Fall in Love Room Challenge: Our Dining Room

Over the next six weeks I will be participating in the “Fall in Love” Room Challenge which is the brain child of my partner and bestie, Cassie.  Nineteen bloggers will transform a room in their house and “fall in love” with their space again!  I’m excited to participate with these talented ladies and to finally create some style in our dining room.

When we moved into our home 6 years ago I was pumped to finally be getting the red dining room of my dreams!  But all these years later the traditional red dining room is not me anymore.  I am ready to face the challenge of painting over those merlot walls!  Here are a few before photos so you have a sense of what I’m working with.

In this picture you can see there is a lot of heavy dark furniture in this space and half red walls.  Also zero wall decor and a very traditional oriental rug.

In the view from the other direction you can see I did try to accessorize one wall.  I threw up those plates before I hosted Thanksgiving last year in a desperate attempt to have style. #fail

When I was photographing the befores I somehow neglected to get a shot of the windows.  It’s not much to see really – three windows – no curtains!

One thing I do love about the room is the antique chandelier that came with the house.  HOWEVER it is no longer attached to the ceiling at this time.  We are also working on our master bath directly above the dining room and when my husband was working on the floor upstairs I heard a lot of loud noises coming from the dining room and arrived just in time to see it dangling several inches lower by the electrical cord!  At least it’s now convenient to switch out the ceiling medallion!

I also plan to keep most of the furniture in the room but to lighten up the feel by removing the hutch piece of the china cabinet and replacing the head chairs with upholstered ones.

Here’s my mood board to give you an idea of the direction I’m heading.  I’ll be painting the walls white to allow the curtains to really pop and the new Ikat rug is already down!