DIY Budget Dining Room Makeover

I so badly wanted a peaceful, clean, and tidy space to eat meals with my family and you can see that my dining room was not that. There was attempts for organization by adding shelves but honestly, what I need to depart with was the excess. Trying to enjoy a relaxing and eating around a bunch of clutter can feel burdensome and heavy. Meals are the center points of your day. Meals are the life-fueling substance of which you get to choose. Your meals are important!

My children and I eat all three meals together. every. single. day. So I stopped to consider, maybe where we ate our meals mattered to my mental health…

And behold! This is the place where we spent so much time… and it did not feel good. 🙁

So – we have identified the problem, now it’s time to find a solution. The first thing to be done is to make a plan! I knew wanted to create a light and bright feeling BUT also feel clean and fresh! I started with a simple mood board to help translate my ideas for my husband. Because when I just go on and on on on – he really understands me less and less lol

It is important to me to use our money wisely! I need to make sure that every dollar we have will stretch a little further than I think possible. Or maybe that’s just my God showing up? ANYWAYS! Instead of buying new beautiful furniture, which would cost a fortune – I gave DIY furniture makeovers the first swing.

We would give our existing furniture a makeover!

Using an adaption of the tutorial How To Lime A Dining Table by Shine Your Light blog, we refinished our dining table using a “lime wash” method and I am absolutely smitten with it! 😍

And this beautiful tabletop was one of the easiest furniture flips I’ve done. You simply add layer upon layer of wax and stain and buff it! I even tried the same method on a small kids’ table to match the rest of the look.

That kid’s table was not made of real wood… so that didn’t turn out quite as nice but it still matches the look of the room well enough. I’ll take it.

We completed the limewash table look by using black chalk paint to update our existing dining chairs. My favorite chalk paint to use is BEHR chalk paint from Home Depot. They mix the colors for you and I have found that the formula is awesome. The furniture paint is beautiful and provides a full and even coverage at a reasonable price point.

Instead of curtains, we went with a modern white roller shade with 2% darkness. We use black-out shades in the bedrooms but for the dining room, I wanted it to still be light in there without having to roll up the shades. These ones we ordered from Blindster. We have slowly purchased shades of nearly every window in our home and every window in our travel trailer.

Here are a few of my own tips for ordering roller shades.

#1 – Order at least 3 inches longer than your window height. We have ordered exactly before and to cover the whole window you need to basically unroll the whole roll – which led to the shade literally coming off. We order about 5 inches longer so now when we close the shade all the way down – there is still some on the roll and it doesn’t come unraveled.

#2 – Change the white plastic chain to a metal chain. It will last a billion times longer. Speaking from experience.

#3 – Splurge for the cassette cover! It looks way, way, way, way more put together. Yes, I know it’s extra but you will be glad later. The rooms in our house without the cassette cover don’t look nearly as nice even though it’s like a $30 piece. We think it’s worth it. Your call though!

The chandelier was the pièce de résistance. The most remarkable part of this DIY room makeover. I was beside myself excited to have my own sparkly light fixture in my home. It is incredible how a bit of lighting can change your perspective.

The paint was the simple magic wand in this dining room makeover! Using what we already had, we created a happy peaceful place to eat our meals together by lightening and brightening the space!

So now it’s your turn! If you try this, tag me at @goldengluegun