*How to transform your dining room into something that you love

When purchasing your home there are so many things to think about once you finally move in, and if you are not a designer by trade then the process of making your house feel like a comfy home can surely be a process, as was the case for us, specifically here in the dining room.

We failed more times than not on paint alone because all paints are created equal, right? Wrong!! This was a tough lesson that unfortunately followed us throughout our entire house. Not to mention, we did zero research because we thought, it’s just paint. Eventually lessons were learned.

This post is about how we finally transformed our dining room into something that we could truly appreciate.

Here is an old photo of how our dining room looked when we moved in. Take a look at that wallpaper border. It doesn’t even make sense.

So jumping in. Here’s a visual of things going wrong in many areas. Look at that crazy flat looking super bright orange color! And the gray primer was a recommendation from the paint store to make the orange color pop! Well, that was a joke. That orange would have looked bad either way. We’d have to wear sunglasses just to eat in this dining room. This photo also shows me proceeding to take down that hideous border. I know what you might be thinking. Why on earth was I painting when there was still a border on the wall. Now, I never said that I was a professional at this home renovation thing; and I do have that little focus on one thing problem. But hey, check out that mighty fine border removal job!!

We eventually chose a deeper burnt orange color by Sherwin Williams called Jalapeño.

A color that my mother hated because she said it just STOPS the room. Soon thereafter we yet again changed the color to another fail of brown that we kept for many many years. Simply because it was time to move on.

So here is where we left things in order to move on to one of the other rooms. As you can see, back then we didn’t seem to really care about having perfect pictures. However, this post is to show you where we are today from the struggle of what was.

{Another Post You May Like:Gorgeous and Simple Small Bathroom Makeover}

So after many, many, many more years and two kids later, this dining room has been slowly transforming

Even our little apartment size dining room table transformed with wear and tear and apparently “art” from our kiddos. It was certainly time for it to be upgraded to a table sans art, and also fit for a house. In addition to this change, my life changed as well in a drastic way. So after some time, I continued to work on our house to make it what we always intended it to be; a lovely place for our family.

Paint Research is Imperative

By now, I’ve learned a ton more about paint. Enter Edgecomb Gray by Benjamin Moore , perfect quality, perfect sheen, perfect choice. I can say I’m officially done painting this room. I needed a fresh start.

I’d say so far so good!

That table is so much better! As soon as I saw it at the home store At Home, I knew it was the right one. And it can fit 6 chairs versus the 4 that the other table fit. Next up, one more change…for now at least. I couldn’t help but continuously think that I needed something to flank the buffet table. Off to Ikea I went! Bookcases were in order. I decided on the Billy Bookcase. It’s simple and inexpensive and will work for now. My little Ise is always looking for an opportunity to be a helper, and she was more than ready to help put this together.

She’s the one who taught me that it’s safer to hammer a nail when you hold it with a pair of pliers. I’m guessing she learned that little tip from her very handy father.