The Dining Room Makeover | ORC Week 1

So if you’ve been following along with our house drama this week over on instagram, you’re going to think what I’m about to tell you is pretty crazy, and me, crazy by association… But even with all of the chaos surrounding us with the major foundation repair, the honey bees, and the animal attack on our roof, I’ve been pretty excited to tackle the dining room for a while now and decided to participate for the first time in the One Room Challenge as a guest participant!

If you don’t know what the One Room Challenge is, it’s a virtual “event” that takes place twice a year in the spring and fall where professional designers and amateur DIYers alike challenge themselves to complete a room in their home. You can read more about it on their website here. The event is not a competition, but more of a supportive group & as a new blog we’re excited to start connecting with the other participants and rooting them on with their own spaces.

Now about this dining room, let’s take a trip down memory lane, shall we? Here is the dining room when we first looked at the house. It was actually quite a tastefully decorated room, very formal and traditional style, and although the metallic wallpaper is not my particular taste, many people have told me that they love it! The curtains were fabulous custom draperies, printed silk- we took them down and stored them because…dogs…cats…babies…clumsy adults.

I am so excited to finally be able to put my own touch on this dining room and make it a lovely and inviting space for my family to gather at dinner time. I know that many people say they don’t ever use their formal dining room except for during the holidays, but my family uses this space every night for dinner, and this is a wonderful habit of family time that I would like to instill in my son as he grows up.

I have actually been planning what I want to do with this space for quite a while, but let me just share with you the current state of things over here at the Crazy Stripe House, as this is one of the rooms heavily impacted by our ongoing foundation work.

As you can see, the carpet has been pulled up and is not going back. Under those two pieces of plywood are massive holes in the slab where pilings are being pressed into the earth about 22-25 feet deep, all before they level out our whole house in the coming week. So honestly, we’re going to be a week short on this project, because we need to hold off on starting this until they get those holes filled in!

But don’t worry! what we have planned is simple, budget friendly (it needs to be honestly…) and very impactful! On the agenda for this project is:

• painting the room
• installing new flooring
• refinishing the table and chairs
• and adding some furniture & accessories to complete the space

I’ll be posting once a week to update you on our progress with the challenge & also be sharing live on Instagram stories!

Last but not least, I made a “mood board” to give you an idea about how I want the space to feel. It’s not completely literal- some of the images are emotive and some are of actual items/finishes being used in the space.

The concept is a very dark and cozy space. The room does not get a lot of the bright light we see in other rooms in the house due to the South facing window, so combined with that, and the beautiful trim work on the walls and ceiling that we are already blessed with, I feel that it’s calling out to be a color other than white.

I can’t wait for you to all follow along as we get started putting our house back together & finally making it a home!

Cheers to week one!