Mood Board: The Dining Room

So since we found an outstanding deal on flooring, and went ahead and bought some amazing flooring, I'm allowed to do the whole room now! Not that Jason forbade it or anything, but I didn't really feel like going all out with the decorating the dining room, if we were just going to rip out the carpet, and ruin everything. So, hooray, when we're finished the kitchen, (or when we have some lul's and are looking for things to do - or when I'm feeling extra crazy and just want to work on two rooms) I can start on the dining room...luckily there's not much to do in there, aside from ripping out the carpet and installing the new floor. We do need to close off the old front door, and replace the window, but that most likely won't be in the budget for a little while. SO here's the rundown of the simple updates we're thinking for the dining room.

1. So, as I mentioned before, the flooring we picked up for a super duper good price is Armstrong engineered hardwood, in "antique natural"...I'm super excited about this flooring, it looks so much better in real life than it does on the computer. The dark knots and "holes" definitely give it an antique look, which is right up my alley. As for paint, I decided on "White Marigold" for the three main walls, and "Night Horizon" for the darker accent wall.

2. We have to move the overhead lighting over from the old front "entryway" to the middle of the room, which we'll do when we move and add more lighting in the kitchen. Once we have lighting in the middle of the room, I want to add a modern, soft "chandelier"...probably something I will DIY...like this one I pinned a while back. I already have the birch veneer ready to go hehe.

3. I have plans to DIY a large piece of textural artwork, using leftover paint from the kitchen, and dining room and some mud and such. Should be fun!

4. Two floating shelves (similar to these from Ikea) that can double as storage for some of the smaller fancier items in a darker brown will also go up. One under the new artwork, and the other under the mirror.

5. I'll need to bring in some new linens for the chairs (because they're pink, and I reaaaaalllllly don't do pink!) Something in a deep, dark, yellow or green...I like the pattern of yellow above. And you've always got to have some fun table runners around for all those dinner parties!

6. We already have a table that we're going to have to sand and re-stain (the top & legs aren't the same colour, and the leaf is a different colour too) to make it a richer, darker brown. (The one from the board is black...but look how nice it goes with the dark spots in the floor. I'm thinking something probably inbetween the black table and the dark brown from the "bar" shelf) The chairs we have are a lighter blondish wood, that we'll most likely keep light. We also already have a hutch that is a dark, rich brown, and a buffet that is lighter. Good thing I don't mind matching woods, and good thing the floor we chose has a great range of light and dark. We are also going to build a simple bench for more seating when we have family dinners and larger parties.

7. Another DIY project for us will be a simple wall mounted wine area. Neither of us enjoy wine, but we recognize that most of our guests do, so we'll be able to stock up on some wine, and display our nice glasses, that way we won't have to listen to our guests whine when they come over and we have no wine. 

8. There is one large window in the dining room which faces out the front of the house, so we will want to add some curtains for privacy. We're either going to do something simple and more traditional like the ones above, or something a bit more "bold" with a pattern or print.

9. Like I mentioned before, we'll be adding a mirror above one of the floating shelves. We'll most likely add it across from the window to allow the most light to bounce around the room. And so you can gaze at yourself chewing the amazing food I'll make you when you come visit!

So the budget for the dining room isn't going to be very large...because we already have the flooring, and all the furniture. All we have to do is buy some paint and a few accessories and DIY our hearts out and we will have a dining room I will be proud to host meals in.