The Dining Room: Before and After

Many of you already know that the weekend was spent re-doing our dining room. What we realized in the process, of much measuring and two trips to Ikea, was that our dining room is pretty small. Its 10 feet x 8.5 feet and its serving a dual purpose: its a dining room and an “office.” OK, so I’m using the term “office” loosely; my guy does have his desk and computer in there, and it does house our table and chairs.

One of the challenges has been that our previous table was too big for the room. It fit, but it was tight. When we had people over, we moved the desk out to make room for everyone. Our new table is smaller but has two leaves. It’s surprising what a difference it makes! It must be because it’s the largest piece of furniture in the room so it dominates, so if you’re looking to change your dining room around a bit, I recommend changing the table first. You might want to follow this link to brickmillfurniture.com if you’re looking for a new table – they have a beautiful range in a whole array of styles suitable for any home. Once you’ve chosen your table, you can fit the rest of the room around it. I think we could easily fit 10 people around the new table. Finding enough chairs (and a place to store them) would be the new challenge.

However, once you’ve completed these major tasks, you can look for other decor items to make your dining area look more polished. For example, you can add sophistication to your dining table by placing a rug beneath it. However, be mindful of keeping it clean because if it appears dirty, it may turn off guests who have come to dine at your home. But, understandably, cleaning it on your own can be a daunting task. As a result, it is recommended that you locate a Carpet Cleaning company nearby your place so that you can call them whenever you want and have your rug cleaned every once in a while.

Anyway, so, here’s where we started on Saturday. The boxes are holding all of the shiny new Ikea Furniture.

Here is the same room, Sunday afternoon:

And a couple more angles for fun:

This makes it look like maybe we live in a loft, but well, we don’t.

So! Now we’re just waiting on our new rug, and the transformation is pretty much complete. I want to paint a couple of those little picture frames you can see, to a dark brown. And I think the desk would look better darker, too. We’ll get to that all in time. For now, I’m thrilled to have a comfy space to eat!