Laura’s Dining Room Tour (Before + After!)

Wa-hooo!! It feels so good to be touring a main space in our new home since that means it’s finally “done” and I can check it off the list! It’s definitely a different vibe in this room now from when we moved in. It had darker burgundy walls, vertical blinds, carpet, fancy crown molding, and a shiny gold/wood ceiling fan—all things that really made this room feel stuck in the late ’80s/early ’90s.

We also realized odd things like the crown molding was installed wrong (that kind is supposed to be installed at an angle to cover where the wall meets the ceiling, but they just put it straight on the wall, so it looked really strange). And there was an “arched” doorway into the room that was really more of a not symmetrical rounded edge square that drove us kind of crazy.

There’s a step down into this room so you get a little higher ceiling height (I think it was part of the front porch at some point) and we wanted to make it feel fresh and modern with a fun ’70s twist. I’ll show you what we chose!

I moved back to my hometown to be near family, so making a space for holiday dinner hangouts felt really important to me. I love that this Seno oak table has two leaves I can add to the ends so we can fit up to 12 people at once (Elsie has the same one!).

We had my sister’s family come stay with us for the first time this month, and I can’t tell you how happy it made me to get out a leaf so we could all fit together with my parents and all our kids for a family spaghetti dinner—I almost started crying!

We actually had these Svelti dining chairs at our breakfast nook in our last home, and I loved them so much that I got six in pink for the dining room! They are comfortable, easy to clean, and they combine vintage vibes with a modern look perfectly.

It may seem crazy to have a white rug under a dining table in a house with a toddler, but it’s actually a strategic decision! Having a white rug means you can spot clean areas like crazy (or even bleach them depending on what the rug is made of) and it doesn’t look discolored from the rest of the rug like it can with a colored rug.

Ever spot clean a rug to have that area now look like a lighter pink than the rest of the pink rug? When it’s already white that doesn’t happen, and so far red juice and spaghetti night spills have cleaned up like it never happened (this is my favorite stain remover of all time!). My sister and Elsie both do the same thing!

I brought this IKEA hack bar cabinet from our last house, but I took off the leaf panels and added two rounded panels instead to have it fit in with the vibe a little better.

Also, I love a good quote print and I found this shop on Etsy that will print your custom quote in a ’70s font. So I did “I love you like Fanny loves Nick” as a nod to my favorite musical Funny Girl … #peoplewhoneedpeople

I brought that DIY two-tiered acrylic planter from our last house and it looks really cute in the corner of the room. I’d probably put a hanging planter in every room if I had enough of them—it’s a great way to get some greenery up high in a space.

I knew I wanted a big side board in this room so that I could store entertaining glassware and platters somewhere other than my kitchen (space is at a premium in there!) and the Seno sideboard was perfect for the room since it also matches our table.

I also keep some puzzles and board games in one section of it since Lola loves to do puzzles on the table as well. I love the color of the oak and it will also be perfect as extra serving space for parties.

I like that vase collection sitting on there (similar here) and I’ve been wanting that gold cactus table lamp for years and I’m so happy with how it feels in this space—it’s one of my favorite things in the house! And a pink velvet record player to go along with it all…yes please! We brought that parlor chandelier and ceiling medallion from our last house because I didn’t want to leave it! It’s so pretty and I’m still a sucker for a beautiful globe light.

We did have to get a longer rod for it since these ceilings are a lot higher though and it was hanging at the wrong height for the first nine months—haha!

And a giant pink Freddie Mercury print?? Uh, yeah!! I got a digital download and printed here, but you can also buy it as a print as well.

You can find more cute & affordable wall art for a dining room in this post!

You’ve probably noticed that wavy wallpaper by now! It’s actually hand-painted and I’ll share how I did that in a future post. Once you have your lines planned out, it’s really easy to do and it takes the room up like 30 levels of fun in my opinion. I’m basically doing velvet curtains wherever I can in this house since I love them so much and these curtains are the same mustard ones I have in Lola’s room too—they add so much cozy luxury and I’m obsessed (especially with this curtain rod)!

I also added in a yarn wall hanging for some more cozy texture. I love that gold glass pitcher and glass set. I don’t have a rainbow collection, but I do like bits of colored glassware here and there! They look so cute on that rounded tray (which is useful for so many things around the house!). 

You can also see that we ended up squaring off the doorway and reframing it to match the other doorways in the house (shout out to my brother for helping with that project!).

I do think arches can be really pretty and dramatic when done right, but this wasn’t really a full arch to begin with, wasn’t symmetrical, and just didn’t make sense as an arch spot anyway, so it. had. to. go. No regrets there!

Overall, I know this room is a little different from your traditional dining room, but it feels very fun and lighthearted to me with a bit of a ’70s nod and that’s exactly what I was going for. What do you think? Would you like to come to a dinner party in this space?? xo. Laura

Credits // Author and Photography: Laura Gummerman.