Renovating Our Dining Room - Part One

When we started house hunting, we knew we wanted a home that we could put a little work into to make our own, but we also didn't want to have to put a ton of work into it. We were looking for something that we could slap some paint on the walls, maybe install new flooring, do some landscaping, and be done. Hahahaha! Sure, Jan. Not in this area! People here just don't take very good care of their homes, as we came to discover when we went to look at what seemed like a bazillion of them. Luckily, we finally found one that had potential to be our forever home. And here we finally are, 5 years after purchasing it, starting the first big project.

The following post is sponsored in part by JMD Furniture. 

Part one of any project I do is visualization. I will gather every idea I have into a Pinterest board as my starting point. Wall colors, designs, and even furniture. So that's what this first post is going to feature. My design board. 

As far as colors and designs go, I always loved Tuscan decor, but I'm also a little into rustic. So I wanted to come up with some way to incorporate both into my space. I already knew I wanted every room in the downstairs and up into the stairway and upstairs hallway to be the same wall color. It's just easier that way. 

We really liked this color, but apparently Lowe's no longer carries it. It's been discontinued. But you know, the joy in my husband being a professional painter for a large corporation, is that we get discounts on paint at Sherwin Williams because that's the paint brand that the company my husband works for, uses. So he just went into our local store and had them custom match this color in their brand and add primer to it to save us a step. So the walls will be this color, trim will be white, and of course, the ceiling is white now as well. We've already installed the ceiling light, which I had purchased months ago. So what's next, now that I already have paint colors picked out? Well, furniture, duh! And honestly, that's my favorite part! Because, sure, paint colors can spruce up a room, but what really brings it together is the furniture you put in it!

I want dark wood furniture through most of the rooms that will have this paint scheme. I just like the contrast of the dark wood with the stone and white colors. 

A number of things I knew I wanted for this room was a new dining set (obviously), a corner shelf, and one or two sideboards. We entertain a lot. Like, that Eddie Murphy song about his girl liking to party all the time. Yeah, that's me. We host dinner and parties about once a month or more it seems. So I needed a nice dining set for us to eat at, plus I wanted the sideboards to store party supplies and also have a space to serve snacks and such. 

I love this 8 piece solid wood dining set I found on the JMD Furniture website. The color of the set will look great in the room, and it's big enough for my family. Our dining room isn't huge, so we can't go big with the set, but we really needed a larger one than the 5 piece we already have (which will be going in the game room). 

Did I mention that we have a pass through from our dining room to our kitchen? It's the coolest thing ever! However, I really want to open it up a little more and turn it into a bar. Which means we need bar stools, too. I'm still trying to find bar stools I like, but that is kind of an after thought since the pass through isn't getting turned into a bar until we start on the kitchen. 

So next up, is a sideboard/buffet table.

I really love this Siobhan dark gray server which was also on the JMD Furniture site. While the color is a little different than the dining set, I kind of fell in love with the design. The drawers are perfect to put hand towels and napkins in, and the two cabinets will store (and hide) my stacks of paper plates, plastic cups, and various small party decor. There's even a place to put my wine bottles (which are just for decoration since I have kids), and wine glasses (which I always end up using for dessert cups). The top is just big enough for me to put a tray or two of cookies or crackers and cheese. And I plan to get a second one for the other side of the room for more storage and more "party snack" space. 

I actually like a lot of the things on this site, but I had never heard of it until now. Apparently it's a fast growing business with stores opening up all around Virginia and Maryland. We are in Maryland a lot, so I'll have to go shop around the store in person and hopefully bring back a truck load for my new dining room!