It’s time for another room tour! I realized recently that I haven’t done an update on our dining room since we moved in June of 2018, so it was time! It’s one of the first rooms we updated, so it’s funny to me that I haven’t done a tour yet.
Let’s start with a quick before and after.
When we first moved into our home in Kalamazoo, the dining room was dark. I know the lighting in the before photo doesn’t help, but honestly, it’s not too far off. It was painted with warm colors—a white chair rail with beige on the bottom and brown on top. It wasn’t necessarily bad, it just wasn’t at all our style.
Painting the room grey was one of the first projects we tackled. A bunch of rooms throughout the house were already painted a light grey that we liked, so we picked up a few more gallons and got to work. We started on the 4th of July in 2018, just over two years ago! We ended up liking it better without the chair rail, so we kept it off, and have been living with the room ever since.
Other than the paint, the room wasn’t in too bad of shape. The floors were redone in the last 10 years or so, and it’s a nice light color that we really like. We ordered a rug for underneath the table (which we brought with us from Cincinnati! It fit perfectly), added our bar, and called it a day.
To be honest, that’s how it sat for most of the first two years. Sometime in 2019 we decided to move our shoe rack in there as well (we almost always use the french doors to come and go, so it makes the most sense to have our shoes there instead of at the front door).
The biggest upgrade was the chandelier. We’d been eyeing this one for a long time before we invested it in, and we’re so happy with it! It’s part of a customizable collection, so the sconces in the living room and our bedroom match as well, and if we ever get sick of it, we can swap out the shades for a bunch of other options!
We hung our old map of Cincinnati up above our bar, which looks awesome! My dad randomly found it at an old car show in rural Michigan a few years ago, when we were still living in Kentucky. You can even see the street we lived on! We got it framed at a local shop before we moved, and it’s a beautiful reminder of the years we spent in Cincinnati.
The dining room leads out to the porch, and now that it’s redone, we love having the doors and windows open. It provides such a great breeze in the summer.
As is typical with many dining rooms, we end up using it mostly for storage. But I absolutely love having a formal dining room available. We hosted Friendsgiving last November, and it was so nice to have all of our friends gather around for a meal together.
The room is very basic, with an IKEA dining set and minimal decor, but to be honest it’s perfect for where we’re at right now. We may add some artwork and plants, but otherwise I have the feeling this is how the room will look for quite a while.
Sources:
- Dining room table is old IKEA (similar)
- Black dining chairs are old IKEA (similar)
- Grey dining chairs frame, cover
- Lazy susan
- I made the bowl in my ceramics class!
- Rug
- Shoe rack
- Mirror is vintage
- Coat hooks
- Blanket ladder is vintage
- Bar cabinet is old from Crate & Barrel
- Cincinnati map is vintage
- Light
Things We’d Still Like to Do in the Dining Room:
- Scrape the popcorn ceiling
- Repaint / restore the french doors
- Repaint / restore the windows
- Blinds for the windows
- Curtains for the windows and french doors
- Remove the paint from the floor vent
- Get plants and more artwork
- Touch up some paint around the crown molding
I have been looking at photos of dining rooms without chair rail as we are considering removing ours and having it all one color. Yours clinched it. Your new room looks so much more clean and updated. Bravo on a great looking room!
Thank you so much!