Colorful Eclectic Modern Dining Room

I have another room makeover for ya. It might seem like I’m making over every room in the house; I’m not. My OCD won’t let me share something that isn’t “done” – and when is a room truly done? Never. So, like the master bedroom, the dining room has been making a slow transformation from inherited-from-mom to colorful eclectic modern since last December. Like, literally the day after the magazine shoot.

Here’s what the dining room looked like in the magazine (top right):

And here are some of the scouting shots I sent to the magazine editor:

Literally every single thing in this image was inherited from my Mom, which is nice. She had great taste and I kept so many of her things but I’ve been feeling more and more like it’s time to get rid of some things that I’m not in love with. Memories are not in things, which is sometimes a hard concept for me to grasp but the excitement of finding of my own pieces to put together in a room kinda takes the sting out of it. It really is just stuff.

I was never in love with that hutch. In a JoJo Gaines saturated market, you probably think I’m nuts. The thing was huge, kid.

Huge. 

It was really pretty, though.

Not my style, though. Didn’t look quite right with the Russel Wright, but, whaddya gon’ do?

I sold it and traded it in for the breakfront I had in the booth at Woodstock Market. The hutch wasn’t selling and I was ready to get out of Woodstock completely. I had planned on painting the mcm hutch in a high high gloss because the burled wood didn’t go with our dining table. But once I got it in the space, a hardware change was all it needed.

Another view from “before” – the plate wall.

Here’s the dining room now:

I moved the floral rug to the sitting room (which needed a rug anyway) and replaced it with a jute rug/Ikea cowhide layered situation that has made an appearance in several other rooms. I sold the Pottery Barn chairs and slipcovers on FB for fifty bucks each and then turned around and bought these 6 metal chairs on Craigslist for $30 each.

I changed out the buttercream curtains for some spring green ones from Pottery Barn – both sets inherited from Mom. The hand painted floral by my great grandmother has found a new, more prominent home in the entry way and was replaced by some framed fabric leftover from a pillow sham I made for our bedroom. Love the frames, not the fabric – slapped that in the frames last minute to get ready for this photo shoot – fully intend on hubs and I doing self-portrait single line contour drawings for those frames but – for now, we’re calling it done.

I replaced the light fixture with an Ikea Maskros Hack that I’ll share later this week.

The chair seat cushions are the small 14″ $1.49 “pillows” from Ikea. These are just too small to be called pillows. They make a good butt cushion, though.

I found some handmade beaded doilies at an estate sale and arranged them on the table to serve as a runner.

I found a green one of my own that I inherited and threw it in the mix for the centerpiece.

Mixed it up with some thrifted milk glass and fake flowers, ehthankyou.

The hardware on the breakfront hutch was black and gold before switching it out. The old pulls stood out more than the little hardware hole does so the hole doesn’t bother me.

It was hard to get rid of Mom’s hutch. And kinda hard to get rid of her fancy chairs – but if I don’t love it – what’s the point in keeping it? Yeah, it was nice, it was expensive, but it’s not me. This is me.

If you follow me on SnapChat, you might have seen the making of the Ka-Boom art in live-action. Here it is if you missed it…

I’m so happy about this. The colors are so fun but I think mostly the feeling that I’ve let go of some stuff. Literally and figuratively – gotten rid of some heavy stuff. It feels nice.

And my Russel Wright looks more at home in this hutch.

The plate wall is really the only thing I didn’t change. I added a plate, but you’d never notice.

I didn’t keep a running tally but I know we actually made a little money in this makeover.

One more before and after:

Maybe this is the motivation we need to actually use this room on any day other than a holiday.