Dining Room Reveal

Welcome to the most colorful room in the house! Besides taking down a small wall to the left of the front door to open it up a bit more, this room is how we bought it. It's really more like a dining area, as you will notice there aren't many walls. It's made up by the back of the stacked stone fireplace, the window wall (the window is 5'4" wide) and the little wall where the bar cart sits.

Obviously, you also see the front entry way, and you can see everything from the kitchen.
When I decided I wanted wallpaper in the house, this area was the obvious place because it was a defined spot. The walls wrap around and there was a good stopping point to transition back to paint. After finding absolutely nothing I loved locally, I shopped online to find this super colorful Orla Kiely wallpaper. Greg didn't hate it, and I LOVED it. Upon discovering that it wasn't sold in the U.S., I ended up buying it from John Lewis in the U.K. and having it imported to us by their store (they literally could not ship it directly to me - so I had to buy, ship it to their store, and then they shipped it to me. Annoying, but totally worth it!) We had it hung by a professional, since there was NO way I was messing it up! She did a wonderful job - if anyone local needs her info, please let me know; I'd use her again.

We picked up the dining room set from an estate sale, actually from the estate of the very first house we bid on (and didn't get!) Unfortunately, there were only five chairs with the set (there is only one chair with arms, which actually is in our sunroom for the time being). The entire set is not in pristine shape, but it was very affordable, and is nice and petite, so fits the space really well. Plus, Eames can beat it up, and I won't freak out. We will most likely replace this with another vintage find when the times come, but for now, it's ideal. There are two leaves that can be put it to make it a bit longer, which works when we host more people for dinner.

I finally(!) recovered the chairs with some Herman Miller outlet fabric I picked up months and months ago. On Thanksgiving Eve, the night before we hosted our first Thanksgiving dinner for both of our families, I spent a few hours taking off the old, stained fabric, and replacing it with this vibrant orange. I am not a pro, but it doesn't look awful. I have tons of fabric left, so if/when it becomes stained, I can easily recover it again.

Unfortunately for us, the original light fixture wasn't intact when we bought the house. The one hanging here on closing day was quite horrible, so finding the right fixture was on top of my to-do list. When Rejuvenation introduced their Meteor Pendant, it was an easy sell for me - Greg, on the other hand, wasn't on board right away. He's right - it's a little space-shippy, but I LOVE it.


Dining Room Resource List

• Dining room table & chairs | Vintage find via estate sale
• Chair fabric | Herman Miller via Office Outlet
• Wallpaper | Orla Kiely via John Lewis
• Chandelier | Meteor Pendant via Rejuvenation 
• Bar Cart | Target