Dining Room Reveal

A few months ago we moved into our rent house and have been SO happy with our new central location in Fort Worth. The main draw back is the smaller square footage, but as I've said before, that's just another design challenge that I get to take on:)

Since this dining room is significantly smaller than our previous home [here], I had to change things up a bit. I wasn't able to use our very large dining table and opted for a round one instead. I actually ended up using our old outdoor dining table and gave it a little facelift with a refreshing coat of light blue paint. You might recognize it from this post [here] when I used it on my back porch.

I also wanted to make this room nice and colorful since the space is so small. I wanted the room to give off a "happy" feel rather than a bunch on neutrals getting lost in a small space. I had a blast working with pattern and texture and {of course} had to incorporate a bit of a "beachy" feel as well.

What do you think?!

And just a quick reminder that Google Friend Connect will be GOING AWAY on July 1st, so please please please follow along with Bloglovin. It is SUCH a great blog reader, and I even like it better than GFC! Who knew?? Anyways, you can follow along from the link below, or see my sidebar to click on the button. It took me 2 seconds to sign up for FREE and it literally transferred ALL of my blogs over in about 30 seconds. Can't get much better than that, right??

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Who I'm linking up with:

twelveOeight
Sweet Little Gals
A Stroll Thru Life
My Uncommon Life Slice of Suburbia
Cozy Little House
Coastal Charm
Primp
Savvy Southern Style
DIY By Design
All Things With Purpose
Shabby Creek Cottage
I Gotta Create
No Minimalist Here
Common Ground
Shabby Art Boutique
Pieced Pastimes
It's Overflowing
Serenity You

My Casual Dining Room

So here it is my friends! My updated dining room with some NEW chairs!! The wicker chairs you see below are the ones I found online at Wal-mart. I still can't believe the great deal I got on them. You can find them {HERE} - I think they are currently on sale for $170 for a set of 2. I have also replaced the shade on the light fixture with Pottery Barn's extra large drum shade found {HERE}.  I bought the floor sample (since it was all they had left) and ended up getting 10% off! Score!

There are also a few other new items scattered throughout, so make sure to scroll down to see where I found my items. Hope you all enjoy the tour!

 

Where I found my items:

Wicker Chairs: Wal-mart $180 for a set of 2
Sisal Rug: Ross $38
Pillows: Ross $8/each
Large Photo Frames: Home Goods $16/each
Light Fixture (Shade): Pottery Barn $70
Curtains: Target $7.99 per panel
Antiqued Red Chairs: Free from a friend and refinished
Antique White Dishes: Free from a family member

It's done! Formal Living Room Updates

How long have I been updating this room? Too long if you ask me! Thankfully after many months of buying, selling, moving and re-arranging, I am finally finished - and very happy with the outcome might I add. So what all have I done? Keep reading to see my process! 

Here are a few pictures of the rest of the finished room:

Now lets get down to the fun part and start listing out some of my furniture pieces and accessories!

Where I found my Items:
5x7 Floral Rug: Target, $180 (I think this item might be retiring, so it might be on clearance)
Linen Chairs with Nail Heads: Home Goods, $199 Each
Red Jute Bordered Pillows: Pottery Barn, $40 per cover
Yellow Ikat Pillows: Garden Ridge, $9.99 each
Small Bee Pillow: Antique Store, $14
Matching Lamps: Target $36 per lamp base, $12 per shade
Coffee Table: Hayneedle.com, $220
Small Metal Shelves: Home Goods, $16 each
Settee: Antique Store, $100
White Curtains: Target, $7.99 per panel

After all the changes I've made to this room, most people think I must have spent a fortune. Well, I actually haven't spent really anything on the room. Crazy, right?? How is that possible? I've bought things that I end up switching out, so what do I do with everything I replace? Well get excited, because the answer is coming up in my next post! Keep reading to find out how I successfully re-decorated this room on a near ZERO dollar budget;)

Who I'm linking up with:

A Dreamy Moodboard that Inspires!

Since there STILL has been NO fix to my blogger issues over the past 2 weeks {hint hint google blogger - fix the problem!!}, I'm going to attempt to write a post anyway. It's going to be short, and with minimal images, but I'm going to at least try!! Here we go...

As we all know, I have been working on transforming my formal living and dining room over the past few months, and I just bought my most recent addition to the room. Heres a sneak peak:

Arent they just FABULOUS?? I am just giddy about them and can't wait to get them in! Where am I using them you might ask?? Where did I find them you might wonder?? And since I'm always looking for a great deal, how much did I pay?? 

Believe it or not, I found them at... drumroll please.... WAL-MART! Ok well they aren't exactly from Wal-mart, but technically I did order them from their website. They are actually Wayfair, but are sold via Wal-mart's website. Crazy, I know. Now you might be wondering how much they cost. ONLY $183 for a PAIR. Seriously still getting over how cheep these guys are. If you'd like to check em out, click HERE.

Next on my list for you guys today is a little mood board that explains my vision for the entire room. Might help you all better understand the reason why I've ended up changing so much of the room. You can also see where my future chairs are going to be!

As you can see, change one thing and the snowball effect begins. Most of this will take time to develop, but this is my dream for the room - my vision:) Hopefully one day it will come true!

Formal Living/Dining - Phase 3!

As you all may know, I have been working in phases to re-design our formal living/dining room. Today I would like to show you the 3rd of 4 phases. Yupp - That's right! I said 3 of FOUR phases!! Totally didn't think I would be changing this room so much, but hey - why not?? 

In my defense, I will attempt to explain myself. It got to the point where I would change one thing, and realize I didn't like something else. For example, I found that amazing rug for a great deal and just had to have it! Well... The "icy grey" of the wall color just didn't match with the new "stone grey" of the rug. It DROVE ME CRAZY and so I made the decision to paint the walls - SO glad I did! I am just in love with the new wall color. It's still in the "grey" family, but much warmer. Just perfect.

So like I said, it has basically been a snowball effect. Change one thing, and in the end.... it's all different! In this case, I've been very happy with my slow progression. In fact, even since I took these pictures, I have moved into phase 4 (and hopefully the FINAL phase) of this room:) I can't wait to show you what all I have done with the space! That will come soon, but until then I hope you all enjoy my {phase 3} reveal!

Scroll all the way down to see my 1-2-3 {before and afters}

And here are the steps I've taken to get to where I am now:

Phase 1:

Phase 2:

Phase 3:

So what all do you see different??  Here are the top 3 changes:

1. The HUGE buffet has been moved to it's proper home - behind our dining room table.

2. We've got a NEW rug! And I'll tell you all a little secret - it's actually 2 rugs up against each other! Finding a large rug like that for a reasonable price it just about impossible and this is a great solution. The pattern matches up perfectly too:)

3. NEW paint color - The paint color is called Stone Manor by Valspar - I've been very happy with it!

Stay tuned to see what I have next! I'll give you a few hints. There might be some sort of new table, and some new upholstered pieces as well. Yippee! 

More to come:)