This one has been a work in progress for awhile. Slowly but surely, I’ve changed a few things about our dining room:
Inspired by some dining rooms on Pinterest where the table is pushed against the wall with bench seating on one side I finally made the first move. Also on my list – dealing with too much furniture in there and nothing on the walls.
I moved the dresser out, and pushed the table closer to the wall. Then I took two stools from the living room and pushed them together to make a bench. Comfortable and even better – FREE!! I had some unused pillows that I bought covers for (Ikea) for the ‘back’ of the bench.
The most dramatic transformation however, was the framed photographs I hung on the wall. I bought the frames from Ikea to keep it affordable and you may recognize the pictures from this post.
So much better! I was pretty happy. I just knew I wanted to change out the curtains but wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted yet. So I waited. As time went by I started to question my furniture and knick knack placement but I figured that somehow the curtains would fix everything.
Well the curtains did fix everything but not in the way that I expected. I found them on Craigslist for $30 for the pair (what a bit of patience will do for you!) and loved them the moment I hung them.
But something was off. Suddenly all of the ‘stuff’ on my shelves were sticking out like a sore thumb. I stared and stared and stared and finally just started taking stuff away. Before I knew it, I had removed both shelves with all of their content and I was in love with the result. It’s fresh, it’s bright and it’s BIGGER!
Here you can see the difference side by side:
Now the photos are truly the ‘stand out pieces’ in the room as they were intended to be.
Who knew that a $30 pair of curtains would inspire me to ditch half of my dining room? The reality is, the shelves served only as dust collectors and to raise my level of anxiety every time Luke went over and started playing with stuff.
Now they serve a more functional purpose elsewhere in my house. More importantly – I LOVE my dining room!
So whether you need to get rid of something or find that perfect addition, what’s holding you back?
Sis I L.O.V.E this! And now I want to go through my house and throw everything away! 🙂 Beautiful!
Thank you – don’t throw EVERYTHING away though, or at least check with me first to make sure I don’t want it 🙂
Hey Jennifer! Such a great post!
I love that you posted all the in between pics of the whole process because most makeovers only show the before and the final result. But a real room makeover really goes through stages just like yours did.
This inspires me to tackle some projects I’ve been putting off because I don’t have the money to “finish” any of them. But even getting started will put me on the road to the final result! Yey!
Melanie it’s taken me awhile to learn to slow down with my decorating. I always want to do everything in one shot and that’s just not reality! The benefit of taking it slow though is that you get to ‘sit’ with things for awhile and really decide what you love or don’t care for. So just start – even if it’s just one little change!!
xoxo
Looks great, Jen! When will you be in Chicago to do my place??? 🙂
I’ll be on the next flight my friend!!! (I wish)
I loved this! So fun to read how your transformation evolved. It looks great and those photos really do pop. 🙂
~Sarah
Looks great! I love the whole “less is more” and truly feel that way. Great job!