The Dining Room Refresh

The Dining Room refresh. I love it. As in a lot.

This was supposed to include a little straightening and setting the table. But as usual, I ended up doing a lot more. It all started with the furniture layout and what I thought would be a good simple change.

Here is what our dining room use to look like. It’s pretty and nice looking but there were a few problems …

Our drapes were silk and eighteen years old. The sun had completely shredded them and I was constantly trying to hide all of the rips and shreds. I also have never liked the arrangement between the windows. So I moved an old cabinet in its place. But it was too dark.

So I got to work. First I took down the drapes. That involved removing the hardware, patching the holes and touching up the walls with paint. The windows looked so great that I decided not to replace the drapes. And that is a permanent decision. (FYI, even though the walls look darker, I did not paint repaint them. The sun was really bright when I took the photo so that’s why they look darker.)

Then I moved the cabinet back outside and painted it with Old Barn Milk Paint. I used the color Stoneware and used their scraper to give it a chippy look. I LOVE how it turned out. 

For some reason, I never even noticed the molding under the windows. I guess it was the drapes, but holy cow. What a difference.

I can’t even believe how much better I like our dining room! It’s less formal and brighter.

There were a lot of you who commented on my stories and said, “leave the drapes” and “don’t paint the cabinet”. What do you think of the refresh?

I have a new rug coming soon. And then it will definitely be done!