Welcome to Day #2 of Casa Watkins Living “My Home Style: Before & After Edition.“
And a big ” thanks girl!” to Stephanie for inviting me to join her blog hop again! If you haven’t already done so, be sure to head over to her blog and check out all of the bloggers who are participating.
If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you may remember back to when I joined Stephanie a few times before on these hops. We did one highlighting our Christmas trees last year and another one sharing how we describe our design style.
This time around we are each taking a look back at how our design style has evolved and sharing one room that reflects that.
Mastering Your Design Style
I just moved from a historic home that had a very spacious dining room with high ceilings (that I could never manage to take a great picture of!) to a new house with a small, dark dining room that had been neglected.
Old House…
In the old house, the dining room was kind of the place where we stuck furniture from my first little “cottage” style house. I planned to buy new furniture and give it a makeover “some day.”
You know how that goes right?
Yep. In over 12 years, someday never arrived.
So I was determined to create my dream dining room in the new house. Even though the room was fairly small.
New House “BEFORE”
While there were many elements of the old dining room I wanted to recreate in the new house, I realized my style has changed a bit since I did the old dining room.
One thing was for certain… the dining room at the new house was painful on the eyes… it was crying out for a makeover!
Bringing My Style to the New House Dining Room: Eclectic, Texture, Colorful
My style could be described as combining old and new for a somewhat acquired or eclectic look.
I also love, love, love color and texture!
When we got the keys to the new house, I knew the dining room was one I wanted to tackle first.
While I know some designers and decorators poo-poo the idea of chair rail, I love it!!!
So after I settled on a hardwood for the floor, I started plotting the colors, border and yes… the chair rail. (You can read about the chair rail project here.)
And like most of the world, I have been crushing on farm tables. So when an antiques store near me held their monthly sale, I buzzed over on opening morning.
Jackpot! I found this beauty. I especially loved that it is hand-crafted using reclaimed wood from my beloved northern Michigan.
But I did want a top that was a darker stain….
The sweet designer invited me to come back to her studio and bring a sample of my hardwork so we could mix a few stains to create the perfect match!
How fun is that?? Pretty darn cool right?
After we came up with the match, I started my hunt for the perfect chairs.
I really wanted something with texture that honored the natural look in the room.
That’s when I came across these beauties..
Mixing Patterns and Textures
And because my dining room wouldn’t be complete without a little leopard, some burlap and some fun fringe…
The “New” Dining Room
Here’s the almost finished room! We just love it..
This vintage beauty that is being re-wired for the ceiling and I’m still on the hunt for one more piece for the corner of the room!
Let’s Stay in Touch
Thanks for stopping in to visit! I’d love for us to stay in touch.
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Finally…don’t forget to use the links below to hop on over and check out what my fellow bloggers have been up to…
XO
Shelley
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I especially love your curtains and your chairs. Looks like a great space to entertain. Enjoy!
Thanks! The chairs are super comfy too!
The table looks so much richer with that darker stain! Good choice!
Thanks, Melissa!
Cool style! Love the farmhouse table 🙂
Thanks! I can’t wait to deck the table all out for the holidays. Looking forward to visiting your blog on the tour tomorrow, too!
Shelley your new home is coming together so nicely!!! Love the new look of the table. 🙂
Thanks Stephanie!
Hi Shelley! What a huge transformation! I love that big, beautiful farmhouse table makeover. Wow!
Thank you! And thanks for stopping by.
Love that table and those chairs! (those are the kind of chairs I can never have myself because of the cats).
Thank you! The chairs are pretty solid, but not sure how they would hold up against cats…
wow! What a transformation! This definitely feels like home and I love what you did with your table…This is a great space for a feast. It is lovely.
Thanks Jessica! I still have a few small details to finish up but I’m so much happier with the room than the first time I walked in to it with the realtor! Glad you could stop by.
I love your new table! It’s so much fun when you find the perfect piece and start seeing your whole space really come together! xo
I think it is so much fun to see before and after! Love that Stephanie organized the blog hop around that theme. Thanks for visiting…
I love that you don’t care a bit about what other designers say about things you love. You just designed the room for you and that always makes the best room!
Yep… I definitely subscribe to that philosophy. Thanks for stopping by…
The textures in your dining room are so great! Beautiful changes.
Thank you!!
Those floors are beautiful. The before and after are like night and day! Great job and hope you can enjoy some meals in your new room!
Thanks, Jen! Not surprisingly… no meals yet in the new dining room. Maybe this week?!
Wow – I love how this room came together – and I also just put up chair rail, and am loving it! The chairs are exactly what I have been searching for – could you please share where they were purchased?
Yeah! Another chair rail friend. I bought the chairs from Ballard Design. I found some similar ones at Arhaus, but they were bigger and more expensive. These are comfy and the scale is perfect. Glad you stopped by!