Next week will be one year of us owning our condo. I can hardly believe it?! Where did the time go? Heck, I still need to plan that housewarming party I ambitiously wanted to throw right when we moved in #oops

While a majority of the spaces in our home are just about complete, the “dining room” area was not even on our radar for our first 10 months of homeownership. Finn & I got all too used to the idea of eating our dinners at the kitchen island, and instead used the large space in the middle of the room as a dance floor.

But now that we finally have a dining room…I wonder how we ever got along without it! Crazy how that happens isn’t it?

So let’s take a little stroll down memory lane, and I’ll walk you through the steps we took to get our kitchen/dining room space where it is today.

Here’s a shot from the MLS listing of the kitchen/dining area (notice the fish-eye making the room appear waaaay bigger than it really is)…And here it is now after living there for 1 year…

Much more our style!

Over the course of the first 6 months, we stained the floors, added a subway tile backsplash, changed the kitchen faucet, and added new pendants over the kitchen island.

Those little changes were enough to tide me over until I could add a dining area to the space.

After lots of back and forth on the table, we ultimately decided to go with a marble one from Crate & Barrel. Once that was chosen, it was fairly easy to figure out the rest.

I love the 2 gray chairs on the head of the table. They’re incredibly comfortable and are, without a doubt, the most coveted spots in the room.

The white chairs are also surprisingly awesome for their low price. I love the clean lines and think they really brighten up the space.

We ended up going with these white mesh stools for the kitchen island. They look nice against the dark brown wood, and really pop! Honestly, we don’t sit in them too often now that we have the table. But they’re certainly nice to have!

We’ve enjoyed quite a few meals at this table already, and we both also work on our computers from this spot. It’s nice to sit here and do some mindless work (like editing photos), while Finn cooks in the kitchen or watches sports in the family room. If I have something more taxing to work on, then I’ll use our little office nook back in the bedroom. But the table is another great work option.

I’ve also realized how much I LOVE having a marble table for blog photos. Bridget & I each have a roll of faux marble paper that we’ve used in the past, but now I can simply take the photos right on our table. Much easier on big photo shoot days around here!

What I learned from our Dining Room Makeover

1. Take your time: I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have purchased this same table if I bought it a year ago. I’m so happy that we took time to live in our space before buying a random table just so we could cross that purchase off our to-do list. It also gave me a chance to really figure out the style of our home before making that large, expensive purchase.
2. Mix & Match: I could have easily purchased a wood table with matching wood chairs (& I think that look can work for many homes!). But I’m really happy we decided to mix and match for our space. Choosing to splurge on 2 dining room chairs, instead of all 6, definitely saved us money in the long-run…and I think it actually looks much better that way.

   

   

3. Do your Research: I spent many hours looking at various dining room tables and chairs both online and in store. It’s insane the amount of reviews I read out there. But ultimately, I’m so happy that I did! I was reaaaaally hesitant about buying a marble table. Would it stain? Would it get watermarks? But I read lots of reviews and was instantly more at ease and felt more confident with our marble table purchase. Plus, I learned that I had to seal the table to keep it looking good…and I’m so happy that I did just that!
4. An open concept changes things: Our dining room is actually our kitchen/entryway/dining/family room space. It’s just one big ol’ space with a variety of purposes. Because of this, it needed to flow well. Our family room is really bright & white, while our kitchen is on the darker side. So I decided to have our dining space really merge the 2 areas. It has the white marble, but also darker gray chairs and black, streamlined legs. I kept the ENTIRE space in mind when choosing pieces, and that ultimately made for a much more cohesive open concept room.

   

   

Dining Room Source List

• Paint Color: Benjamin Moore’s “Gray Owl”
• Dining Room Table
• Gray Chairs
• White Chairs
• White Mesh Stools
• Pendants
• Roman Shade (DIY project…post here!)
• Kitchen Rug
• Silver Tray
• Candle on Table <– my favorite candle of all time!
• Faucet
• Planter
• Dinner Bell
• Monogram Coffee Mug
• Bar Cart

Catch up

• Table Options
• Chair Options
• Bar Stool Options
• How to Seal a Marble Dining Room Table
• DIY Faux Roman Shade
• How to Install a Faucet
• New Pendants over the Kitchen Island
• Subway Tile Backsplash

Thank you for following along on our journey to create a dining room space that we love. Your input on the table, chairs, & stools was such a help throughout the design process. And you guys totally saved me from buying a rug for underneath the table (I think it looks great without one!). We love that you guys enjoy seeing the entire design process (instead of just the before & after) and it has been so enjoyable to share this experience with all of you!

Casey