Today I am so excited to share our dining room with you! It’s one of my personal favorite rooms in the whole house. It’s where we love to host parties and dinners and where Laura and I have ABM meetings about interesting topics like soap recipes and jello shot ideas.
What’s interesting about this room is that it’s visually bold, but to me it’s the most minimalist room in our home. We hardly did any decorating because the wallpaper is so bold. When we have parties, we don’t really decorate this room, because no matter what you put in here, the wallpaper is all you see. It makes it pretty easy if I’m being honest, and I can see why a lot of hotels and restaurants go this route with their decor. It kind of simplifies this whole process.
I have a bunch of photos to share with you from my shoot with Alyssa Rosenheck for domino. I decided to share these photos as my tour because they really got all the angles. But if you notice a few things moving around, just know it’s because that’s what you do during magazine shoots. It’s the magazine way! Haha!
But FIRST, a walk down memory lane is in order, don’t you think?
Before vs. After. Always a good moment to look back and see how far we’ve come!
We fell in love with this house for 100 different reasons. The formal dining room with doors that walk out into the sunroom was a big one for us. We love the flow of this house. It’s very open and natural, but not so open that it feels like just one big room. In the layout, this room sits between the kitchen/breakfast nook and the living room.
The visual change is pretty dramatic, but the steps we took to get from point A to point B were a lot less intense than a lot of the other rooms. We removed the heavy drapes and repaired the trim so that it was flush with the rest of the trim.
That’s the biggest reason why it’s so much brighter now. We refinished the floors with a light whitewash color. We removed the chair rails and added some bold wallpaper. BOLD wallpaper.
After that, we kept the decor pretty simple. The most exciting moment in this renovation for me was putting up this dream light fixture. I got it from Shop Candelabra. It looks like it’s no longer on their site, but there are a lot of similar options and really dreamy sputniks on there.
The Jane Birkin poster really pops with the wallpaper. It’s a blueprint copy of a photo I found online. The frame is DIY.
The wine shelf is a custom piece that Josh Rhodes made when we still lived in Missouri. I loved it in that space, but I love it even more now! It was a beast to move, but since we’re never moving ever again, it’s all good.
Let’s talk about the white rug. Yeah, I saw your judgy looks.
Haha—I’m just kidding! But seriously, read this whole paragraph before you judge.
We chose a Marrakesh Shag Rug for a couple reasons—
1. It’s GORGEOUS. I’m not going to lie to you and say I didn’t choose it because it’s so beautiful. I am not above being vain about my rug choices. I realize a dark rug would’ve been more practical and potentially lasted longer, BUT I didn’t want a dark rug, and it didn’t fit this space. I mean—can you even visualize a dark rug here.
2. I’ve had a rug like this before, and I’m OK with spot cleaning it. I’m also OK with the wear and tear that is going to happen over time. I’m happy to say that almost a year in, it’s still looking almost brand new! But there are a few spots here and there from parties, and I can live with that because in the BIG PICTURE, the room looks and feels how I want it to.
That’s more worth it to me than a rug that promises to “never age” because we all know that rugs don’t last forever. If you want to hear me over-explain my choice some more, look no further.
OK, now you can judge me if you still want to!
Our wallpaper is Redoute Rose-Hot Pink by Peacoquette Designs via Spoonflower.
I have so many feelings about this wallpaper. It was love at first sight for sure. It’s not really compatible with much other decor, which is a love and hate thing for me. Mostly love! I like that the room always looks complete and pulled together (as long as the table is cleared—haha).
And it’s visually stunning in a way that truly makes my heart skip a beat when I walk into the room, even after all these months! BUTTERFLIES.
But I will admit the downside to having such bold wallpaper is that the room is not very versatile. You want to throw a halloween party or a themed party or a themed birthday party? Well if it doesn’t match pink floral… forget about it.
As with most extreme choices, there’s an up and a down. For that reason I like to think of this room as the diva of our home. Every person who comes over wants to take a photo by the wallpaper, so I told her she’s Instagram famous. 🙂
Well I hope you enjoyed my little tour! We are so happy here.
I’m so grateful for the natural light. It’s by far the best thing about our home and the reason why I sometimes jokingly and sometimes very seriously say I will never move.
Fun fact! The cabinet you see to your right holding glassware is actually this cabinet repurposed!
Thank you so much for reading! If you have any questions at all, I’ll be popping in to answer them even though I’m on vacation this week because THAT’S how much I love you guys!! xx -Elsie
Other sources: Mirror/Rejuvenation, White Chairs/Amazon, Teak Wood Chair/Lulu & Georgia.
My husband and I are thinking of purchasing an early 70s home covered in wallpaper. There is even wallpaper on the ceiling! UGH! Any tips on tackling it? I believe the wallpaper is original to the home, so I think it’s going to be really hard to tackle.
Hi Teresa! This post might help 🙂 https://abeautifulmess.com/2014/06/simple-wallpaper-removing-tips.html
This room looks so beautiful. I love wallpaper and love this idea. thanks, Elsie. Appreciate that!
Is that a new floor done in the same pattern, or did you treat the original wood somehow?
Hi.. Can you tell us where the white dining chairs for your table came from? just wondering, i am thinking of making the same table soon! thanks!
I got them on Amazon. Search “metal cafe chairs”. xx!
Hi! Love love love this room. Did you fabricate the dining room table? I love the look and would love to try to create a similar one for our home. Thanx!
Hello Elsie,
Such a cool room! It’s definitely your style, which is really neat.
Seems like you were anticipating some flack about the rug choice, but honestly what struck me as odd the most was the picture of Jane Birkin. It reminded me of the print of David Lynch in the studio space, which works well for cohesion, but I suppose what strikes me as odd is that if you are going to print large photos out for display, why not people in your life? ABM is always showing ways to use all those pictures we have on our phones and old pictures tucked away in boxes and bring them back out into the light to be enjoyed. Seems like it would be nice to see an old timey b&w of your mom or a more recent b&w of your dog perhaps than random celebrities. At least to me, it’s those pieces of loved ones scattered about the house that really makes it feel like a place people really live, and not some show house for a magazine.
Just my two cents, though! Obviously you guys have a beautiful home and your own tastes that differ from mine. 🙂
This is so nice!
OMG! That room! The combo of the wallpaper and wine shelf = perfection.
Hi Amy!
We got the 9×12, I believe. It was a size bigger than our table needed, but you can sort of see in the before pic that our floor has line between the herringbone and the inner straight pattern so we had to size up to cover those lines completely.
xx- Elsie
Obsessed with this rug what size did you get?
This room is medium traffic. So I know it will get worn over time, but a year in it’s still doing ok. I’ve only done a little spot cleaning with carper cleaner, I think when we had pasta one time. :))
I will say I had a flokati in our tv living room one time and it got gross much faster. I would use these rugs in low or medium traffic rooms. Yes- the guest bedroom would be perfect!!
xx- Elsie
I mean, I didn’t have permission to use that photo. But I think for personal use it’s probably ok. Definitely not for sale though.
xx- Elsie
Hehe! She’s the sweetest!!
xx- Elsie
Thank you Anne!! That is so kind!
xx- Elsie
We had then professionally done.
xx- Elsie
Hi Suzanne,
This is one of the most asked questions, so I might do a whole post about it soon!
First I will say that open shelves are not for everyone. It’s a little bit more work to keep the kitchen from looking cluttered, although it doesn’t bother me if my kitchen is perfect (it basically never is unless I am taking photos). And some homes are more dusty than others.
For us it’s really not a hassle. We keep the things we use regularly on the lower shelves (glasses, plates, salad bowls, popcorn bowls etc) and they never sit long enough to collect dust. On the higher shelves it’s more server ware that we use for parties. So it sits longer without use. When I take that stuff down I either wipe it clean or wash it before using.
Other that that we dust the shelves maybe once a season and the other shelves that have glassware.
I will also say that it’s important to have good ventilation in the kitchen. We don’t deep fry basically ever, but oil from cooking can get into the air (and leave a sticky film) on things as well. It happened in our last house on this very top shelf we had that never got touched. So if you cook with oils always use your vent!
A year in, I love our open shelving and would do it again!
Hope that is helpful! xx- Elsie
Okay, I have a very real, practical question:
How do you keep your dishes and glasses clean with open shelving? Is it more of a hassle for you? I am thinking of doing open shelving in the kitchen and maybe dining room but my husband says he’d rather not because of all the dust that would build up (even if we dust frequently). What are your thoughts? Thanks!! 🙂
I cant stop staring at that wallpaper, its so beautiful!
www.shopthecoconutroom.com
Looking great! Did you white wash the floors yourselves or have them professionally done? If you did it yourself, any advice?
Stunning. Thank you for the inspiration!!