I’ve been a painting machine over the last couple of weeks, and today I’m excited to show you our dining room before and after! It’s not totally finished — I still need to hang art and decorate a bit, but you can at least see the changes that have taken place so far.
Let’s start with the “before.” I opted not to “stage” any photos (aka clean anything up) — this is actually what our dining room has looked like for the last couple of months. We don’t eat in here unless we have family or friends visiting, so it started to become a dumping ground for miscellaneous clutter. (P.S. You can check out our entire home tour from before we recently moved in here.)
Here are two different angles of what it looked like “before.”
And here it is now:
I decided to go bold with the paint color in here. I was super close to painting it Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter again (the color of our dining room at our old house) because I loved it so much, but I’ll probably end up using that color in another room at some point. For this room, I used Benjamin Moore’s Ben Formula in “Nocturnal Gray” eggshell finish. I love Benjamin Moore because all of their paint is low-VOC, which is important for me since I’m pregnant, plus I have small children with asthma in the house. (They also offer a no-VOC option but it is much pricier). I love that this paint is not fumey, plus it’s self-priming and with the lighter colors I’ve had success with just one coat. (By the way this post is not sponsored, I just really love this paint.) This room took one main coat and then a touch-up coat (just haphazardly rolling over any spots that looked like they needed a little more coverage), probably just since the color was so deep.
This color (Nocturnal Gray) is a dark blue/gray. In certain lighting it looks navy, other times it looks dark blue-gray, and sometimes it takes on a teal tone. I love that it changes with the lighting conditions and I’m happy with my choice to step out of my comfort zone and go in a more dramatic direction.
We decided to switch out the stenciled rug with our jute one that was out in the sun room. We had originally purchased the jute rug for our dining room at our first home, but when we moved to our second home the rug blended in too much with the blonde wood flooring so we used the stenciled rug instead. Now the jute rug is back in the dining room as originally intended.
The dresser/sideboard was in our family room at the old house (it’s also featured in my tutorial for how to paint furniture), and the mirror is from Crate & Barrel (years ago). The yellow table runner came from HomeGoods (I think?) and the antique typewriter was a thrifty score at an antique market last year. The custom bamboo window shades are from Payless Decor and we are very happy with them. The dining room table came from Z Gallerie several years ago. I’d love to build a farmhouse style table eventually.
I’ll keep you posted on progress in here since I do have a few things I’d like to add. I’m thinking of turning that big blank wall into a gallery wall of some sort, so we’ll see how it ends up.
So tell me, do you usually go bold with paint colors or stick to a neutral color palette? Personally, I love both!
UPDATE: You can see the finished dining room reveal here.
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Lovely job! The paint you used on the wall is perfect! And I adore your vintage typewriter!
Thanks so much Jennifer!
SWOON! I wouldn’t have thought to go that bold but it completely transforms the space. I can’t get over how amazing it looks, nice work Erin!
Thank you Ann Marie! 🙂
I love the color combos!!!
Thanks Megan!
Love how it turned out! I painted and stenciled our dining room in a similar dark grey and just love it! It’s definitely a show-stopper!
Thank you Allyson! And I love your stenciled dining room!
LOVE the color, Erin! Good work. I need to remember that shade! By the way, I used your DIY shade tutorial for a client today. Thanks! 🙂
Thanks so much Gina! And I’m so glad that my tutorial was helpful!
Woah, Erin! It looks amazing. That color is perfection and the perfect bold contrast to the white. Absolutely adore this space! Well done.
Thanks so much Chelsea!
I love this color. It brings so much drama and contrast to the room.
Thank you Andrea! 🙂
Nicely done, Erin! I adore the richness of that color! Looking forward to seeing you at Haven!
xo Heidi
Thank you Heidi! Looking forward to seeing you too!
oh, I LOVE that color! I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before. Now I want to use it somewhere 🙂
Thanks so much Gretchen!
love it! I also love the table and chairs, where did you find those?
Thanks so much Tammy! They came from Z Gallerie several years ago.
Bold colors? I tend to go with purple! 4 of the rooms in my house (including the kitchen) are purple! Love the color you have on the walls! Beautiful! Love your table and chairs, only thing I’m not sure about is the jute rug, not that the rug is ugly or anything, just that I’ve read that if you have a rug with a dining room table the chairs should sit on it when they are pushed back and people are sitting at the table. Still, if you are happy, great! I should talk… I have no rugs or carpet in my house, I have cats!
Thanks Elic! As for the rug, for now we are just using what we already have until we can truly finish the dining room. (It’s not done – just in progress!) I appreciate your comments!
Erin, your dining room looks amazing! Revere Pewter is a great color too, but I really love the Nocturnal Gray in here. It’s a perfect dining room color! I’d love to feature this on my paint color blog, Involving Color. Let me know if you’re interested!
Thanks so much, Jena! Yes, that would be wonderful if you feature it. Thank you!
i love this! My dining room is a similar gold tone so this inspires me 🙂 what shade of white did you use? It’s tricky to choose whites because there are so many slightly different options. Great job!
Thank you Jennifer! The white was actually already painted – I just painted the darker color on the wall above the wainscoting. I think it’s just a basic off the shelf semi-gloss bright white. (None of the whites with fancy names or anything.) 🙂 You can see the finished dining room here now that I’m finally done with the room: http://diyonthecheap.com/dining-room-makeover/. If you are looking for a good white shade and don’t want just regular old trim paint, I love Sherwin Williams Alabaster and Benjamin Moore White Diamond.
Thank you for the white color suggestions! I do love your finished room as well, after checking out that link! I have been scared to go dark but this gives me a feeling of confidence. Looking forward to seeing more from your blog 🙂