When we moved into the house this room was actually a formal style living room. As you can see there is a family room across the hall, and we also have a finished basement, so we decided to make this into a giant dining room. I’ve never understood two living rooms across from each other. Are people going to shout over to each other from different couches watching different TV’s? Anyway, here are some before and after pics of our new dining room.
Before
It doesn’t get much uglier than this paint color. I call it baby poo brown.
The original dining room is the blue room to the right. Guess the paint color did get worse! Someday we would love to refinish these floors to really dark wood, but that will have to wait for a while.
After

Mike created this barnwood wall for under $100. If we beg him I bet he will give us his secrets!
A closer look at the wood grain and my $25 clock!
Because this was a living room there was no ceiling light. We had wiring done and I found this brushed nickel chandelier for $20!
This room is perfect for the board and batten I have dreamed of. I decided to do it 3/4 of the way up the wall with a ledge for pictures. Of course, Mike did all the beautiful wood work.
He also trimmed out the doors. After this project we started trimming out all of our doors this way. We have done a few and have about a million to go (Be careful what you start!) If you want to learn how to add farmhouse trim to doors, check out Mike’s printable tutorial here.
For the top of the walls I picked this gray Pottery Barn Paint Color It’s called functional gray and I and had it mixed at home depot. I posted a link at the end of this blog explaining how you can do that, too. We always use flat paint on the walls, it looks so much better than anything with sheen.
This cute chippy buffet is from a facebook garage sale page.
Love!
I love this room so much because of how beautiful it is, but more importantly because we have all of our family gatherings here. We’ve already had so many dinners and laughs in this room, and I know we will for years to come!
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SHOP IT
Three Tier Stand
Pottery Barn curtain panels for $20 each (I check their store and online clearance like a stalker).
Chairs are from Target, similar to these.
Info about the table, chandelier, and clock here
How to get designer paint colors for less here
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Love this blog heather! And this room is gorgeous – that buffet!!
Thank you Tori!
Your dining room is gorgeous! What a huge difference! The board and batten and plank wall turned out great.
Thanks so much Sara, and thank you for visiting the blog!
Your husband does beautiful work and you have a flair for pulling it all together. The dining room is lovely.
Love your house the dining room has beautiful proportions and light. Great job doing it up xx
I wanted to let you know I am featuring this great project at #merrymonday this week. I hope you will check it out when you have a chance! Hope you will link up with us again! https://ourcraftymom.com/