We finally have an actual dining room. like real grown ups. With a place to sit and everything. It only took until I was pushing 40 to achieve it! Haha. Some of us are late bloomers I guess.
Since our house is cut up into a ton of really tiny rooms, it is kind of difficult to photograph. The dining room has a built-in hutch. I left the original oak, but removed the big heavy glass doors. I really hated the look of the doors and also, I use everything on the shelves quite often, so I didn’t want to be opening doors.
The original paint color is not done justice in the photos. It was this sort of mushroom greige in a flat finish that sucked the light out of every room. The whole house was done in this awful paint. And it chips off the walls very easily.
And then it had this light fixture that was way to high and small for a dining room, not to mention it looked straight out of 1989. I say 1989 because it looks like the fixture my mother used to have in her dining room that she picked out in 1989, so there you go. Every time we tried to change a light bulb, we had to remove a bunch of those plastic fake crystals or they would fall down and dent the table.
I did actually go on a Wayfair shopping spree and get lamps and the table early on, but then the dining room makeover fell by the wayside for a couple years. The table goes by a different name every time I see it on any website. It was called a Kosas Hamilton table when I bought it. In a lime wash.
I recently go around to painting the walls and changing out the fixture. I covered that awful greige with Cyberspace by Sherwin Williams. I LOVE this color. I also used it in our master bedroom. I know white and bright is the trend right now, but I don’t care. I love this moody color. it seems more romantic and sophisticated than having everything stark white. Plus, I had no intention of painting any of the oak.
The light fixture is the Blue Heron 8 Light Candle Style chandelier from Wayfair. It was on sale for only $90!
The black metal and more farmhouse style of it went better with our eclectic mix of modern and rustic in the rest of our rooms. Plus, the size makes much more sense.
I used the matching Kosas lime wash benches instead of chairs. First, we are a pretty casual family. Second, we have quite a few children, and at some point they might have friends over for dinner. It made more sense to go with benches than buying 10 chairs and trying to match them. I find benches are more minimal looking and offer more function.
So there is our first real dining room. All I did was remove some doors, paint some walls, buy some furniture and swap out a light fixture. And it only took us three years. (!!!)
We are thinking of selling next year, so this at least adds one more up to date room.
