My dining room makeover has come a long way. Much like the rest of the house, it’s evolved over time with my changing design tastes.
Dining room makeover
Dining room: before
If you’re standing at the front door, the dining room is to the far left corner of the house, accessible through either the kitchen or living room.
When I first bought it, the previous homeowner was using it as her bedroom. It also had a low ceiling fan, dingy ceilings, and heavy curtains that shut out the light.
So, you could say I had my work cut out for me turning it back into a dining space. The renovation began with replacing the floor and adding some picture frame molding.
Dining room: progress
The hardest part by far was stripping down the wallpaper and repairing the damaged walls, which led to lots of lessons about what products work for drywall repair and getting things ready for paint.
Then, I chose a bold color for the walls. The room was turning back into a sophisticated space for entertaining!
And after a new light fixture and decor, here’s where we are now!
Dining room: after
I didn’t just dip a toe into the water with this color – I went for impact with a vibrant blue dining room! And even though I was nervous about how it would come together, the room is finally taking shape. There’s still more to add, like window treatments, more art, crown molding, and a bar area for entertaining, but check out the projects below to get the details on the paint, makeover process, and more for what’s happened so far, get tips, etc.
Related dining room posts worth reading:
- Before
- Adding New Flooring
- New Dining Room Furniture
- Stripping Down the Wallpaper
- Adding Picture Frame Molding
- Installing Molding Around Windows and Outlets
- Hiccups Along the Way
- Proper Paint Prep After Drywall Repair
- Dining Room Mood Board
- Dining Room Paint!
- Copper Light Fixture
- A Nifty Trick for Hanging Art with Ease
- Christmas Dining Room
See all other dining room posts here.
Shop the room
Sierra says
Sep 7 2015 at 12:03 pmI love the gold lamp you used in the dining room. Would you mind sharing the source? Thanks!
Sarah says
Sep 7 2015 at 2:30 pmGold lamp? Do you mean the new copper light fixture? If so, the details on it can be found here.
Rachael says
Oct 21 2015 at 6:20 pmHi Sarah,
Love the colour scheme! I’m currently in the middle of a home reno project myself – just wondering is painting easy to do yourself? I’m tossing up between doing it myself and getting a professional in only problem is Auckland is going through a housing boom at the moment so painters are scarce :)
Sarah says
Oct 22 2015 at 1:03 amPainting is one of the easiest DIYs around! For more tips & tricks, see the Painting section in my Project Gallery.
Sam says
Dec 2 2015 at 11:22 pmHi Rachel, if you don’t want to DIY it you can check out these Auckland Painters if you like. They did some work on my old villa about a month ago, really impressed at how good they made the fretwork look.
Sainab says
Jan 9 2016 at 6:07 pmSuch an amazing transformation! I love how you went for a bold colour it worked so well!
Miss Bonnie says
May 28 2016 at 5:55 pmwow you have the gift of turning something ugly beautiful. great redo just beautifuk
Abigail Jones says
Jun 13 2017 at 12:29 pmYour hard work has well paid off. And I like how you choose bold blue for the wall. It’s stylish, simple but modern.
Sarah says
Jun 14 2017 at 3:33 pmThank you! I’ve been trying to update each of these room reveals as I clean up the site… looks like you started clicking, which is exactly what I hoped for! The dining room still needs tons of stuff like art, curtains, etc. but those upgrades are coming! <3
Breland Wigfall says
Oct 9 2017 at 11:08 amSo I initially found your website while looking for tips on removing wallpaper. I was prepping to do our powder room. Eventually, I became enamored by your dining room transformation and it made me move into the dining room instead of the powder room (which was easier since there was no wallpaper). I’d already picked out a color for our dining room and over the course of time I was really inspired by your blue walls and took our paint back and had a new batch mixed up to come as close to your blue and changed my whole dining room plan! I can submit photos to you later, but thank you for your inspiration!
Sarah says
Oct 9 2017 at 2:31 pmAmazing, thanks so much for the compliment Breland! I’d love to see photos when you finish!
Shun says
Mar 8 2018 at 9:19 amDid you do all of this yourself (i.e., the floors, light fixture, painting, picture frame molding)? My house needs a lot of TLC and I just feel overwhelmed and don’t know where to start.
Sarah says
Mar 8 2018 at 9:50 pmYou can find each of those projects in their links on this page, but I occasionally had help when it came available (for instance, I was busy with one DIY while my uncle helped me tackle the picture frame molding). I usually do most of the work myself. The best advice is to start with a small project that only scares you a LITTLE, then once you’ve done it, you’ll feel more confident and more momentum for the bigger projects. You got this!
Liz says
Mar 13 2018 at 4:32 pmSarah, Love your picture frame molding. I went back through to see if I could find what size molding you chose but I may missed it. Would you mind sharing?
Sarah says
Mar 13 2018 at 5:50 pmI don’t know off the top of my head, but I’ll take a quick picture of it before my next Home Depot/Lowe’s run and see if I can find a match to the name, then comment back here. But I got it as plain decorative molding (so no pre-made boxes or anything like that) from Lowe’s. There aren’t a huge number of options at the store (I bought 16-foot lengths, and they don’t tend to carry more than 2 or 3 options), so if you take a picture of one of the closeups from this post and try to visually match it at the store, that could work a little faster if you’re needing an answer within the next few days.
Anna Turska says
Apr 17 2018 at 3:12 pmI love the page. I can`t wait for doing my own renovation but for now I got a 1920s house and needed experts to deal with it (too much needed to be done and too many rooms).
Sarah says
Apr 19 2018 at 1:11 amOoh, the 1920s is one of my favorite time periods for design. Sounds like a wonderful project!