Dining Room Make-over

After being in our house for a little over two years we decided to swap our dining and living rooms.  The living room was a larger space in the front of our house and we felt it was a better suited for hosting 8 people.

Above is a picture of our old dining room with a 5' table and 6 chairs.  

Here is a picture of the empty living room ready to be converted into a dining room!  

The picture above was a dining room from a house that was for sale right down the street from us, this was the inspiration behind our dining room make-over. With the end product in mind I started pinning (on Pinterest of course) to find a table, chairs, and chandelier that fit within my Handyman's strict budget, while my Handy man went to work on the painting and trim.
   

After many trips to the store and taking pretty much every gray paint sample available we finally agreed on a color.    

Up next was the wainscoting, this is where Kevin's engineering skills really come in handy.   

While Kevin was working on the wainscoting, I got busy finding the chairs I wanted. It didn't take long, the only problem was they were $289 a piece and way out of my budget for 8 of them. So off to craigslist I went...

I stumbled upon 8 of these chairs for only $26 a pop! Although I was very hesitant at first, I knew with a fresh coat of paint and some brand new fabric these little guys really had some potential.  

 First we stripped the fabric backs and seat cushions from the chair frame. 

Next came priming and painting. We selected Benjamin Moore Advance in Snow Bound for the frames.

For the new fabric we traveled to the fabric district in Philadelphia and found just what we were looking for at B Wilk Fabrics.   The ladies in there were so helpful!!  I highly recommend it for any fabric needs.   

After the old staples and fabric were pulled out lots of new ones put in...

We did the same fabric on the seat cushion and the front of the back cushion. 

For the back of the seat cushion we decided to go with a striped fabric for a little pop.  

The finished chairs, not bad for about $51 per chair...

We knew we wanted a long chandelier, and lucked out when this one popped up at Joss and Main within budget! :)   

We also found this beautiful 8' wood table on Craigslist for only $200 and Kevin painted the legs to match the chairs.  

We are still looking to get a rug, buffet and some other accent pieces but for now our dining room is complete. 

The final 8 chairs...

A close up of the finished trim.

And now we are officially ready to host a dinner party!



My newest obsession is Rodan + Fields skin products.   Check out all their wonderful products here.  

Redfine Regimen has been my favorite so far!  Talk about some serious before and after pictures!