This isn’t the history of dining rooms in general, just three iterations of mine. It’s funny to look at before and after photos. It’s funny the things you thought were ok at the time.
The dining room is a 12×12 square room. When we first moved in, the dining room was carpeted. Boo! The dining room was also pink and wallpapered.
In my first attempt to personalize this room, the first thing I did was paint the walls red. I’ve seen some not so positive comments about red dining rooms being a ‘thing’in the south but oh well. I like it. I’m fond of a cool red, not an orangey red. The color I chose was Behr’s Red Red Wine. I painted the top section of the wall red and painted the bottom with Behr’s Ultra White in semi-gloss.
The next thing ‘we’ did was pull out the carpet and put down wood floors. At the time, we chose engineered wood. And the ‘we’ is relative b/c honestly, A did the floors in that room all by himself. He did it in one afternoon, it was awesome! You will notice in pictures that he did not do the quarter round trim at the time, and sadly it’s still not done today.
I stuck my existing furniture in the room and was kind of lame with the wall art, and called it finished. Eeeeewww.
Fast forward to this spring, when I decided to revamp the room a bit. I really wanted a round table in the square room but I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on new furniture. In fact, I wanted to keep the amount spent to about the same price I could sell my exisiting dining set for. I found a great set on Craiglist. A 60inch round table with 4 accompanying chairs for $225. I was super excited about redoing them myself, but as I mentioned earlier I decided to have the table professionally painted in the end and painted the chairs myself.
I kept the red walls. I still like red, and that is what matters. I went kind of bold with a pop of color though. I went with turquoise. Whoa! I actually painted a wine rack I had in the room with Behr’s Zeal Teal (in their Paint + Primer combo) first. Then, I found quatrefoil patterned curtains from Z Gallerie in the same color. I wasn’t looking for them. I just saw them and loved them. They are bright and happy. I reused things I already had, like the plates on the walls – I just took them out of official plate hangers and hung them directly on the wall in a semi-random pattern. I hung a big round mirror, which mimics the round table. And I found a bar cart at a local flea market for $22. It is sturdy and metal and was dirty but a fresh coat of white paint made it look great.
The good thing is that the to do list that remains for this room is short:
- install quarter round trim at the baseboards
replace electrical outlets and covers(done!)- blinds?
-J
P.S. I added a rug! See other little updates here and here!
Sharing with Cottage & Vine
I LOVE it!
Love the changes! Especially the blast of turquoise.
I have been collecting plates to hang in my living room. Your plate wall looks great! How did you hang them if you didn’t use plate hangers? Please help.
Thanks!
Hi Gina,
Thanks! I used DISC hangers. I bought mine at Hobby Lobby.
http://dischangers.com/
-J
Wow, what a difference!! The round table is perfect! Visiting from Roomspiration.
I love the red in your dining room, especially with the turquoise accents! Red and turquoise is one of my favorite color combos. You’ve done such a great job transforming the room from before. Thanks so much for linking up to Roomspiration!
Thanks!
That is a fun room! I love the mix of color and geometric patterns…two of my favorite things.
Love the pops of turquoise color, it adds some fun to the room and makes you want to hang out and maybe drink some of that wine! 😉
Cute room! I love the teal accents!
LOVE your dining room.. I also have a red dining room, but it is needing some work.. so i find your dining room inspirational!!!! Thanks for sharing on the link party…
Katie
Love the bright blue and red combo, great choice in color! Visiting from Rene’s Dining Room Party!
Wow! What a difference!
Thanks so much for joining the “room by room” series!
-René
I love the round table and the room color too. I would love a big round table but I have to keep the rectangular on I have to fit the whole family when they visit………
Yay for red walls! I love them! I have red in my family room and entry foyer. I agree who cares what’s “in” if you love them – that’s all that matters. Love the color combo- those curtain panels really pop off the wall.
I never would have considered putting teal with red, but it looks totally amazing. That table and chairs were a steal. I love round tables. I have two that need updating and I’m planning on doing what you have done; white chairs and black table.
Well done.
Thanks! Hope to see your table update.
We have nearly identical dining rooms – same wall color on top (although the bottom of mine is camembert), plates hung on the walls, mirror, and carpeting removed for hardwoods – I nodded my head all through this post “Yup, same here. Yup, us too”. I saw yours on Remodelaholic 🙂 Your room looks great!!
Thanks Deb. I just looked at your dining room. Great minds! Your hardwoods look great and of course the red is fabulous.