Reworking the Dining Room
Have you ever finished a space and then felt like it didn't turn out the way you envisioned? Well, here's a story about how I got a little lost during last spring's One Room Challenge.
When I originally picked out the mural we were going to use I was leaning hard into the inspiration I had pulled from Tallwood Country House. I loved the mural they had in their dining room and really wanted a similar vibe...
But then somewhere along the way I started feeling like I wasn't pushing the envelope enough and needed to do something more daring or interesting. Enter this design...
I brought in some edgy art, pink curtains, and a bold pink rug. I felt like this would really edge everything up a bit and obviously this is where I landed...
It was exactly what I had been planning, but after the reveal every time I walked into the dining room I couldn't help but feel that it wasn't what I really wanted. Almost every space in our house is light, bright, and airy and this dining room was feeling dark and heavy.
Lots of wood. Lots of dark mauve pink. But every time I had those thoughts that maybe I didn't get this space quite right I shoved them way down deep and pretended they didn't exist. I poured so much time into the dining room that it was a really hard pill to swallow that maybe I wasn't in love with the space. But I moved on, I focused on organizing our house, Harley's room makeover, and the dining room faded into the background.
Until last week. Last week I was trying desperately to figure out what room I wanted to tackle next so I decided to put it to a vote with you guys on Instagram stories. I threw out four different spaces I've been itching to tackle:
1) Lincoln's closet
2) the upstairs playroom
4) the laundry room
The front room won by a long shot and I realized that had always been my plan... to tackle the front room immediately after finishing the dining room. Here's an old shot of the front room and you can see how it flows directly into the dining room (that sofa and coffee table have since been moved to our primary bedroom).
This also happens to be the first room you see when you walk into our home. Our front door is right between this room and the staircase.
I think the reason I haven't been excited to tackle the front room like I thought I would be is because I wasn't feeling settled with the dining room. I have had this sofa on my pinboard to go into the front room for the longest time now...
And I just can't picture it next to our current dining room. I think one of the main reasons I decided to pull the trigger on pink in the dining room is because I bought these chairs from my aunt's estate sale. I wasn't sure where they were going to go when I bought them, but they landed in the front room.
Looking back I'm like- did I really just base an entire room's design off of chairs that I don't love? Just because they were here? I already had them... they were easy. I think I did... big facepalm.
The good news is that I don't regret any of the major bones of the dining room. I still love the mural, the chandelier, and all of the furniture. Some of the other elements just need a little bit of tweaking, so here's the plan.
- I'm going to swap out the pink rug for this white one. I currently have this rug in the front room as a place holder and I think it will be the perfect neutral to lighten things up in here.
- I'm going to remove the lamps.
- I'm going to add a white linen tablecloth to the dining table. The fact that the table, chairs, and buffet are all that dark matching red wood is a bit much... I think a white tablecloth will help break it all up.
- should I swap out the art? I love it, but maybe...
- I'm going to bring the old curtains back in.
They are pretty yellow, so I'm going to try out this technique to see if we can whiten them up at all.
Let's see where this gets us! Have you ever executed a plan perfectly, but then found yourself second guessing it all and wanting a change?
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