Not only is Fall the best time of the year because of pumpkin everything, apple crisp, and boot weather, but it’s also time for the fall One Room Challenge. This is not my first rodeo, but it’s been a while since I’ve saddled up. In the past, I worked on Emmy’s bedroom in our old house as well as our hallway in our old house, but that was over two years ago! In the two years since then, we’ve added another human to our family and moved to a new house in a new state (just this past January). With a new house, we have so many projects and I will surely be joining the One Room Challenge for seasons to come. If you are not familiar with the ORC, there are several designers who are invited to transform spaces over the next 6 weeks and share weekly updates. Then there are guest participants like myself who like to participate for the fun of it, or perhaps because we are gluttons for punishment. Yesterday all of the featured designers introduced their spaces and plans, and today is the day that all of the guest participants are invited to share what they plan to accomplish over the next six weeks. Without further ado, I’m excited to introduce you to my One Room Challenge 2019: Modern Dining Room Design Plan. (This post contains affiliate links).
If you have been reading this blog for a little while, you know that we’ve been working on a kitchen renovation that is stiiiiiilllll not complete. In the process of working on our kitchen we knocked a wall down that now opens it to the dining room, which is why I am calling this more of a dining nook. We’ve basically created one large kitchen with a dining area to make this space function much better for our family of five. I’ve left much of the work in the kitchen to professionals, and in all fairness, they’ve completed some of the work in the dining room as well, but we’ll be taking it from here.
Before I go on, I want to take a moment to thank all of my partners in this project who are providing me with the pieces I need to complete this space. Special thanks to Woodworks by Jared, Anewall, Victoria Sturup, Ruggable, Naptimes & Notions, and Blindster.
Now I’d like to show you where this space started when we looked at the house last November. A dramatic before and after is always best, so let’s dig back to the worst version of this space. 😉 That’s it in the back…
It was a rather small dining room with awkwardly low curtains and an awkwardly low (and not my taste at all!) light fixture. After we moved in we changed the light fixture to this fabulous $75 piece (now only $68- what!!!), and at least it was temporarily improved.
Now let’s talk about the plan! As I mentioned, we knocked down the wall between the kitchen and dining room to create one large kitchen with an eat in area. It just made much more sense for our family. It gave us much more storage and space in the kitchen, and we like to tell Alexa to turn it up and shake our groove thangs! A kitchen floor MUST double as a dance floor.
In addition to removing the wall, there were some other structural changes that we wanted to make including removing the chair rail and adding a banquette with storage, which also required moving the light fixture. We hired out for all of that because some of it was beyond our knowledge and skill level, and some of it we just don’t have the time for right now. I’ll share some progress with you on that next week, but there was some back and forth and the banquette turned out higher than I had wanted, so I am probably going to have to have him fix that.
Of course, the design is the fun part of the project so let’s talk about all of the elements in my design board above.
First of all, as I mentioned I replaced the light myself almost immediately after moving in because I couldn’t live with the one they had. At such a low price point, I knew it would be OK, if I ended up not keeping it when I got around to truly designing this space. As it turns out, I still love it! I don’t see a need for a new light fixture and am thrilled with the way this one looks with the design. Talk about a budget find!
The other piece that I did not need to replace in this design was the dining room chairs. We got these chairs last year from Value City Furniture, and my family loves the scale. Emmy can sit cross legged and do her homework which is a huge plus for her. They’re sturdy, classic, and a great element.
As much as I adored our love edge table, it was too large for our new dining room. It took up so much space! I honestly wasn’t sure what I was going to use as a table, but it was on my mind, and I sat quietly one day and thought about it and just put my feelers out there in the universe. The very next day, Jared of Woodworks by Jared messaged me to ask if I would be interested in collaborating with him. Isn’t it amazing how the universe delivers when you meditate and manifest? I’ve been working with Jared over the last couple of months to create a live edge table with resin fill and an X base to fit well with the banquette. He’s almost finished and will be driving it here himself from Alabama, so I’ve promised him a good meal at his table. I am SOOOO excited to show you my table, but in the meantime, check out his work here. He’s insanely talented, kind, funny, and just an all around good guy and I am so excited for the opportunity to meet him in person soon. The table below is one that he created, just to give you an idea. As I mentioned, ours is going to have an amazing resin fill… wait until you see the color!
With 3 kids, 2 dogs, and 2 somewhat messy adults, we also needed a great rug solution for under the table. As it needs to fit into a banquette, I wanted something without a central design so that it would not look out of place even though it technically won’t be centered under the light. I was thrilled when Ruggable agreed to provide the rug for this space. Their rugs are MACHINE WASHABLE, affordable, and super soft and stylish. I chose this herringbone batik rug in ash gray because I wanted a neutral rug that would flow with the rest of our home.
With a new banquette in place, we definitely need a cushion to keep it comfortable. I reached out to Ruhani at Naptimes & Notions to partner with me when I saw that she was local, a mom and small business owner, and she ships, so her work is accessible to you, too! I have not yet selected a fabric, but I am truly excited for the opportunity to work with her. We met last week at my home, and I just fell in love with her and what she stands for, and of course, her work, seen below, is beautiful!
To add more comfort to the banquette seating, we’ll be bringing in pillows from Victoria Sturup. She is a talented designer, a wonderful human being, and again a mom entrepreneur, and I am all about that! I’ve selected a few gorgeous pillows from her shop to play off of the mural that will be in this space. This is one of the styles I selected for our space. I love the simple stripe, and I just love the textures she plays with. Her vibe is organic and earthy.
Behind the banquette sits a double window. Luckily, we have lots of trees so we don’t need to much privacy in the form of window coverings. However, the morning sun shines brightly through this window and blinds us when we eat breakfast, so we need to fix that! I am a huge fan of Blindster’s blinds as we have used the wood and faux wood in this house, and in our old house we used their bamboo blinds. For this space, we’re planning to use the bamboo blinds because they’ll add the perfect organic texture and give us the perfect amount of shade. These are their blinds inside mounted in our old home. Since we have a double window this time, I am toying with the idea of an outside mount and making it one large piece. I would love to hear your thoughts on that.
I saved the piece de resistance for last… the mural! I played with so many design plans throughout the planning process. I was sure I wanted a black and white mural to flow with all of the other black and white patterns in our home. Then one day, I was perusing Anewall‘s website, and it was like the heavens opened and angels sang when I laid my eyes upon this mural. It was exactly the one I didn’t know I needed. I cannot wait to get this bad boy up on our wall! Oh, and if you’d like to see it in a space, the owner of Anewall actually used it in her own nursery!
Well, that is everything! I can’t wait to take this space to a completed and usable, beautiful dining room in just six weeks! Let’s do this, friends!
