Where We Started

Ever since we bought our house in 2014 this room has evolved continuously in both form and function. The room was first introduced to us looking like this...

...and sported yellow walls, burgundy and fruit patterned window treatments, a hunter green fruit border, a dark wood and brass ceiling fan, and a window air conditioning unit with its cord stretching the length of the room. Not exactly pin worthy.

Initially we set this room up as our dining room, using folding chairs and other furniture given to us second hand by family and friends. The only new items were the lamps, which I purchased from HomeGoods to use in our future living room.

We lived with the room like this for a time, but when we started our living room renovation in early 2015 this room shifted in purpose and served as our family room for two years while the neighboring space was renovated. By this time we had installed a geothermal central heating and cooling system (so long clunky window unit!) following our whole house disaster. The new heat system is not only much more efficient than the oil fueled boiler that we once had, but it also meant that the new forced air system eliminated the need for the unsightly metal baseboard radiators.

Although we didn't make any cosmetic changes, we brought in our living room furniture, much of it new, and adapted to a state of ignoring the room's envelope, knowing that the blotchy ceiling, unattractive fan, scratched up floors, and lumpy walls would eventually receive some serious TLC. 

Fast forward to last year, when our living room was finished and the room resumed its purpose for dining. By this phase, our original floors had been lovingly restored and refinished, and are now a lighter and more natural shade.

Beyond the flooring, the decor of the room was also slightly improved with the addition of several different pieces that felt more our style, like:

• new white cross back chairs,
• a vintage mirror from my parents, 
• a painting done by my mom, 
• a new rug from HomeGoods, 
• and a couple cute hurricanes from Target.

Even with these improvements, the room obviously still needs a lot of work, but we continued to try to ignore its faults and enjoy the space as it was for the time. Even though it's far from what we want it to be, it certainly doesn't stop us from enjoying our new home with friends and family. 

But, as we shared with you last week, we are thrilled to report that the fruit wallpaper border is officially a thing of the past, and our walls no longer sport a layer of drywall over the original plaster. Getting the room to this point was no small feat, but it already feels so great to have bid farewell to the 1990s additions that even in their heyday, didn't feel appropriate in our 1908 home.

Where We're Going

So the big question remains, what sort of look are we going for in our future dining room? 

Summing it up in a single statement I'd say we're going for "neutral and casual waterfront farmhouse."

There are a few things in the most recent "before" photo above that are definitely staying. The antique rustic cabinet that Alex's parents gave us years ago will be remaining in the corner of the room. Its color and look really anchor what we're going for, plus it serves as great storage for linens, chargers, and more.

The wool rug I found at HomeGoods will remain on the floor and the white chairs we picked up from Overstock will be staying in the room as well. We're also planning to add the two upholstered chairs from our Old Town sun porch for either end of the table. Here's a slightly better photo of the rug from a time when it was the rug in one of our guest bedrooms. I really love moving things all over the house to figure out where things seem to work best.

This rug will live beneath the table we don't have yet, but right now we're on the hunt for it. We're searching for a great farmhouse table with tons of character and patina. The table we have currently belonged to Alex's parents, and while we are so grateful we were able to use it the last few years, ultimately it's too formal and precious for the room and it damages very easily. We've been on the hunt for an antique farm table that will seat eight and already has a worn patina so I'm not stressing about scratches and rings on the table. 

At this point we're planning to use the same wall color that we used in the living room, Sherwin Williams Agreeable Gray. It's a soothing color that works well with the light floors, white trim, and somewhat dark antique wood accents of the cabinet, table, and other accessories.  

Agreeable Gray in the Living Room

We've also picked up a few interesting salvaged/antique items for the room over the last couple years. First, Alex found two matching rustic antique racks at Forge Industrial in Old Town Alexandria. These two racks came from an old broomstick factory. We'll probably hang these on the wall on either side of the window and it should add some texture and visual interest.

Then we found this really interesting antique machine shop cart at Luckett's just before Christmas. As luck would have it, this just happens to be the perfect size to neatly stack wine bottles on the shelves, and I planto use it as a bar cart in the room. It's fate, I tell you! 

Finally, we bought a large drum shade chandelier with rope hanging cord from the Restoration Hardware outlet. We've had it in our attic for a a year or so and I've been really excited for the day that we install it. It will hang in the center of the room above our eventual table, and we lucked into it for about $45 instead of the typically pricey $350+ they sell for on the website.

 Alex searching the racks at the Restoration Hardware Outlet - Deal Hunting 

There will surely be more accent pieces and art around the room, as well as long white paneled IKEA curtains that will match those in the living room. 

We have a few weeks (who are we kidding, more likely months) of electrical work, plastering, and molding ahead of us before we reach the satisfying point of painting, but we're both really excited about the progress we're making. 

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Our dining room has taken quite a journey and has seen some major change over the years. When we bought the house in 2003 the previous owner had been using it as a pass through siting area.

Back in 2004 we had it set up as a weird hybrid dining room/living room extension with massive television and speakers. Looking back on it we have very fond memories of these days, but it was far from functional (or attractive, for that matter).

And after our initial renovation efforts we settled on a room that served as a formal dining room, and we absolutely loved it for many years.

But back at the end of October we shared our first steps in making over our row house's red dining room. I really wanted the red walls, chandelier, and faded toile curtains to go! In the span of a few days we'd replaced all of it with a few fresh coats of Sherwin Williams Accessible Beige, some new lightweight subtly pattered curtains, and a big geometric chandelier from Arhaus. 

While the new wall color and chandelier certainly breathed new life into this dining room, we were not yet done with our efforts to refresh the space.

Though our old rug had served us well for over 13 years, I have been ready for a new look for a little while. The room color change may have been the catalyst of this actual makeover, but I had been searching for the right rug for this room for months. Every trip to HomeGoods I was always keeping my eye open for just the right thing, but I finally found the look I was really hoping for while looking through Pottery Barn's website.

I wanted something muted, gray, and wool for the room. I'm a big fan of wool rugs due to their ability to clean pretty easily and the fact that it's a natural material (versus those made with polypropylene, for example). We needed an 8' x 10' and the one I found just happened to be on sale. (Okay, let's be honest, I would only buy it if it were on sale since I love a deal.) So we rolled up the old rug and put down the new.

In a matter of just a few minutes the room transformed again, almost as substantially as it had with the wall color change.

Even Lulu was getting in on the action, wearing her favorite squirrel sweater to match the new color theme of the room.

Another step to our little makeover was to re-cover the dining room chairs. The red plaid had served us very well since I originally applied the covering back in August 2004. My hair was big, my skin was young, my legs were white, and I was wielding an electric staple gun. Watch out world!

But like the red walls and rug, these chair covers had run their course and it was time for them to go. I had found a gorgeous gray and cream herringbone fabric I loved and I felt would be perfect for these chairs. 

Lulu felt she needed to give the new chair fabric a test drive as I was cutting it up for the chairs.

This time around we used an air stapler, which turned out to be far more effective than that old electric gun. Apparently when you buy a tool that's meant to do a specific job (like stapling fabric for furniture), it tends to work better than one that's not. Who knew?

We were very careful to line the pattern up the same on each chair. Before we knew it we had ourselves a complete set of re-covered chairs. I really love the way they look compared to the old coverings.

I also picked up a couple new accessories for the buffet. I found a gourd shaped lamp with gold lined shade and two brass and glass candle holders at HomeGoods, and a friend gave us the beautiful white orchid after Mel passed away. (I'm trying my darnedest to keep this orchid alive.) These few new touches also helped change the room to a fresher look.

With that, the room's relatively quick refresh is complete. With a lot of searching for the right items, and a bit of effort in our overhaul, we had what felt like an entirely new room that feels bigger and brighter.

We still plan to eventually replace some (or much, if you ask Alex) of the mid-century dining set we have in the room with some antique pieces that fit better with the scale of our house. But that's going to be a search that will probably take a while. Until we find those perfect pieces, we'll certainly be using this room to the fullest.  

We even threw a little dinner party to christen this new room. It was a Scottish Whiskey tasting Christmas party, so we picked up new tartan napkins and a matching table cloth that would work perfectly with our new color scheme.

The party, the room, the food, and the whiskey were all a huge hit. Our guests loved how we'd changed the room and kept commenting on how much larger it looked with the lighter color. It was satisfying to hear that our hard work had paid off, and I'm absolutely thrilled with the end results.

I find myself staring at the dining room while sitting in the nearby family room, and I keep telling Alex just how much I love our new room. I'm really looking forward to making some changes to the living room and foyer to continue the lighter, more neutral look I'm after. But that will have to wait until after the original windows are restored. Knowing our speed, I might have to wait until 2022.

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It's at this critical stage where I can't help but have nagging concerns. What if I make a costly mistake? What if we start purchasing furniture and accessories that don't work together or don't achieve the look we're going for in our home? How do I even begin to tackle decorating a room that's roughly 13 feet wide by 32 feet long?? For reference, this room is nearly as wide as our entire home in Old Town and almost half our home's length!(Here's a look at the home's full floor plan.) 

Getting started always seems like the toughest part. But luckily I've had quite some time to obsess think about it and plan for this phase of the renovation. So where did I start? With a floor plan, of course, as having a well defined but flexible plan provides me with a roadmap to get me from start to finish on any room's design.

In a room that feels like a cavernous bowling alley, I knew it would be important to create several different zones to break up the long, narrow space. Mentally I'm approaching the room as three different spaces: 

1. A makeshift "foyer" in the area near the front door, complete with an overhead light fixture and piece of entry furniture to drop keys, etc.
2. The main space centered on the fireplace, perfect for entertaining, conversation, enjoying a fire, and watching television. This space will feature a long, comfortable sofa, a coffee table, and a chair on either side of the fireplace.
3. A reading nook zone with a comfortable chair, ottoman, and side table, nestled next to the French doors, to serve as a place to relax and read, take in the view, or enjoy a cup of coffee or glass of wine.

Here's a look at my working floor plan (not to scale):

To visually separate and anchor each of these spaces, I started with floor coverings. For now, the foyer will remain bare wood (or will have a small entry mat when I find the right one), the main space will be anchored by a 9' x 12' rug, and the reading nook will rest on a 6' x 9' version of the same rug. 

Overall the look we're going for in the home as a whole is a muted color palette of white, soft gray, and natural wood. Here's a reminder of the paint colors we're using in the room:

The accent colors in the room will be various shades of blue (namely aqua, turquoise, and navy), and metal accents will largely be black or oil rubbed bronze. I'd like the look to feel light and fresh, but at the same time incorporate antique, second hand, one-of-a-kind, and interesting pieces to make the overall look feel layered and collected, rather than something that looks like it was purchased straight off the pages of a catalog. We'll also be mixing high, low, and no cost items to keep our budget in check. While I want the furniture and fabric to be of a good quality, comfortable, and stand the test of time, I also don't want anything to feel off limits or too precious (and know that Lulu's penchant for swimming in the river is something we have to take into consideration). And finally, just because we have the space, doesn't mean we have to fill it up with stuff. I'm taking a more minimalist approach, not in a modern sense but in that I want the home to feel uncluttered and clean. 

Here's a look at the mood board design I have planned for the space:

Source List: 

• Couch: Pottery Barn Cameron Roll Arm Grand Sofa in Silver Taupe
• Corner Chair and Ottoman: Ballard Designs Capri Chair & Ottoman
• Rugs: West Elm Jute Chenille Herringbone Rug in Platinum
• Pillows: West Elm Modern Brushstroke Crewel Pillow Cover (no longer available), Crate and Barrel Linden Grey 23" Pillow Cover, HomeGoods (similar to aqua and navy herringbone pillows pictured)
• Table Lamps: HomeGoods (similar to those pictured)
• Floor Lamp: Target Crosby Schoolhouse Floor Lamp in Black
• Coffee Table, Entry Table, Side Table: Antiques -- handed down from friends and family, estate sale purchase
• Bamboo Blinds: Lowes Levolor Custom Blinds
• Curtain Rods: Target
• White Curtains: IKEA Ritva
• Throw Blanket: HomeGoods (similar to item pictured)
• Seagrass Baskets: HomeGoods (similar to those pictured)
• Lantern Chandelier: Ballard Designs Hadley 4-Light Chandelier, purchased from outlet

Most of these items we've already purchased with the biggest exception being the two chairs for either side of the fireplace, and unfortunately, there's a story there. Do you remember one of my initial concerns of buying furniture that didn't work? Well, the cute gray chair in the office is the product of such an error. 

Roughly two years ago we bought a pair of these petite gray velvet chairs from the Restoration Hardware Outlet. 

They're comfortable, well made, the right color, were on sale, and...were final sale. It wasn't until our new Pottery Barn sofa arrived that we realized the chairs are much too small in scale in the room when partnered with the sofa. So, long story short, we'll use the chairs elsewhere (such as the office) and the hunt continues for the perfect chairs for either side of the fireplace.

In spite of the chair misstep, we're down to the final punch list for the room and work is underway building the fireplace mantel, and then we'll be able to call the room done before the warmer weather brings with it a steady stream of visitors and guests. It will be so amazing to now have three rooms on the first floor—the living room, downstairs bathroom, and office—in a state that we're proud of. We look forward to continuing the momentum into the other rooms downstairs, transforming it all into a seamless, cohesive look that is a reflection of our taste. But before we get to that point, we can't wait to enjoy what we hope will be a relaxing, comfortable, cozy, and welcoming living room.

We still have a long road ahead of us until we feel great about the house, as there is a lot of restoration and renovation work, and reminders of the last major renovation in the 1980s that we plan on addressing. I mean, dining room fruit wallpaper border? Just as soon as we finish the hallway, I'm coming for you. But as they say, slow and steady wins the race. And we definitely have the slow part down pat.

Interested in a recap of the work we've done to make over the living room to get to this point? Check out our posts on:

• Removing a Load Bearing Wall to Create the Room of Our Dreams
• Ripping Off Drywall in Favor of Original Plaster
• Installing Shiplap Walls for Interest and to Disguise Unsightly Structural Support
• Mantel Madness: Choosing a New Design
• Plaster Restoration Next Steps Part 1: Base Coat with Structo-Lite
• Plaster Restoration Next Steps Part 2: Master of Plaster's Beautiful Lime Base Coat
• Plaster Restoration Part 3: Master of Plaster Finish Coat with No Sanding!
• The Art of Coping: Installing Reproduction Molding to Match the Original
• How Installing Two-Part Crown Molding Nearly Ended in Divorce
• Paint: How It's Never as Quick and Easy as the Television Shows Lead You to Believe 

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The large fan in the center of the room sticks out like a sore thumb. It's shiny brass, sports dark stained wood blades, and seems to be a rather imposing and dated feature of an otherwise bright and cheerful room. To make matters worse, we rarely use this fan and the room is really dark without any overhead lights.

Our initial thoughts involved keeping the fan by disassembling it and painting it white. We were committed to this plan to the point where we purchased a can of spray paint, took the fan down, and set it on the ground so I could start taking it apart. As we discussed how to best disassemble it and then spray the individual pieces, a strange thing happened. We started to realize just how much we didn't like the ceiling fan and how dark the room gets at night. So we got to thinking, do we really even need a fan? Perhaps new lighting would be better?

Just to entertain our meandering and somewhat distracted thought process I decided to grab a few fixtures we have in the attic. These are all fixtures I've picked up and plan to use in different rooms of the house, but each is just waiting in the box in the attic. So why not bring them out to play?

While we didn't specifically plan to use one of these lights in this room, if one just happened to work well, why not give it an early home? We held each up to get a sense of scale and look in the room. The first is a Ballard outlet "door buster" purchase I initially thought we'd use in our eventual dining room, but I started to have reservations on whether it will be large enough above the table. Therefore I shifted gears and have now decided it will go near the front door in the living room to create a foyer of sorts in the room. But would this lantern work in the office instead? 

While I do really like the look, we decided it's just too tall. It would hang down too far from the ceiling and would certainly be a problem for anyone taller than about 6'2" that might walk through the center of the office. At the very least, it would feel like you were going to hit your head, even if you had a few inches to spare.

The second option we considered is a light I found on Wayfair many months back. It's an irregular wavy glass teardrop shape and I really love it. I'm thinking of using this in our eventual dining room over the table (replacing the lantern idea I originally had). 

For the office it has the look I am really going for, would put off some great light, but has the same problem as the first, it's just way too tall and would hang far too low in the room.

Finally we gave our last option a try. I found this light, a pair of them actually, at HomeGoods last year. My original plan is to use them in our main hallway, but I really like how it looks in this room. 

The soft wood tone of the top, the clear glass and open bottom, it's almost perfect. But again, it's just a little bit too tall and I hesitate to split up the pair.

So my search for just the right fixture has continued but I've been unable to find just the right balance of style, price, and most importantly, scale. I definitely want a hanging fixture, but we'll need to keep it somewhat close to the ceiling. Max hanging height to the bottom of the light will need to be in the 12"-14" range to keep it far enough from people's heads. Given the size of the room, the diameter should be at least 14" across. This means a somewhat short and squat fixture. While we didn't have a winner from the fixtures on hand, It was a good exercise to hold these lights in place as it really gave us a better idea of what we might be trying to find. 

Over the last several days I've since been scouring various websites and thought at first we had found a great option (again on Wayfair) as this one ties into the look of the sconce style we used in the adjoining bathroom and will hang over the built in bench in the downstairs hallway. But after looking at dimensions, we realized it will be much too small for the room.

I also filled up my shopping cart with potential options I found on Houzz. But the ones that Alex and I both liked aren't the right size either.

In addition to searching online, you could likely find me stalking the HomeGoods aisles though regular trips to their usually rich with spoils lighting section. Their inventory changes on a daily basis, and I was encouraged when I saw the store about 20 minutes from our house had a new inventory of hanging lights.

After careful inspection though, I couldn't find a winner.

During a follow up trip to HomeGoods a few days later (I'm serious about stalking the aisles), I actually thought we may have found the perfect fixture. But it too turned out to be just a tad too small at only about 10" across.

While we've been striking out so far, we're still holding out hope and will continue our search. However, we're also kicking around the idea of making something ourselves from a found or antique item. If I'm able to find the right sized antique wire basket (maybe an old oyster basket?) I'm sure we could turn it into a really cool chandelier. But for now, the hunt continues. 

What do you think about our direction? Should we go with something clear class? What about something more open like the first option we held up? Maybe a DIY fixture from a found antique? Or maybe just throw a drum shade up and call it a day? Have you seen a fixture you think might work? No matter what we choose, we think the room will be so much better with a light fixture rather than the fan. Besides, now that we have central air in the house, this is the coolest room in the summer, so we really don't need a fan. 

At the very least this whole exercise only fuels my apparent addiction to purchasing really cute light fixtures that I simply can't pass up. Whether I'm shopping for myself, for a friend, or for a client, there's something just a little bit magical about finding that fixture that's juuuuuuust right!

Interested in a recap of the work we've done to make over the office to get to this point? Check out our posts on:

• A good look at the before and launching the makeover project
• The long process of priming and painting the room
• Restoring the antique cast iron closet hardware
• The saga of our new carpet installation
• Building a newel post and handrail for the back staircase
• The big reveal with before and after photos

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Last week I found myself in the Kingstowne neighborhood of Alexandria, dropping off a housewarming gift for a client who just purchased her first home. Afterwards, I felt the invisible but very real draw of the nearby Home Goods. I was passing it on the way home, so what's the harm in just stopping by? Over the years I've stumbled upon some great finds at this particular location, so I I decided to make a quick pit stop on the way home, you know, to see what I'd see.

What was intended to be a quick perusal through the store, perhaps finding something for the new house or as a staging item I could use in one of my listings, instead led to the discovery of the catalyst to an unexpected whole room redo. 

When exploring the rug selection, I noticed the edge of the pictured gray and cream geometric rug peeking out from behind the hanging row of rugs. Upon exposing it, I was instantly smitten and wracked my brain to think where I might be able to use it. My inner dialog went as follows:

"Dining room at the new house? Nope, already have a rug for that room picked out. Hrm...what about the guest room? Nah, too big. Do I have any friends who are looking? Can't think of anyone."

As I gave the beauty a final glance over my shoulder, and it truly pained me to do so, I opted to walk away and finish my lap around the store, though I was already feeling regret. 

When I reached the bedding section, I couldn't help but look back and admire the rug from afar. I really loved it, and wanted to make it work somewhere, but where? Well...just maybe I had an idea.

Alex and I have long been talking about sprucing up our family room, but all redecorating projects in Old Town have taken a back seat to the new house, or to the bathroom cabinetry and other little punch list items we have. But this rug could be perfect. 

In the nearly 13 years we've owned our home, our family room has taken on many looks and uses. It actually started out as our dining room, and remained this way for the first year and a half we were in the house.

Later we decided it would better serve us as a family room, and we painted it a sage green color to tie in with the oriental rug we purchased for the space. 

The room then changed again when we purchased new slip covers, bought a flat screen television, and hung matching curtains and pillows.

The problem is that I never really liked the green color, especially in the evening when it looked like a bowl of melted mint chocolate chip ice cream. So we repainted it several years back to "Monroe Bisque" and swapped out the mirror over the sofa for a framed bull terrier poster Alex gave me for my birthday.

It was a nice change, but over the last several years I've been itching to redecorate the living, dining and family rooms of the house. While I loved the red eight to ten years ago, I'd like to update it to something a bit more neutral, but I've been worried that one small change could mean a complete overhaul, which we're not ready to take on due to everything else. 

But let's get back to the HomeGoods rug that was calling out to me and had to be had. I kept working through how I could incorporate it into the space, without it being the pebble that causes the avalanche of an entire expensive makeover. (Sort of like the time I found a great rug on clearance, and it kicked off our entire sun porch and kitchen remodel a few years ago.)

Oddly enough, I find that taking a photo of an object helps me to better evaluate it, whether it's a rug, furniture, or even an article of clothing. Seeing it in a photo somehow allows me to step away and view it more objectively.

Because of the cream accent in the rug, I felt I could make it work with our cream paint and oat colored slip covers. I've been dying to take down the dark red curtains in the room but still like the bamboo shades. While I love the privacy of the curtains, I've long been thinking about replacing them with a lighter fabric. Recently a friend gave me several sets of curtains from her old house that won't work in her new home, so I have a new stash of curtains to pull from without making the investment in new ones.

So what it really boiled down to was that I'd want to change out two pieces of art, the painted stool I rescued from a neighbor's trash several years ago, and the throw pillows. Hmm. That didn't sound too terrible. And as long as we kept the warm colored furniture, it would still tie in with the same warm tones of the adjacent dining room rug. (And after the photo above was taken but prior to the unexpected redecorating, we had moved our living room coffee table into this room in order to try to visually lighten the space.)

I made my way over to the pillow aisle and grabbed some simple pillows that could work to pull together the gray and cream tones. After a little trial and error, I felt I had a mix that could work. 

With some assistance from a helpful employee and 10% off the rug because of a pull in the yarn, I quickly checked out and was on my way home, rug and pillows in tow, and even had a friend on her way over to help me move furniture.

While I was hoping to have everything in place by the time Alex arrived home from work, things didn't go quite as smoothly as I envisioned. I forgot just how heavy the marble-topped television cabinet is (we're talking 300 pounds plus fully loaded), and it was everything my friend and I could do to get the old rug out from under it, let alone move it far enough to lay the larger new rug.

After running out of time before an evening appointment, I left the house in complete disarray and forgot my phone in my haste to make an appointment. What greeted Alex looked like someone had ransacked our home and had taken me with them, leaving my cell phone behind as evidence. And he couldn't even call me to ask, "What have you done?"

It's a good thing he's the more patient one of the two of us (and realized the litter of HomeGoods bags meant I had a project in the works and I wasn't abducted), as he took it in stride, and picked up where I left off.

When I came home a few hours later, he had successfully moved the larger pieces of furniture and had vacuumed the Mel and Lulu tumbleweed of pet hair that had accumulated behind the sofa. Totally gross! 

Together we spent about an hour positioning the rug and furniture. That includes the time spent when we put the rug in place under the very heavy antique buffet and then realized it needed to move six inches to the left. I swapped out the red stool with a cream ceramic garden stool we had in our guest room that I purchased last fall on clearance at Target and brought down an additional pillow from the guest room. As we moved things around, Lulu and Mel were running and jumping all over the place. It was like a giant jungle gym for them.

For window treatments I decided to try out a set of Pottery Barn curtains, now discontinued, from the stash that my friend had given me. I'm not sure how it happened, and the design gods must have been smiling down on me, but these curtain panels are absolutely the perfect length. Unfortunately I only have two panels instead of four, but scaling back to one panel per window actually lets in more light and makes the room feel a lot bigger while still allowing for privacy if we want it.

I decided to seize the opportunity to declutter, and am thinking about relocating Lulu's toy basket as well as the magazine rack. We also tried a couple of different options when looking to replace the art above the couch. My first shot was using the Sanborn fire map of our neighborhood (currently hanging in our dining room), but it seemed way too small for the space.

After looking at the other hanging art in our house, I realized that our map of DC, which has been hanging in our upstairs hallway for years, is the perfect size and color for the new family room look. So this came down down from the hallway, and the Bull Terrier will take its place upstairs. 

The slip covers on the couch and chair also came off to get a much overdue run through the washing machine, and the room not only looks more fresh, it also smells like a basket of clean laundry. 

All in all I spent roughly $350 and have a completely transformed room. (I just need to find something different to hang over the leather chair.) Even Alex is really excited about the change, and commented the first morning downstairs after the makeover that he loved it. We both agree that it feels much brighter, less formal, and more "us." 

While I hadn't set out to make such a dramatic change, I'm a firm believer that when you stumble on something you love, sometimes it's worth going for it. It's the room of our house that we spend most of our waking hours, where both of us usually work from home, and where we eat dinner many nights. I'd say it was well worth the money to create a space that makes us feel happy and at home. But I'd be lying if I said that glimpse of red in the dining room isn't calling out as the next room that needs a little makeover.

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