Darnell Cottage “Quaran-Tour” : Dining Room (And 4 tips for refreshing your space)!
How’s everyone hanging in there?! We hope you are safe and soaking up extra time with your family! If your house is anything like ours, it is a mix of joy and chaos. We are in this with you!
That being said, we are excited to continue our “Quaran-tour” with our dining room! We hope our tour is something you look forward to each week and it brings some good inspiration for your own home.
(**Heads up: don’t miss the links to our furniture pieces at the end)
Before + After Renovation in 2015
Step back in time with us to 2015… one of the things we loved about the house when we bought it was the potential for the whole main floor top be open concept. When we bought the house, our living room already opened to our dining room!
During our renovation, we knocked down a hallway that led from the foyer to the kitchen, which then opened the dining room to the kitchen. This helped us further accomplish the open floor plan, with clear line of site from the kitchen to the dining room and living room.
We continued the beams across from our living room to the dining room (in the same direction ;) and moved the door (to right of fireplace) to the master to create some more privacy.
Check out the before and afters. The pictures on the right were taken right after the renovation in 2015.
AFTER Renovation in 2015
BEFORE Renovation in 2015
Before: Widened opening to kitchen.
After: Dining room open to kitchen.
Before: Carried new beams into dining area + removed track lighting
After: With new beans and new light fixtures installed!
Before: View from living room to dining room. Removed wall to right.
After: Wall removed!
Decor Refresh ON A BUDGET (+ Sources!) |
After we updated our fireplace last summer 2019 (incase you missed it, see last weeks post about our fireplace facelift and living room), we also made a few changes to our decor in the dining room to make our spaces cohesive!
Quick Tip!! There are little ways you can update and keep a space fresh without breaking the bank! Here ways that we did that in this room:
Paint Furniture | A labor of love… Casey painted the sideboard white (BM Simply White) for me. It was one our first purchases after we got married! It make a huge difference! I loved how it turned out.
New dining chairs | We didn’t replace our table, but we exchanged the metal chairs for inexpensive, kid friendly white chairs. This really helped with brightening up the space.
Change out wall decor | Art is a great way to refresh your space. Casey and I painted this new piece to take the place of the mirror. I love the European flair it gives! If you aren’t a painter, take a look at Etsy!
Styling | As you can tell, my style have become even more minimal.. even since 5 years ago. All I have in the middle of my table is 3 glass jars! I love to change out and move around what I have when styling tables, mantles, consoles to give a fresh look! Use what you have!
Don’t miss some of our sources for our refresh!
Dining Table or Dining Table- Ours was custom made, but check out these similar ones!
White Dining Chairs or White Dining Chairs - We found these chairs at Pier One, if you can believe it! We loved adding the white to brighten the space, but still functional with kids. These were discontinued, but we love these other options that accomplish the same brightening effect.
Sideboard - This piece was the first piece we purchased as a married couple! I love storing dishes in it. It was a dark wood, but I love the updated look since Casey painted it white for me.
Sconce - I love an asymmetrical sconce! This sconce acts as our night light, we always put it on in the evening and it creates the best mood lighting!
Landscape Art - This art was made by Casey & I, but any great landscape will do!
White Chair - We got this ours from West Elm, but it is also no longer in stock. Here is a similar one.