Dining Room Makeover Behind the Scenes: The Process

I recently shared our dining room makeover, and today I want to delve into the whole process of pulling that room together. Often when we read blogs, we see these pretty, shiny “after” photos and an illusion is created that a space was effortlessly transformed overnight, and I don’t want to lead you to believe that I snapped my fingers and the room came together instantly. That doesn’t happen in real life. The truth is, that room makeover was over a year in the making. It didn’t happen quickly — it evolved over time. Today I want to show you some behind the scenes photos and talk more about the process of pulling the room together.

When we moved into our home last year, this is what the room looked like.

And it stayed that way for quite some time. I tweaked things here and there, but it took a while to make any major changes. Eventually, I got around to painting the walls and adding some bamboo roman shades to the windows for privacy.

Soon after painting the room, I moved the dresser to the far wall and added a framed chalkboard. Then it sat like that for months.

Finally, a couple of months ago I decided it was time to finish the room.

We went shopping at IKEA for some inexpensive matted frames and added them above the dresser.

As part of the spring home tour I took part in with several other bloggers (which also motivated me to get this room done), Kirkland’s sent me the round mirror on the back wall. This was a last minute choice and I’m so happy I chose it! This mirror works much better in the space than the old one did. This is what our dining room looked like during the makeover:

Excuse the lamp and coat hoarding going on in here. The whole room was a hot mess for a couple of weeks near the end of the makeover. We also removed the old light and installed a new brass chandelier.

I brought the antique fan out of storage. I couldn’t find a good spot for it in our house, but when I was styling the room toward the end of the makeover, I decided to try it out on the dresser and I loved the way it looked in here, so it stayed. And finally, we were done!

I planted a little succulent in one of my milk glass vases and added it to the dresser on top of some design books.

I knew I wanted a gallery wall, so I went around the house collecting random frames and grouping them together until I found a combination that I liked. I decided to go with a feather theme and add a few family photos too. You can check out my post on tips and tricks and how I put the gallery wall together here.

I created the abstract quatrefoil wall art as part of a blog campaign a while back and it stayed in the space.

Although we’ve had plans for quite some time to build a modern style farmhouse table at some point, for now we are working with the table we already have, as well as the rug we’ve had for a long time. I actually dislike this table less now that it works in the room. For a long time I really wanted to get rid of it, and although I’m still not thrilled with the quality of it (it’s not solid wood and it wobbles often), I am happier with the look of it in the new space. Sometimes you just make a room work with what you have, and you’ll be surprised to find that some of the things you once disliked you might see in a new light after you change the surroundings.

I’m happy to have this room done, and hoping to turn my attention to our long neglected master bedroom in the near future. Stay tuned…

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Thanks for visiting!

-Erin