Tweaking 2 Dining Rooms…Before & After!

I’ve been wanting to share these before & after photos with you, just about forever.  A lovely, young SF family asked me to tweak two rooms off their kitchen.  Just freshen them up, make them a bit more modern.

The first room is a full-on formal dining room that’s right off the kitchen.  They felt it was a bit more traditional than they wanted.

Voila!  Big change, right?

There are a few things I incorporated that really livened up the space.  FIRST of all, we used a deep blue indigo grasscloth wallpaper (nope, that’s not paint), which really made a big impact.

Swapping out the table and chairs also took the room from “eh” to “wowza”!!!!!  If you’ve read my stuff in the past you’ll know that I just can’t quit the Saarinen Tulip table (oh, and here’s my tribute to the IKEA version).  I love it!  So versatile!

Word to the wise?  If you’re going to go with this sleek look for your table, better pair it with chairs in a different material – like these raw wood and rope ones.

Notice, too, we moved that hulking buffet away from the window and out of the room.  It made the space a lot brighter.

A few other things – we kept the light fixture but raised it up a little closer to the ceiling, we got rid of the sea grass rug that was there (much to my chagrin – I LOVE sea grass!), and we ended up layering a few cowhide rugs.  That was my client’s idea – brilliant!

It was hard to part with those yellow silk drapes, but I’m glad we did.  We just opted for plain, cream linen roman shades.  It’s a cleaner look.

This family loves color.  I mean, LOVES.  So when I showed them this lemon yellow lacquered console from ModShop they jumped on it.  How fun is that?

FINALLY, the piece de resistance….there was a little breakfast nook to the side of the dining room.  You may be asking yourselves – wait, a breakfast nook next to a dining room?  So a DINING ROOM alongside another DINING ROOM?  Exactly.  My client was like “can’t we do something else with this space?”

Super cute… but we needed to change HOW we used this room.

So we turned it into a little TV hangout room.  I’m so proud!  Kept those beautiful window shades, painted the walls a light gray, installed a large TV on the opposite wall, and scored a TEAL VELVET sofa from Sofa U Love, which makes affordable, custom sofas to the very inch of what you need.

Braided Abaca rug from Serena & Lily |  Peekaboo Coffee table from CB2  | Pillows from Target and Home Goods

Pretty, bright and cozy!

Makes you think – wow, what room do I have that could be used in a different way?