A Post-Quarantine Dining Room Glow Up

Guys, I have a confession. I pretty much lost my mind last week and decided the dining room needed a complete post-quarantine glow up refresh.

As with most things lately, I completely blame Covid for this.

And why might you ask am I blaming Covid on my spontaneous combustion to give her a refresh?

Partly because it had been exactly one year since anyone besides the four of us had stepped foot in the dining room and it was a hot mess!
And partly because now I feel sooooo ready to entertain and host friends at the house.

But before we move on let’s all take a moment of silence to remember that the dining room was a class room for approximately 10 weeks last spring.
Deep breaths. 

OK, now back to the dining room refresh. As I mentioned, I was perfectly content letting her just sit unattended the past year. Collecting half finished DIY projects and piles of clutter. After all, no one was coming over and the dining room could become a classroom at a moments notice if and when we needed to go virtual. 

Once I had the urge to do the refresh, I had so many creative ideas and just couldn’t wait one minute longer to execute them!  It was time to give this space a glow up and I had a ball putting it all together. It had been way too long since I had done any sort of room project and I’m not going to lie- it felt amazing! The beautiful thing is that I did this entire refresh for around $40 total. That includes about $30 on spray paint and $10 on wooden knobs.

Yes, wooden knobs. More on that below. 

So come on in and say hello to the new and improved dining room. She sure worked hard for us during quarantine and to thank her she looks real pretty now! 

There are three main things I did for this little refresh so let’s take a look! 

NEW ART!

First up, you may notice that I took down the bird gallery wall. I loved this gallery wall for a long time but I just felt… over it. (you can see the Bird Gallery Wall HERE)  That is beauty of only spending $100 on it back in the day- no guilt when it’s time to move on! (I also found a few spots to scatter the art throughout the house and I love where it all landed. No pun intended!) I had this large canvas from our old house sitting in a closet that I decided to pull in here. I had some fun making this abstract art using a mix of paints I had on hand.

Y’all – I am no artist so this isn’t meant to stay forever but I love how simple and uncluttered the wall feels now. I also love how it ties into the wallpapered ceiling. And considering it cost me nothing- I call it a win-win! 

But that wasn’t the only no-cost art for this room I did! Inspired by art I saw during our recent girlfriend’s farmhouse getaway, I grabbed two frames I had on hand and decided to make a set of Line Drawing Face Art of my own. You can see the inspiration HERE from the farmhouse and HERE is the actual art I found online.

Want to know how I did this for free? I just traced it onto computer paper with a pencil straight from my computer screen and then went over that with a Sharpie. (side note, I did see this cute affordable at Target too!)

Impressed with my art skilllzzzzz yet? Maybe I should open an art gallery, LOL. 

NEW LAMPS! 

Next items on the glow-up list? These lamps. I originally found the pair at my thrift store for $10 each and painted them a fun French Blue color back in the day. They’ve been sitting in here all out of place, but then it hit me. These lamps needed the same knobby treatment I did to a white lamp in our living room. You can see the full tutorial for the “Designer Inspired Knock-Off Hob Knob Lamp” here. So for the cost of two cans of black spray paint and a thing of wooden knobs (I had the gold spray paint already) – I was able to give these lamps a complete makeover for around $20!

The inspiration lamp comes from the designer Kelly Wearstler Linden lamps which cost a cool $700 bucks EACH! I LOVE LOVE LOVE my pair for $20! 

NEW SIDE CHAIRS!

I also found a pair of chairs sometime over the past year that had fun bones and I knew I could do something with them someday. Yay for that someday being last week! I think I paid around $10 for each of these as well. But the wood was a gross yellow and the chair fabric was green and yellow plaid. (see what I mean about collecting half finished DIY projects- this room was a mess!) I kept waiting for inspiration to strike and once I started going with the line drawing art and the lamps- I had a vision for the chairs. So I painted them white- including the chair cushion! And then just added the black stripe. I think I needed two cans of spray paint for these so around $10. (I also used some regular watered down white paint for the chair cushions for fuller coverage)

Yes, the fabric on the cushion is stiff.
And no, I don’t care. 

The Bar Cart Secretary is still hanging here in the corner. I shared this update with you a few months back and you can see those details here. 

The secretary and buffet console are still cherry wood and I just don’t have the heart to make any paint changes to them. So for now they will remain traditional with all the other woods in here. It’s not perfect but let’s just call it “collected” shall we?  

Oh, and I almost forgot. I found that big centerpiece bowl over the past year at my thrift store for $4 and it was an ugly rust-colored brown. (again, more random forgotten pieces just waiting for some TLC!)  So I glossed it up with some white spray paint. I want to figure out a fun succulent or moss arrangement but for now I stuck some moss balls inside. 

Like those antelope chargers? Another DIY project from the past that you can see HERE. This is probably my favorite Dollar Tree makeover ever and I still use them ALL THE TIME!

Hope you enjoyed this little glow- up to the dining room!

PS: Who said fairy lights were just for Christmas?! 

 

 

xoxo-

Heather