Dining Room Design Plan – Wood Flooring Update (week ???)

Well, I haven’t been great about documenting the flooring progress. BUT I have some exciting news. We started installing the floor in the dining room and it’s looking really good!

I know this picture is a little crazy with the top portion of the board and batten installed (unpainted) and only a small portion of the floor laid. We’re hoping to finish everything this week and I’ll share a more in-depth tutorial on installing hardwood floors soon. It’s not necessarily hard but it’s not the easiest project we’ve ever done. Today, I thought I would share the design plan for the dining room since it’s taking shape so quickly! To remind you, here is what the dining room looked like when we first moved into the house.

We live in a classic colonial style home with a typical floor plan layout. The dining room is connected to the kitchen (as you can see above) and the living room (see below). This is the formal dining room, but we use it often. It was painted some shade of white and had orangey wood trim. After we moved in, we changed out the light fixture to this one.

The dining room had a chair rail and textured walls (ugh). Like the rest of the house, the dining room was in fine working condition. The carpet had a few stains but nothing that prevented us from enjoying the room for a couple of years.

I plan on using our existing furniture, so the design plan is more about the floors, walls and accessories. Jer and I purchased a large dining set when we bought our first house in 2010. It has a dark stain and Chippendale style chairs (the chair/table in mood board represent the items but our actual dining set looks a little different). Likewise, we have an old hutch that belonged to Jer’s grandma that I painted off-white a couple of years ago, so the one in the mood board is also just a fill in. As I mentioned above, we had already purchased the light fixture and I purchased the rug a couple of months ago. It’s been living in our family room until the dining room was ready.

1. Board and Batten: We are doing a slightly different version of the board and batten than what’s pictured here. It’s more like this one. It will go up ~3/4 of the wall and be painted white (same as the trim).
2. Wall Color – Asiago Valspar: I’ve been collecting paint swatches for a couple of years and I keep returning to this one. It feels more beige than gray but not too yellow. A nice warm neutral.
3. Trim Color – Ultra Pure White Behr: Old faithful. I’ve painted many a baseboard in this color.
4. White Oak Flooring: The flooring saga ended with this white oak beauty and so far, I am not disappointed! You can read more about the flooring decision here.
5. Dining Table (Similar): This table looks very similar to our actual table. The color is correct and our legs have a slight curve like this one, too. Our table expands with a leaf and was more expensive than this one, so this seems like a pretty good deal!
6. Blue Buffalo Check Rug: As I mentioned, I purchased this rug a couple of months ago. It was a great deal and it’s an indoor/outdoor rug which is needed for the dining room, at least in my family. It’s super easy to clean and soft underfoot. However, I am worried it makes the room feel too country/farmhouse. I’m not opposed to that style, but I like more transitional. I may not use it here after I see how everything looks in the room.
7. Dining Hutch (Similar): This hutch is super cute. Ours does not have the open shelving and I removed the grid in the glass, so it’s a little simpler. I am wondering if the white hutch will blend into the wall too much. Perhaps I’ll need to paint it? Maybe a black?
8. Light Fixture: This light fixture is perfect. Great quality!
9. Woven Place Mats: I’ve had these placemats for some time. They are great but with a kid, I’ve found that plastic ones work better (I did a post about placemats here). This room needs some warmth and these woven water hyacinths placements do the trick.
10. Blue & White Curtains: More color please. I love the blue and white bird pattern. Is it too much blue?
11. Bamboo Blinds: I just thought the room needed more warmth and texture.
12. Chippendale Dining Chairs (Similar): These Ethan Allen chairs are so cute and have a close resemblance to our dining chairs. The Ethan Allen version is made to look like bamboo but ours are not.
13. Rustic Dough Bowl (similar): A long dough bowl is perfect for the center of the table and we already have one that looks just like it.
14. ZZ Plant: This room is in the back of the house and doesn’t get great light. This room needs some life, so fingers crossed that the hardy ZZ plant can last here.
15. Planter: I am really into this planter, but I’m not sure it belongs in this room or somewhere else. Thoughts? Ideas?

I’m going to hold off on ordering the curtains and blinds until I see the room put together, but other than that I can install everything once the floors and board & batten is completed.