Our Dining Room Makeover
( Before and After Photos, the Process, the Links to the Projects and YouTube Playlist)
This makeover has been a long, long, looooooooooonnngggg time coming…
A year ago, this space was a giant pile of clutter , holding all of the tools and seasonal storage things that most people would put in their garage or attic ( neither of which we have in our home ) so instead they collected in this corner. The problem is this corner was one of the first things you saw walking in the door, coming down the staircase or from the living room… basically you could ALWAYS see it.
Last year we came up with a way to organize and consolidate our storage onto only one wall using a clothes line , some curtains and our existing plastic shelving. ( you can watch that video here ). Then we used the newly cleaned space to create a functional dining room with the dining set we already owned.
And this clean, simple and functional dining room is what we have been living with for the past year.
Before Clean Up
After Clean Up
This was a HUGE improvement for us and our home, however, it definitely wasn’t our style. And I’ve been anxiously waiting and dreaming of what our dining room could look like ever since…
The biggest issue for us has always been storage. So I knew that the back wall of this dining room was begging to be absolutely filled with storage. Cabinets, drawers, shelving … any and all of it, and I had kinda just assumed we would eventually build a custom storage unit to fit this wall.
That was until I found these cabinets, and I instantly knew they were exactly what we needed in this space. The first chance I got I ordered three of them and they by far made THE biggest impact of this entire makeover. They not only defined and grounded the space and added tons of invaluable storage but they also created the moody backdrop for the rest of this room.
They next biggest change in this space were the dining chairs. I had a vision of beautiful cane texture in this space, and when a fellow thrifty friend saw my mood board, she said she had found some cane back chairs that she had intended to fix up but they had been sitting in her storage unit forever and asked if I wanted them. Of course I said YESSSS!
They were unfortunately painted, but I was determined to find a way to make the cane look like natural cane again. I used paint and gel stain to restore the “natural” cane look and they turned out even better than I imagined! If you want to see how I did this, you can watch the full video on the channel, or you can head to the step by step blog post.
Dining Chairs Before
Dining Chairs After
I reused our previous dining table since we loved the size of it. ( Full disclosure, I did try to refinish it, but I hated the way it turned out so I decided to style it with a tablecloth instead until I can either find the perfect dining table , or find another DIY solution. But you can watch the full attempt here on the channel . )
Because we have such a large dining table, I wanted to maximize it by incorporating a long bench on one side so we could sit even more people around our table. After hunting on Facebook Market, Thrift Stores and Antique Malls for months, I finally found this long solid wood bench that was completely unfinished so I could stain it whatever color I wanted. And it was PERFECT!
So that just left accessorizing this space and pulling it all together. I decided to use the same exact curtain rod and linen curtains that I used in our living room makeover last year because I have loved them so much!
The light fixture was such a fun element in this room, it’s honestly not a fixture I would have ever imagined picking out, but I just happened to stumble on it at an estate sale and knew it would be perfect in this space!
The one hang… pun intended… was that we discovered that we didn’t actually have a light switch for this fixture since it had been a lightless ceiling fan with a pull cord since the day the house was built. Yeah… don’t ask me why someone would do that, we don’t know.
So anyway, we had to get creative and find a solution to allow us to have a working light fixture in our dining room. Luckily I found this remote box that we were able to wire into the fixture and now it works perfectly.
But what really pulled this room all together was this rug that had the most beautiful vintage inspired pattern and the perfect colors! ( and the most amazing thing about this rug is how stinking affordable it was especially since I needed a fairly large size! )
And then came the fun part. I got to finally style it 🥹
One of my favorites pieces is our centerpiece vase. I actually found it at an estate sale and purchased it as the centerpiece on our wedding table, and now it’s so special to get to continue to use it in our home.
Admittedly, just like the vase , I found most of my decor through thrifting and clearance racks so unfortunately I can’t share exact links to them with you. But I was able to find almost identical vintage inspired drinking glasses for even cheaper than I found them!
I cannot even tell you how big of an impact this dining room has made in our home. Not only is it pretty, and so much more functional, but the way it makes us feel and makes our home feel has been invaluable. And I’m so proud of how we were able to completely transform this space with creative solutions and thrifted furniture and decor.
I hope that this makeover not only gives you a little design inspiration, but also the realization that you truly can create beautiful spaces in your home on a small budget though thrifty finds and some elbow grease.
P.S. don’t forget you can come hang out with me over on YouTube and watch the entire makeover series! I can’t wait to see you over there!
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I’m Brooke!
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