Dining Room Updates

Monday, January 16, 2012

Hi! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

As I mentioned in this post and this post, we have been hard at work in our dining room lately. It was the first space that we wanted to update in 2012 and I'm happy to say that we've already made a few major changes!

I last left you with this....



Ugh. I know. It was horrible. That was LAST January, right after we put in the wood floors.


In 2011, I purchased a pedastel table off of Craigslist (one of my all time FAVORITE pieces of furniture), and a few new bamboo dining chairs from Pier One. But then they just sat there....so lonely and sad. To make matters worse, the dining table was really scratched up after years of wear and tear during its stint with the original owners. Ten months later (truth), Christmas break rolled around and my wonderful, amazing, super talented husband finally sanded and refinished the table top....



A warm cherry....no scratches....be still my heart. :)

We also hung a few prints that I cut out of a Monet painting book (courtesy of Amazon) in some $10 frames from Ross. We even made custom mattes using the method I showed you all here.

AND THEN. And then, I came across a very cute rug. And bought it. I was actually about to walk away from it (to weigh my options) until I saw another lady seriously eyeing it. My competitive side got the best of me, and I snatched that rug up as fast as possible and bounced my little pregnant self right to cash register. I tell you...it was quite a sight. :)

Soooooo....here is not an "After" picture but definitely a "Much Improved" picture:





SO much better, right?

I know I originally talked about buying a dining room rug from Overstock in this post, but I decided to go in a different direction (suprise, suprise) after thinking a lot about the fact that the dining table sits right next to our back door which is a huge source of dirt and dust and dirty dog coming in and out of the house. Although I was in looooove with the light colored rugs I found on Overstock, I knew that it would be much more practical (for the sake of my OCD) to get something dark and durable.





Ahhhhhh, it's like a breath of fresh air to me. Still far from being done, but much more "grown up" than it was just a year ago :).

Before:






In Progress:





Now we just need to get to work on changing or updating that dang light fixture. I'm just not a fan. And I would love to paint the back door at some point. Any thoughts on colors? Any ideas for how to update the light fixture?? I am BEGGING you, please help!

Have a very happy MLK day! If you are enjoying the day off, I am SUPER jealous. :) But have fun for me!

14 comments:

  1. Can you spray paint the chandy? And maybe switch out the globes for a different style?

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  2. It looks wonderful!! I love the rug and table. Yes, the darker color is much more suitable for not showing the dust and dirt.
    Updating the light is not hard. We have done it several times. It is a couple of wires that are wire nutted together - hot, neutral and ground. Hot to hot (usually black), neutral to neutral (usually white) and the ground is a piece of bare copper usually. Just pay attention to how the one there is wired together. Have you found one you like?

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  3. IKEA has some super fun light fixtures for pretty good prices!!

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  4. Oh it looks great!!! So much warmer and the rug really pulls it together! Love the chairs too!

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  5. I'm absolutely loving those chairs! The room has definitely come together, it looks lovely!

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  6. Congratulations on the pregnancy! You look amazing! How exciting!! I love the changes you have made to your dining room! The chairs are beautiful. How about painting the back door a glossy black? I have seen images lately and it always looks great! And for switching out the chandelier, how about a drum shade? They have good ones at CB2, Overstock and Crate and Barrel! Best of luck- the changes are beautiful!

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  7. Just stumbled across your blog...and your dining room looks ah-mazing!

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  8. What a great makeover! It looks so elegant and cozy. Very welcoming. I love the textural chairs! You guys did a great job.

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  9. Love the table! It looks great... refinishing my grandmas dinning table is on my list of home goals for 2012! Hope it turns out just as good as yours! {hugs}

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  10. Wow! It looks awesome, Katy! I love the chairs and that rug, too! Really pulls it together.

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  11. Just found your blog... and WOW! I absolutely LOVE your new dining room. The natural chairs mixed with the warm tones in the rug is perfectionnnnn! Hope you have a lovely weekend :)

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  12. I really love what you did in the dinning room (I love wicker). Now we mustn't forget the Entry door. This is the a must if you want curb appeal. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me at www.aprettdoor.com or email me at rdavis@aprettydoor.com

    I love talking shop and can walk you through the process of refinishing your door if you want to tackle that satisfying project. It's really not hard is you know how. I can refinish a door complete in a few hours on a sunny day. Ciao - Ricky

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