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You are here: Home / Decorating / Dining Room Design Next Steps

Dining Room Design Next Steps

June 24, 2015 By Karen Cooper 3 Comments

OK, y’all are the BEST! So many great ideas and comments in response to yesterday’s post about the dining room! (If you missed yesterday’s post, you can read it HERE.) I learned a lot from your comments, including that many of you struggle with how to design your dining rooms, too! It’s a hard room to design because we want to use it more often but we’re often constrained by what we’ve experienced – i.e., that the dining room is a formal space for holidays and special dinners.

Dining Room in New-To-Us House - designing a dining room - Dogs Don't Eat Pizza

As many of you pointed out, the furniture isn’t so much the problem as the feel of the room. That said, though, there are two things about the furniture that bother me:

  1. The buffet is too big for this room. I bought this buffet about 15 years ago at the Pottery Barn outlet. I bought it for the house we had before, and it fit in the dining room nicely. Now, though, it’s a bit big for the 1929 house, because the only place it fits is in front of the windows and I don’t like blocking the windows. I’ve thought about whether we could use the buffet in another room, but it just doesn’t fit anywhere.  Also, it’s a bit orangey, especially in this room with the medium-dark wood floors and beige walls. I would paint it if I thought it was the perfect piece for the room, but I really think it’s just too big.
  2. The two chairs at the head and foot of the table are too formal. I like them fine, but they aren’t the right style for the look I’m going for. The other chairs – the gray ones – are the ones I reupholstered (see HERE for that post) and would hold up fine to game playing or anything else. They’re plain and fine for any style room.

So, with that in mind, I’m going to start the process of redesigning this room, focusing on the decor and making it more casual.  Here’s what I’m going to do next.

Dining Room Design Next Steps

  1. I’m going to first empty the room of everything except the big pieces: i.e., the table, the chairs, the chest. Everything else out.
  2. Exception to #1: I’m going to move the buffet and the two gray patterned chairs out of the room. I want to see what removing those pieces does to the look and feel of the room.
  3. Before moving the buffet, I’m going to empty it and see what I’ll need to store elsewhere if I get rid of the buffet.
  4. Give the room a good cleaning – floor, trim, windows, etc. – before I start putting anything back in.

Once I get those four things done, I think I’ll be able to visualize what I want the room to look like.

I’ll keep track of the progress on Instagram, so make sure you’re following me at instagram.com/dogsdonteatpizzakaren.

Keep those ideas and suggestions coming! I love them! Thank you!!

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Filed Under: Decorating Tagged With: Dining Rooms 3 Comments

About Karen Cooper

Hi! I'm Karen. I call myself a “recovering lawyer” - I traded in my power suits for power tools and a life of DIY adventures. Join me for DIY, home decorating, repurposing and upcycling, and organizing projects and tips as I transform a 1929 Tudor bungalow into our home. I believe in merging old and new to make a house a home.

« Issues When Designing a Dining Room
Breadboard Dinner »




Comments

  1. Patty says

    April 11, 2016 at 11:30 am

    I want to know if you exposed your chimney in your dining room yourself or was it like that. If you did it yourself can you please tell me how? I have the same think in my dining room and I love that exposed brick

    Reply
    • Karen Cooper says

      April 11, 2016 at 12:02 pm

      It was actually like that when we moved in. I am hoping that, if we renovate our kitchen, we can expose the other side of the chimney. If we do, I’ll let you know!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Dogs Don't Eat Pizza Dining Room Makeover - Marty's Musings says:
    January 27, 2016 at 11:01 pm

    […] dining room had been a decorative disaster for me. I couldn’t quite get the feel I wanted, which was a more casual, farmhouse, industrial, rustic, relaxed feel. I didn’t want a formal […]

    Reply

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Hi! I’m Karen. I call myself a “recovering lawyer,” because I turned in my power suits for power tools and a life of DIY. This blog is all about DIY, home decorating, repurposing and upcycling, and organization. I believe in merging old and new to make a house a home.




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About Karen

A "recovering lawyer," I turned in my power suits for power tools and a life of DIY. I believe in merging old and new to make a house a home. Read More…

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