Today I am sharing with you all our modern farmhouse-inspired dining room. This space is airy, bright, and fresh while still feeling homey and comfortable.
Our Dining Room Makeover
Now when I tell you this post was a long time in the making: I mean seriously, it was nearly a year in the works.
When we first moved into our new home there were a few things I knew I wanted to change right off the bat.
Number One: the dining room.
Number two: the bedroom.
Number three: the ensuite (though, this will be a BIG project)
And the list goes on.
But, let’s get real – you can’t (or at least, we can’t) just go ahead and get all those reno’s done right away. We knew/know that some of these home decor projects will take a bit longer and that we would have to prioritize which should get done first.
And that’s when we decided to start with our dining room space. It already is a big and airy space, and since it doesn’t really need any “major” changes (like the ensuite does – yikes!) it seemed like the best place to start.
First up, Paint!
When we moved in, there were two walls that were a super dark teal-blue shade. The colour was nice, but it really wasn’t our style and as soon as I saw them I knew I wanted to paint them.
One of the walls was the one right in the dining room area (while the other is behind the living room space) and it really darkened the whole room. This is a space that has so much natural light and the dark teal colour just really made the room look dark and dreary.
So, we decided to update the teal walls with a soft grey-beige shade, CIL Whitecliff Beige. It instantly brightened the room and made it feel more like “us”. Plus, it made the space feel so much more open and large.
Painting the two walls that were deep teal took a heck of a long time. We sanded, primed, and then painted multiple coats to remove any trace of the previous colour. Thankfully, Jer and I can make almost anything fun when we are together so I blasted the “A Star is Born” soundtrack while he made us cocktails for our painting session.
Shopping for our Dining Room Table
Next, we found our dining table. Crazy enough, we actually found it on the Facebook Marketplace! And we got it for just $350! I know – wild right?
The person we purchased it from makes them just for fun. He loves woodworking and has found that his tables are quite popular so he makes and posts them frequently. As soon as I saw this soft weathered grey and white table I just knew it would be perfect for the space.
Lighting
Then, just after Christmas last year we went to Home Depot and found our chandelier. We both loved the iron and gold chandelier so much, and truly think it looks great in the space. However, I’m not sure I’d recommend it.
The reason I am not 100% sure about it is because we’ve had some issues with it.
The first one we purchased had a ton of damage to it, so we brought it back – and they returned it without issue which was really great. But the second one (the one that we have now) has issues as well.
The centre part is off-kilter in comparison to the rest of the chandelier and it looks uneven. For a perfectionist like myself, this is a huge annoyance.
The Long Journey to Finding Dining Chairs
Our next changes to the dining room didn’t come for another 7 months. Finally, at the end of August, I decided to take the plunge and order some new dining chairs.
Oh yeah, I guess I forgot to mention that for the first 9 months of living in our house, we used our bar stools and two random dining chairs in our dining room. I want to say it looked eclectic but really… it just looked like we had just moved in.
But honestly – choosing dining chairs was HARD. Like the hardest part of decorating our space. And here’s why…
Our last dining chairs were a learning lesson.
We loved them, and we still love them (2 are our office chairs now, 1 is a chair I use for my filming space, and the last is an accent chair downstairs in the guest room) but the cats destroyed them.
They became our cat’s favourite scratching post. And, when I was in my office and Jeremy was at work, it was hard to correct the habit.
So when we began looking at getting new chairs, my #1 requirement was that they were cat-proof. I looked at tons of different stores trying to find the perfect chairs – or maybe we would get benches? Or perhaps we would get 2 chairs and 1 bench? Should we get wood or metal?
Anyways, after a ton of searching, I finally spotted these metal Chelsea Dining chairs on Wayfair. They were simple, they had that distressed look which went so well with our bright yet rustic farmhouse style, and since they’re metal they are completely cat-proof.
The chairs are great, we absolutely love them and they work beautifully in the space. One thing I do want to note though is how long shipping can take with Wayfair. We ordered these on August 31st and they didn’t arrive until late September.
It felt like a really long time. In the grand scheme of things, it isn’t the biggest deal but I did want to note it in case you order there and are hoping for a faster turnaround.
Along with my chair order, I also ordered the Heatherton Ribbed Ultra Soft Throw to compliment the space. I loved the item of a large black and white plaid printed throw hanging over one of the distressed white chairs. Here’s a couple other throw blankets I really like:
Our Photo Wall (One of my favourite things in our house!)
The last addition to our dining room space was this photo wall.
I ordered these frames off of Amazon.ca and I have to say, I love them.
They look exactly how we wanted, they arrived super fast (in 2 business days!) and I love how they showcase our wedding day. I absolutely love our wedding photos by Cakewalk Media) so much and it makes me so happy to have a place to have them on display.
So, that’s it for now!
I eventually would love to get some new curtains, maybe a plant or two to add some greenery into the space – but for now, I am very happy with our revamped space.
Great ideas! Your ideas seem very helpful for me. Thanks a lot for sharing and please keep sharing more.