Dining Room Makeover — Amanda Doucette

Before I had children, my husband and I rarely ate in our dining room unless it was a special occasion. We had this little pub table that we ate at every single night. I REALLY hated eating there but my husband had become used to it since he built the house before we got together. It was close to the living room so he would eat there and watch TV at the same time, which is another thing I hate! I guess the pub table was bought because the original kitchen had no seating and he really wanted an informal way to eat alone as a bachelor. I was always trying to find ways to get rid of that thing! One Christmas (the last before we renovated our kitchen) I texted my husband and asked if he minded that I move it out temporarily because I wanted to put our Christmas tree there. Well, that was the end of that - it never came back into our house again. Ha, win!

In between all of this we had children so we were naturally eating at our bigger table in my very neglected dining room. I would stare at the walls and I actually despised it all but unless I am going to completely redo a space, I typically wait to update it. It was in desperate need of new colors, a new table and decor.

Right before we renovated the kitchen, I decided, on a whim, to buy a new dining room table. Being that I have two young boys I knew that I wanted it to look appealing but I wasn’t willing to spend thousands of dollars on something that will not stay looking new for very long. It needed to seat at least 6 people and I definitely felt like a round shape would work better with the dimensions of our room. I found this table for what I thought was a reasonable price and ordered it! The wood tones are beautiful and match our new floors perfectly. I love the style and so far it has held up beautifully!

The chairs took a little bit of time to find as this style was pretty popular and again, I didn’t want to spend several hundreds per chair knowing the money we were about to spend on upcoming renovations. While I do love how they look, I am still searching for the perfect Windsor style chair. The quality of these is nice and I really don’t have any complaints except I feel that they are a little on the smaller side. They may not be very comfortable for a larger or very tall person. You can find them by clicking here.

I changed out the curtains to a fully lined, neutral linen drape. I actually have these throughout the first floor of my home. They give the perfect subtle touch that adds casual comfort which I personally enjoy in my space. I arranged them with ring clips to give a pinch pleat look but really they are just rod pocket panels. I find this trick is a cost effective yet casual way to add a sophisticated and higher end look to your window treatments. The rods are spaced out about 10” on each side and up about 6.5-7” above the top of the window casing. This gives the illusion of a bigger window overall! The drapes can be found here!

On the back wall my husband helped me add the board and batten for a subtle “feature wall” look. I love how this gave the walls a little bit of interest since I kept both the trim and wall color the same (just a different sheen). The color is called White Dove (OC-19) by Benjamin Moore and I absolutely LOVE it! For me, it is the perfect warm white that doesn’t feel too stark. The board and batten look is constructed of wooden strips that are 2 1/2” wide, spaced about 12” apart with the top cap being 1 1/2” wide. I didn’t want to deal with taking off the baseboards so we angled the bottom of the strips to land on top of the existing molding. I wasn’t sure if it would look okay but to be honest, I barely notice it so I am fine with taking that shortcut! When painting a wainscot or board and batten I’m always sure to keep the sheen the same as my trim so it feels like a true wainscot application. For my house I used an eggshell finish on the walls and a semi gloss for the trim. It cleans up easily and trust me, I am always wiping the walls with my kids running around!

The painted piece is a dresser I found on Craigslist! I gave it a little makeover with Annie Sloan Chalk paint in the color French Linen! I kept the top original because I felt the imperfections told a little story of it’s journey! I really love how it adds a little traditional antique flare to the otherwise clean aesthetic.

My gallery wall is one of my favorite walls in my house! I love the personal touch it brings into my home and overall I am pretty proud of how inexpensive it was to achieve this look. I have an entire blog post dedicated to this if you would like to learn more. Read about it here!