The Complete Dining Room Makeover
Our dining room was a sight to behold in our first walk through with our realtor. This kind of fixer upper was the kind that left you with more questions than answers…What on earth is that? What is that smell? What is that stain? What happened here? Why does it look like this?
The utter mess somehow didn’t affect me. I walked through the house with stars in my eyes and dreams of what the space could be. Something in this abandoned home was charming. It was small, it was a disaster but the “bones were good” as they say.
The Dining Room Before
I walked into the dilapidated dining room with pee stained floors (from a dog…or many dogs as neighbors told us) and what stood out to be was the character of the corner cabinet, the cutest light switch plates, and that chandelier! I was giddy with excitement. I saw a small space that we could transform. A space that would be cozy and warm. Simply decorated with a centerpiece of fruit and fresh clippings of flowers. I imagined a round dining room table that I would fill with homemade meals and memories with our little family.
After months of searching and none being quite as hopeless as this place, for some reason, when we walked through this home, we had the “this is it” feeling, this was the one.
This was our home.
After we got the house, I was overwhelmed with the number of decisions to be made. We were planning our wedding with a 6 month engagement while fixing up the house (more on that story here). So many little decisions needed to be made for both the wedding and the house and unsurprisingly the house was not move-in ready by the time we were married.
When we moved in, we had no kitchen. I had a crock pot on the dining room floor and we had a foldable card table next to a heaping pile of tools and construction supplies.
Fast forward a few months…we were living amidst constant dust from sawing and sanding. The air was hot and stuffy without air conditioning. And when it rained outside, for some reason, the moisture in the air communicated to the floors to release the smell of years of dog urine. But we couldn’t finish the floors until all the major projects were complete.
I decided to paint everything in the house white because all the renovation decisions and wedding decisions had put me into “decision paralysis”. Decor and the real vision for this home would need to come together later. Much later, six years later.
The Dining Room After
Fast forward six years. I kept each of those charming details from the first walk through; the corner cabinet, the light switch plates and the chandelier. But I have finally added color to these walls! A bright and bold green, Olive Grove from Magnolia Home. I painted the dining room and the corner cabinet to match for a monochromatic look.
In the center of the room is the beautiful table I inherited from my grandmother and refinished (more on that project here). A fruit bowl sits in the center of our table and currently I have a few clippings from our holly bush while I wait for spring to come and our garden to bloom. In the corner, I have the cutest little old secretary desk where I sit writing this blog write now.
I am happy to say my dining room feels complete!
And like the dream vision all those years ago, many meals and memories are made in this room. Some of the sweetest moments shared with my toddlers happen here.
