Three Dining Room Makeovers, Three Different Ways

1/30/2018

One of my favorite spaces to style is a dining room that needs a little love. It's not terrible, it's just lost its luster. The dining room is an important place in the home. Gone are the days where dining rooms were a place you visited only on special holidays. Families are using them daily for meals and homework, and game night on the weekends.

I'm going to show you three of my favorite dining room space makeovers.

1. Beth

Beth's dining room looked like this the first day I visited.

The table was beautiful and staying. The chairs were in good shape, so I suggested we reupholster the captain's chairs and paint the side chairs. The plan became...
1. Paint the walls and trim
2. Replace the ceiling fan with a light fixture.
3. New rug
4. Paint the existing side board.
5. New lamps
6. Turn the table the other way to open up the space between the living and dining areas. (Note: in the above photo we turned the table around so I could show her what it would look like)
7. Add drapes
8. Use textiles she already owned (like the suzani) and make them into art.
Here is how the room transformed.

2. Sheri

Here is what the dining area looked like before...
(Note: it was housecleaning day so that's why the chairs and curtains are out of place)

The design plan
1. New table and chairs
2. New light
3. Add a rug
4. New drapes
5. Add plantation shutters
Basically this makeover was all cosmetic. Sheri and her husband have two young kids and they use this space all the time, so it had to be functional and durable.
Here's how it turned out.

3. Valerie
When I visited her house for the first time, she told me two things had to stay in the room--the art and the chandelier. So I designed the space around them. Here is what the room looked like before.