Dining Room Makeover

Posted byAlison Allen Leave a comment on Dining Room Makeover

One of my favorite parts of this blog is when I am able to refer back to previous posts I have written and remember things I had completely forgotten about. It also motivates me to take more pictures, which then in turn jog my memory when I’m trying to figure out what to write about.

In today’s case, though, I wanted some “before” photos of what our dining room used to look like, and lo and behold, I had already used some in a previous post.

Before I share these photos, let me set the stage for you…… Five years ago, Alex and I bought our quaint, charming little Craftsman home. We were 24. I wouldn’t go as far as saying we were broke, but we sure didn’t have enough cash to completely furnish our house. Boy am I glad for that because we would be re-furnishing our house now if we had made those decisions at age 24. Our styles and design taste has changed and grown up a little bit since then.

While our house on its own has a ton of character, it never got to the polished/finished point we’ve dreamed about since moving in. Enter our five year anniversary with our house, which we celebrated last month: we decided to take the plunge and move forward with our goal of finishing the decorating projects that we have been planning for over the last few years. Because we’ve struggled with how to pull everything together we opted to take advantage of Pottery Barn’s free Design Services program where they essentially send one of their designers to your home and help you select furniture, accents and different pieces to complete your home decor.

We had such a fantastic experience with Laurie, our Pottery Barn Design Services designer from the Bellevue store, and I can’t wait for you to see the outcome! Our house has come a very long way in these last five years. We’ve done major changes in the living room, dining room and our bedroom, and our big bathroom renovation is kicking off late-October. I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to say it’s “finished” but it sure is close.

Without further adieu, here are some before and after photos of our dining room…

{BEFORE: right after we moved in - didn't have much to work with.}
{BEFORE: right after we moved in – didn’t have much to work with.}
{BEFORE - taken in August 2013}
{BEFORE – taken in August 2013}
{BEFORE - taken in August 2013}
{BEFORE – taken in August 2013 after mini makeover where we added a few decorative accessories and some new placemats and napkins}
{AFTER! We are loving our new chandelier, rug and tabletop accessories. Somewhere along the line we got cushions for the chairs, but that was a while ago.}
{AFTER! We are loving our new chandelier, rug and tabletop accessories. Somewhere along the line we got cushions for the chairs, but that was a while ago.}

Here are some photos of the process…

{Jackson checking out the rug!}
{Jackson checking out the rug!}
{the new chandelier literally had 240 tiny crystals that we had to hang - and that was after mounting the chandelier from the ceiling. I'm really surprised it only took us 3 hours to complete the project.}
{the new chandelier literally had 240 tiny crystals that we had to hang – and that was after mounting the chandelier from the ceiling. I’m really surprised it only took us 3 hours to complete the project.}
{tabletop options... this one was too cluttered...}
{tabletop options… this one was too cluttered…}
{closeup of the chandelier}
{closeup of the chandelier – our labor of love}

Next up… the bedroom!

 

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