One Room Challenge Week 6 – The Reveal

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Drum roll please…it is the final week of the Fall One Room Challenge and I am happy to announce that I have completed my new dining space. If you have been following along with me for these past few weeks, I decided to take part in the One Room Challenge to motivate myself to finish renovating a room in my home. I decided to tackle the dining room because it was small enough for me to feel comfortable tackling for my first ORC and it was one of the rooms that needed the most design help in my home.

My dining room was previously wasted space in the house. It is adjoining my kitchen, which I recently renovated, and housed the backdoor of the house leading to the garage and backyard. I was initially using the space as a dining room with ad hoc furniture I collected over the years. The space was too small for a traditional dining table, as you can see from my before pictures, and is not really set up to serve as a formal dining room space. Additionally, since the backdoor led to the garage, I needed the room to serve as a mini mudroom in addition to a dining space. I had not done much work to the space since moving in other than a fresh coat of paint and some new blinds. The only thing I loved about this room was all the light it received from the large windows.

So, I decided to turn the space into a casual dining/breakfast nook. Below were my inspirations for the room. I wanted to create a bright an airy space, not just for eating but also for relaxing in the afternoon sun. I am a big fan of window benches, especially for this space. My plan was to create a window bench as the focal point of the room and pare down the furniture to create a more relaxed and open space.

Progress Report

Now the process was not easy. I ran into quite a few issues along the way, which I discussed in my previous blog post, but here are major changes I made to the room.

Window Bench: Off the bat I ran into issues with building the window bench. My beautiful old home has not quite leveled floors in the dining room so that presented a challenge when installing the bench. Additionally, I was installing the bench over a VERY long radiator which added its own set of difficulties. Read more on my  bench woes here.

Walls: I also had big plans for my walls which I discussed in my post here. I planned to install a slat wall around the door but after installing the slats, I decided that they were too overbearing for the space and had to remove each and every one. I love the slat wall look though, so I will likely create an accent wall somewhere else in my home.

Floors: And then finally the floors. My initial plan was just to refresh the grout in the tiles and add a traditional rug but after painting the walls and door, the weird pink peach color of the tiles really stood out. And since I hated the old tiles anyway, I decided to update the tiles. I went with floating vinyl wood planks, which was a much better look.  You can find out more about how I installed the floor here. 

Here is a quick rundown of the major updates I made to the room:

Remove baseboard, radiator covers, etc

Build and Install bench seating

Paint walls, doors, ceiling, window trim and hardware

Install new floors

Install new baseboards and floor trim

Install new light fixture

Install new window treatment

Add new furniture and decor

The Reveal

 Okay, enough chatting, here is the big reveal…There are still a few things I want to add, like the bamboo shades and a black chandelier, but in the meantime, I am enjoying my space so far.

Also, check out the reveal for the featured designers and other guest participants over at the ORC.