Pain points. We all have them in our homes, and oftentimes they're the inspiration for us to make changes in our homes. My dining room holds two major pain points for us: 1) There's not enough space to walk behind chairs when people are seated at the table. We also cannot get in and out of the door that accesses the deck when people are seated. With our new addition having access to the deck, we decided to close off the current dining access to the deck. That eliminates one pain point. With our current door being closed off, it will now just be a wall there. Which means I could put a banquette up against the wall, and create more space to go around dining chairs! Check out my dining room design decisions below and more details about how I'll eliminate those pain points.
I started talking to my friend Libby to see what she thought about doing a curved banquette and putting it up against our wall for more space. She showed me this picture (left) from Nesting With Grace. I love the banquette because it looks almost vintage, and that's one of my vibe words for my dining room.
After doing some digging, I found the banquette in this grapefruit color and fell in love. This color just makes me so happy! I'll buy two curved sections to make a nice wide banquette.
It matches almost perfectly to my current dining room rug! This rug is possibly one of my favorite pieces in my entire house. It's an antique Persian rug and because it's quality, it stands up to all the spills my four year old makes.
I also love how the rug pulls a little black since my dining room will still be painted black! I love Sherwin Williams Black Magic, which I refer to as a "soft black." The black brings such a moody vibe.
Because we are pushing the dining seating and table over to the wall, our light will no longer be centered. Sure, I could have the electric junction box moved, but I just don't want to. I've known that I would have to have a sprawling chandelier like this, where I could still swag lighting over to where we will be sitting + dining. Then I saw this particular chandelier at the spring High Point Market and knew I had to have it. I love how different the chain is and gosh, it's just such a vibe.
Finding a round dining table I liked AND had the option to extend proved challenging. I really wanted a metal table, but also we need to extend for holidays and family events. I found this at High Point Market and love the base of it. I'm also looking at quality because our current table is a big thumbs down. Structurally, our dining table is amazing, but the tabletop's finish chipped off in places and it looks awful.
I also saw these stunning dining stools at market. I love the ones shown here because they're counter height and are oversized. Mine will be regular dining height, but I still love the stool concept for a dining space. Mine will have a little back on them as well, for a little back support. I'm going with a different tiger fabric, one that pulls an amber color from my rug. Then a black leather back, with a row of oversized nailheads going down the back. GAH! See why I love custom?! I can make it exactly how I want.
Also, because I'm so extra, the tiger fabric will match the ottomans in my addition, just a different color.
We don't have a lot of wall space in our dining room (we have a good bit of windows), and I'm weary of having a cluttered look. However, I really want to display some of our postcard collection. Since we started dating seven years ago, my husband and I have been collecting postcards from restaurants we've been to. We love good food and keep these mementos from our favorite places both in Cincinnati and wherever we travel.
My favorite postcard display idea so far is a picture rail system. I might not be able to display them all, but I love this look.
When you put all of those elements together, this is the final design + look of the space. The vibe is fun, dramatic, moody, colorful, vintage, interesting, bold, and unique. I'm loving the overall look + vibe. It truly makes me happy. For me, that's what design is all about: being able to be in a home, in a space, that you can just look at and it brings you such joy. It's about being able to create a feeling from your surroundings.
I hope you enjoyed this walk through my new dining room design. I can't wait to bring it to life and share all the pictures with you!
Did you miss my office reveal? Read about it here.
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