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The other day I shared a “before tour” of our living room so I wanted to give you guys a quick peek at our dining room before we moved in and show you some of my inspiration for the finished space. Next week, I’ll show you the in-progress pics of the living and dining room AND I’ll fill you in on what the amazing Emily Henderson told me to do with our space. Yes, THAT Emily. I call her Em. We’re besties now.
I’m not actually sure that it qualifies as a legit dining room; it’s more of a dining area. But because we don’t have an eat-in kitchen and the whole downstairs is really just one big room, we spend a lot of time in here. There wasn’t too much to do except replace the light fixture and move it so that it would be centered over the table (in the real estate listing photo above they cheated and moved the table under the light fixture, but in reality, the table would be closer to the wall so the light fixture was off center). We also had to get a dining table and art for that huge wall. It’s a pretty tight space so there’s not room for anything else although I would love a mid-century credenza like this one.
And of course, we needed to paint throughout. The walls were yellow, the floors are oak, the tile was beige, and the front door is a reddish brown. There was no contrast in the room; I do like a monochromatic color palette but I wasn’t feeling the 50 shades of brown. I need a little more contrast in my life. So here is some of my inspiration for the dining room:
If only I had windows and light like that in my dining room…sigh. So pretty. I love the way they used two different fabrics on the chairs. I already had my chairs reupholstered before I saw this otherwise I might have considered it. I’m thinking of trying it with a chair in my living room (something like this) but that’s still TBD.
This is one of my absolute favorites. This dining room was designed by Emily Henderson a few years ago and it makes me so happy. I love the beautiful mid-century table and I STILL think about that light fixture by Brendan Ravenhill. It’s so simple yet sophisticated and unique and the black with pops of brass would have been perfect in my dining room. Unfortunately this beauty is out of my price range…a girl can dream. If any of you can buy one of these please do and let me come visit it.
Again with the windows! I envy all this light. These people do not live in a row house, folks. If they do they are not in the middle of the row like me. Besides all the light, this room feels similar to our space because they also don’t have any other furniture in here. I also love that art and have been eyeing it up for a while now. You can also see it here in a bedroom and I think it’s great in there too.
So after I organized the inspiration photos for this post I clearly saw the pattern of the mid-century table, patterned rug, and neutral walls. And guess what? That’s the direction we’re going in here folks. I can’t wait to share our progress with you guys next week and also share Emily’s input!
Are any of you in the process of designing your dining room? Do you actually use your dining room? I would love to hear what inspires you and where you are shopping for stuff – especially art! I’m still searching…
Enjoy your weekend, my friends xx