Dining Room Makeover

Over the last six-plus years of home ownership, we've completed countless updates and decorating projects to make our house into our home. One room that I've long wanted to work on but continually moved to the bottom of the list is the dining room. This was because it was technically "done." By this, I mean that there was a full set of matching furniture. We purchased it as newlyweds through family friends because it was a great deal for an entire, matching set of dining room furniture, including a huge hutch. I wanted somewhere to store my china and such -- that's a rite of passage for newly-married women, right?? BUT, I never really loved the furniture. I didn't hate it (I mean it was nice quality), but definitely didn't love it.  I did hate the burgundy carpet that we lived with for six years, though (although not quite as much as the hunter green carpet upstairs) ;) Anyway, here is the room before:

It was dated, dark, and very traditional. This past March, we finally got new carpet downstairs (we had already replaced the green upstairs before Jacob was born) -- yay! Then, a couple of months later, we inherited a really cool 70-80 year old cabinet from hubby's grandma's estate and decided to make it into a wine cabinet (he did all the designing and work on that!). With the carpet and the spruced-up antique cabinet, I just got an itch to makeover the whole room! 

We agreed we wanted something eclectic (not an entire matching set as we had desired when we first bought the house) and we were going for a sort of shabby-chic/modern farmhouse style. We didn't want the dining room to be too formal or stuffy, where we'd only use it for holidays (as in the before picture!). We wanted family-friendly, but also stylish and classy. I scoured Pinterest for a couple of months, and then we found a great deal on furniture. We ordered pieces from three different collections (from Ashley Furniture) to achieve the eclectic look we were going for, and paired them with a DIY console table update and the wine cabinet we had already revamped. We also added two upholstered dining chairs from Overstock.com. Next, we added an accent wall with reclaimed paneling from hubby's parents' house (originally installed in the 1950's -- we stained the back of the boards). Finally, I got to arrange and accessorize! Here's the end result:

Ta da!!

And some other views. We're SO happy with it!
It is calm, inviting, casual, eclectic, and rustic yet chic...if I do say so myself ;)

Here are a bunch of close-ups of the details. We all know that decorating is all in the details! We decorated on a budget! The wine cabinet, Ball jars, and cast-iron pans are antiques from hubby's Grandma. The cute, personalized pillows were made by my mother-in-law. The wall wine rack was super-cheap from Kohls. The painting is from World Market. The console table was free from friends and revamped (see below)! I made the cork tray. The light fixture was a bit of a splurge (from Lowes), but much cheaper than similar versions we were eyeing (like one from Crate&Barrel). 

Here's a close-up of the cork tray -- it's a quick and easy project, if you have a lot of corks! Just buy a tray and use a hot glue gun to secure the corks! This tray (JoAnn) came white, so I painted it blue to coordinate with the chairs and add a pop of color. We thought it would be a fun way to display our many corks, including some of our favorites from Michigan, Indiana, and Napa wineries we have visited!

And here's a before & after of the console table. Dear friends gave us a table they weren't going to use (free is the perfect price!) and didn't mind if we painted it. I decided to keep the legs stained, since they tied in with the table and hutch, and paint the top. Hubby offered to build an extra shelf onto it, which turned out awesome:

As one more finishing touch, I wanted a table runner. I found this roll of burlap at Walmart for about five bucks and asked my MIL (who has an awesome sewing machine and is super talented) to embroider it for us -- it turned out really cute!

Serving our first meal in the new room :)