Dining Room Makeover {On a Budget} | i should be mopping the floor
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Dining Room Makeover {On a Budget}

 
My six-month dining room makeover was complete two days after Thanksgiving. 
Oh the irony.

It was still very usable and worked out great for Turkey Day...I just happened to stumble onto the six most delicious Craigslist chairs the Saturday following the "big" day {and by stumbled onto, I mean I've been stalking four separate Craigslist city lists for them for the entiresix months}. Their purchase brought the never-ending dining room makeover to a close and within budget thanks to my good money management. Amen and hallelujah.

And truthfully, the dining room wasn't even on my makeover list for this year...it sort of just "happened". You may remember the saga from June...

"If you give Kristi new floors, she'll want to paint the walls before they're installed. And if she decides to paint the walls, she'll want to paint stripes. And if she's repainting the walls with stripes, she'll want to redo the window treatments. And if she's redoing the window treatments, she'll want to paint the backs of the hutches blue to match the new window treatments. . ."

I've said it before, but the previous decor was quickly turning into Sunday dinner at Grandma's. And I am more of a Saturday Night Supper Club kind of gal {at least that's how I picture myself in my mind...I suppose technically more of an on-the-couch-sweatpants-wearin'-watching-Downton-Abbey-with-a-diet-soda-in-one-hand-and-laptop-in-the-other kind of gal. Potato-PotAHto}.


I didn't think too much of my old dining room until an older lady from church {and I mean older with all due respect} came by one day. She told me my dining room reminded her of her mother's current dining room...at the nursing home. I about died, y'all. 


So when I realized we were getting the new floors, I turned to David and told him I was going to take on redoing the dining room while we were in the process of redoing the floors. Seemed easy enough. {Insert eyeroll}


Looking back, I'm quite thrilled I was dumb enough to take on the project in the midst of the craziness of installing new floors. My stupidity resulted in something I'm actually kind of proud of. 

Buh-bye, nursing home decor.


 
I've done tutorials and posts over several of the projects in here over the past few months. Here's the breakdown {click on the links to see the full posts}:

The green took quite a bit of primer and paint to get rid of. The beauty of getting the new flooring was skipping the drop cloth ritual. Liberating.


Again, I have a tutorial on how we created the flawless stripes in here.
We did them on the two shorter walls to add more depth to a short & squatty room.


And next came the flooring installation. Oh, sweet Jesus, this was a crazy day.


But soooooo worth it.
Nothing like a nice new palette to work with.


These were inspired by Allison from The House of Hepworths.
These ended up being a necessity after I realized how heavy the drapes were. Gah.



Which also created a lovely blue floor in my garage. 
Funny how drop cloths don't actually absorb paint.


Blue garage floor=fun and funky custom drapes


The Nester inspired me to make my own DIY Starburst Mirror out of posterboard.


Then I poked around in my parents' shed and found a dilly of a project:
my great grandmother's dresser. 


I also pulled off the backs of the china cabinets and painted them with that Oops Blue as well. I painted the "wrong" side of them, so if I ever want to go back to the wood sides, I can just flip them back over.
These belonged to my late uncle, then to my mother, and about seven years ago, were passed on to me when my parents down-sized into their new home. My uncle did all of the leaded glass in the doors himself.


I truly wanted a new drum-shade chandelier in here...but at $500+, it just wasn't in my budget.
Maybe one day...

For now, I bought some sparkly beaded garland, in my favorite shade of blue, on our Salado trip and simply wrapped pieces of the garland on each arm of the chandelier, as well as one strand at the top.


It just adds some extra bling-a-ding-ding up there.


And of course, the night before Thanksgiving, I put together some centerpiece candles to use for our meal...which I'm really pleased with how they came out.
They started out as Dollar Tree candle holders! To see that tutorial, click here.


And the final touch....THE CHAIRS!

I've seriously been looking for Parsons' Style chairs for quite some time for this room. I wanted some that didn't have host/hostess chairs, so I could keep them just on the sides of the table. The table also belonged to my late uncle...and I LOVE the big chunky base legs it sits on. I wanted to nix those end chairs to show off her pretty legs. And I'm completely flabbergasted that I stumbled onto the perfect chairs on Craigslist. What a find! The previous owner was getting rid of them for a few minor reasons {nothing wrong with them...just not right for her home}. I was only too happy to take these off her hands for a bargain.  


I couldn't be happier with the new space. While I know the floors were a huge part of this makeover, we received those at no monetary cost to us. Which brought this makeover to less than $400 for everything...I was kind of excited about that one! Had I bought those chairs new, they would have been over $1,000 {I had been contemplating that purchase for the whole six months}. So happy I waited!!













  

42 comments:

  1. Wow Kristi, it looks FABULOUS! You did an absolutely amazing job. And those chairs! What a score! I can see why you would want to show off the table--it is beautiful.

    Ruth
    www.LivingWellSpendingLess.com

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  2. What an awesome makeover! It doesn't even look like the same room! I love the aqua drapes and dresser. You did a great job and I love that you decorated on a budget.

    Lori : )
    Thrifty Decor Mom

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  3. Great job! It looks absolutely beautiful. I love the colors. I want those floors!

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  4. Oh, it looks wonderful! I love blue and stripes! And you did a great job witht this dresser!

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  5. You did a fabuluous job!!! Love the colors!!

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  6. The change is amazing. The room is so elegant now!

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  7. Wow, this is gorgeous! I can't believe how cheap everything was and how great it looks together!

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  8. oh my goodness...I LOVE it!! Great job! I would be honored if you shared this at my Ginger Jamboree Link Party!

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  9. Stopping by from Coastal Charm to see your dining room! Love it! Your floors turned out just gorgeous too. I am in the middle of a makeover that has been in the planning stages for almost 3 years so I understand about the time thing! When you have to do things on a budget, it takes patience! You did an amazing job and should be very proud!

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  10. oh my gosh!! i really love those striped walls that you did and the diy starburst mirror!! i'm gonna check it out how you did it!

    what an awesome transformation!!

    huggies***
    rea

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  11. Your dining room looks fabulous! Love the colors and the finished look.
    KC

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  12. WHOA!!!!! Such a TOTAL transformation!!!!! Im sooooo Lovin this!! Great job!

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  13. I love the dining room makeover! The striped wall and new flooring are my favorite part!

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  14. Wow, this looks go great! I'm especially loving the Tiffany blue as an accent color.

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  15. Stopping by from HOH link party. Great transformation!! I love that you reused a lot of your own furniture - it looks great!

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  16. Beautiful! It makes your room look so much bigger!

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  17. Absolutely gorgeous! I also did a striped wall in my dining room and I love that look so much.

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  18. This is such a fabulous room!! The stripes... the drapes! It's all perfection, and no where near nursing home. Great job!

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  19. I'm still laughing about the nursing home comment from the "elder lady" too funny :) The before was very nice but you did an excellent job with your makeover. It has personality and is so fresh. I really like it!!! Amy :)

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  20. I think what makes your room so inviting is that you have a great balance of warm and cool tones. Bless you for not painting everything white!

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  21. Hi Kristi, I’m Anne from Life on the Funny Farm (http://annesfunnyfarm.blogspot.com), and I’m visiting from Fantabulous Friday.

    This makeover is FABulous! Really, really pretty, and I love that you did it on such a budget. Gotta be creative when working with small budgets, right?

    Anyway, thanks for posting this. If you’ve never visited yet, I hope you can pop by my blog sometime to say hi…

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  22. THE AFTER IS JUST STUNNING! WELL DONE! its gorgeous. Will you be hosting Christmas dinner in that lovely room this year? Hugs, jen

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  23. love the make-over.. I have never thought about painting curtains!! You did a wonderful job with it all.. take care, Maryann

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  24. so pretty what a great idea! Would love if if you linked up on my blog hop www.w-t-fab.com/search/label/bloghop. Also let me know if you'd like to follow each other!

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  25. I LOVE your new dining room! It really does look so much bigger with the new colors & placement of the hutches. I can't believe those are drop cloth curtains - they look great!
    Sarah

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  26. Great job! Love everything but that buffet really jumps out at me! Amazing how much bigger the room looks with the hutches off to the side like that :)

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  27. You did an AMAZING Job!! Every little detail is beautiful!! I'm totally inspired to take mine on! Thank you for sharing all you did !! Love love love it!! Theresa

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  28. Please add good good information that would help others in such best way.This post is exactly what I am concerned. we need some more reliable information.
    Curtains

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  29. I just stumbled across your site! Love it! I am especially loving this make over! Wow! I am going to be using you as my WoW Wednesday feature!
    Sandra
    The Adored Home

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  30. What?!?!!!! Under $400? You are amazing! It looks beautiful! Seriously, nursing home decor? That is too funny. Reminds me of when I was watching Oprah & Nate Berkus was showing the ugliest bathroom in America & one of them had MY wallpaper that I had in my powder room & I really liked!!! I almost fell off my couch. And we redid that powder room! LOL!

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  31. I am obsessed with dining room makeovers and yours did not disappoint! Well done!

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  32. I just found your blog and I <3 you!

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  33. love the color scheme and the chandelier is stunning!

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  34. Splendid information you have given here in the blog, you have actually impressed me yes!! Waukesha Detailing website

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  36. Your dining room looks amazing! Great job!

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