Dining Room Decor

YAY! I can finally say that I’m a (pretend) adult because I have a dining room! As a kid, I had so many dreams about what my home would look like, most of them were modern and tacky with crazy colors and zebra print everywhere. But, I must say I was really excited to own my home, not because of the financials and that it was ‘the smart thing to do’ but because I wanted to decorate every room, paint the walls and drill holes in the walls, change the tile etc. Well, what my parents didn’t tell me was that decorating and furniture are crazy expensive, and you have to find studs in order to drill holes in the walls. All these technicalities make decorating that much harder. For me, it was the crazy cost of furniture, I know understand why my parents let furniture be handed down to them by their parents and why they bought furniture once every 20 years. You’re spending all this money on items that you have to live with for the next X number of years, and that’s a lot of pressure.

Now that you’ve gotten a look into my chaotic brain, I can get to my dining room decor. This room really was one of my favorites because, as a middle-class person, this symbolized adulthood and being able to have people over for dinner and having formal dinners for holidays. Also, the way our town home is laid out, there is a specific space for the dining room and there’s really no other option but to put a dining rom table there. For the longest time (6 months) my dining room was just an open room that we stored boxes in. When I finally had everything unpacked it became the stretching space, the yoga space, and the space that taunted me and kept me up at night, reminding me that I needed to buy furniture. Sometimes I came up with ideas or saw something on Pinterest that I liked but I couldn’t fully implement it into my space until I had a vision, which is why this wall remained blank for the the first 6 months. I just couldn’t make up my mind about what to do with this massive wall. I originally wanted to hang up some cool artwork but couldn’t find exactly what I wanted. But when I thought of the idea for open shelving, my vision started to come to life. Typically, I don’t like open shelving, especially in the kitchen because I think it looks cluttered; I like everything hidden. But the idea of using it as a display vs storage I loved because I could hand pick exactly what I wanted to ensure it looked clean. I also feel like I’m constantly changing my mind on my decor and being able to easily change little things on these shelves was just perfect for my personality. In reality, I’m sure I have a commitment issue, but why dwell on that when I can just work around it.

Dining Room Set:

Finding the perfect dining room table was the hardest piece of furniture I’ve ever had to purchase. I knew exactly what I wanted, a dark wood table with thick, chunky legs and upholstered chairs. In my mind, this was a very traditional and common piece and I thought I’d be able to find it relatively quickly. Not true at all. I found a couple of items that might work but typically the legs were too small, too fancy, or the wood wasn’t the perfect colot. I searched for months and couldn’t find anything that I was willing to spend my money on. I figured that I might as well buy the expensive and good quality table versus something that would work-for-now, because I knew that if I bought a temporary table, I would never buy a real one. So I searched and searched and finally came across this one at Wayfair and it was just perfect, exactly what I wanted. But, of course, it was more than I wanted to spend, so I let it sit for about a month before I said, ‘nope, I need that table’, and I jumped the gun and bought it.

Pro Tip: It’s extremely cost effective to purchase a dining room set versus a dining room table and separate chairs, mainly because most places want $200 + for a simple chair.

Shelves:

As I mentioned above, I hate the idea of open shelving, typically I think it looks clutters. But my mind has officially been changed, through Pinterest of course. I made a couple different boards on open shelving and how I wanted to use it but what it came down to was versatility. When it comes to decorating (and life in general), I like to overthink things and be indecisive because I know that I’ll have to look at these things everyday. I would definitely recommend not buying something the instant you see it, take some time, think about it and say ‘will this make me happy everyday?’ For me, asking that question is key, and it really does work. I think it takes getting to know yourself a little bit for that question to work but for me, every item in my home, I look at it and it makes me happy. For me, that’s the main part of decorating is coming home to someplace that just makes you feel good. These shelves definitely did that for me. I was stressing so much about what to do with that massive wall and I couldn’t find anything (mainly artwork) that I was like ‘yes, this is me, this is what I want to look at everyday’. And the more I started playing around with the idea of open shelving, the more I liked it. I could change it up each season and I could play around with the design, perfect for someone who’s indecisive. More importantly, every time I walk downstairs and see that wall, that gave me nightmares at one point, makes me happy.

Small Plant | Medium Plant | Large Plant

When I was buying furniture for my house I stuck with neutral colors, a taupe couch and mostly wood accents. I was hoping that I’d be able to add color with accents. But I haven’t been able to settle on a color, so I’ve just had a brown mess in my living room. My mom was always big on putting fake/faux trees in the house and I really liked them (we have the ability to kill any living plant within 24 hours). So I really liked the idea of adding in green accents, because  I didn’t have to commit to a color.

‘Be Our Guest’ Frame:

I’m a Disney Kid, I grew up watching Disney movings, playing Pirates and Princesses (really just an advanced version of tag), and going to the Disney theme parks. I really wanted to incorporate an element of Disney into a couple parts of my home, without being too obvious, and this sign was just so perfect. It also, doesn’t hurt that Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite Disney movies.

‘Not all Those Who Wander’ Frame:

(See description of Disney obsession above). Growing up, I loved Peter Pan, mainly because I didn’t want to grow up and I wanted to be a kid forever. But now, all grown up, I love this quote, ‘Not all those who wander are lost’. I think it symbolizes adulthood perfectly because to me it means that even wen you don’t have a clear cut direction or path in life, doesn’t mean you’re lost. Sometimes we’re just suppose to wander and explore, and a reminder that it’s the journey and not the destination.

Also, I know this quote is from The Hobbit, but it reminds me of Peter Pan and Disney. 🙂

Oh, how far we’ve come:

Before-and-After photos are probably the main reason why I started this blog. I love seeing how rooms transform throughout the years and how much they’ve changed/ how much work I’ve put in 🙂 Plus they are hysterical to look at after the fact. Enjoy!