chairs to appear. I think it will be a serious improvement from what it is right now. But, let’s be honest, anything is an improvement in there.

 

So let’s get this party started, right? Anyone want to come help me paint? If you have curtain stenciling skillz, please share!