Dining Room Makeover

Over Christmas break we decided to do a complete overhaul of our dining room. This is what our dining room had looked like the past year:

For the past five years we've used this table for four. We've been pulling the high chairs up against the end for the past year, then stacking them and moving them in the corner. I don't expect the trio to remain in their high chairs too much longer, so I wanted to find a table that could fit at least six, but preferably eight.

It was really important to me to find a quality table that could accommodate not only our immediate family, but any guests as well. Jesse and I set our original budget for $500. After lots of browsing on Craigslist, we lowered our budget to $200. We found a lot of very dated tables and chairs, but didn't fall in love with any of them. Jesse sold me on this "shabby chic" table for $100. It was solid wood and could fit up to ten with the leaf. Score! Jesse and his dad picked it up using his dad's truck.

Once we had a table, we had to figure out the chairs. After much deliberation, we made plans to buy six different chairs, spray paint each chair a different color, then reupholster the seats. I spent a morning going to six different thrift stores. Jesse and I realized that our plan was fairly time consuming so we scaled back. I found four antique chairs for $10 each at a Goodwill. I also bought two end chairs at Habitat Restore for $14.

Jesse reupholstered the chairs.

1. Find chairs with fabric seats.

2. Unscrew the seat.

3. Cut selected fabric to cover the seat, with an inch or two extra on each side.

4. Tightly pull fabric and secure it to the back of the seat with a staple gun.

5. Nail staples in that don't go all the way through the wood.

6. Screw seat back onto chair frame.

7. Repeat above steps on other three chairs.

8. Repeat above steps on end chairs, using a different fabric.

9. Slide under dining room table and admire.

 To make room for a larger table, we gave my sister this very large family antique.

With the antique out of the way we were left staring at a blank red wall. We went through lots of idea, including:

• paint the entire wall gold as an accent wall
• use stencils to paint a pattern
• paint the entire wall in chalkboard paint
• buy a large piece of art/sign from Etsy

In the end, we didn't do any of those things. We couldn't agree on anything and wanted to finish by New Year's Day when we were having family over. We finally decided to move the large metal tree from our living room into the dining room. The black didn't stand out against the burgundy wall, so Jesse spraypainted it yellow.

I wanted to hang pictures of the kids. Currently, the only photographs we have on display in our entire house are landscape pictures, a wedding photo, and newborn photos of Jackson and the trio. We decided to hang a current 8 x 10 picture of each kid, with the intention of updating them each year. Jesse found 11x14 frames at Ikea for $7 each. I selected and printed my four favorite close-ups from the past year.

We're still unsure if we're going to leave the high chairs out or keep them stacked during the day. We took the trays off of them because our new dining room table is lower and the chairs fit flush against the table. I serve breakfast at a table in the trio's playroom. We got a small picnic table in the living room that I'll use for lunch. Therefore, high chairs will likely only be used at dinner with we eat together as a family. 

Jesse nailed up a tiny coat rack to hang the smocks.

We moved the play kitchen from the corner and replaced it with a toy chest that had been in the playroom. It doesn't exactly blend in with the rest of our decor, but it's a practical necessity with three toddlers.

We're pretty happy with the new look!