Vintage Eclectic Fall Dining Room Reveal {and some “real life” thrown in}

September 12, 2014 /

Today, I am sharing my dining room reveal with hints of early fall decor. I have never shared this room fully before, even though I have shared my mantel often. There are many reasons for this, but basically it’s because it is a work in progress and not yet where I want it to be. Not even close.

It is a little preemptive to call this a “reveal” post, since there is still so much work to do, but I decided to take my own tagline “advice”and find beauty in the imperfections of it. I am sharing some of those imperfections throughout this post, so you can get a glimpse of real life around here.

Sometimes, I know it can feel like bloggers always have everything so “nice and neat and finished.” I want to assure you…it is not the case around here. We are always a work in progress, no matter how pretty the pictures.

Maybe we should start with some before pics, so you can see how far this room actually has come?

This is the view you walk into from the living room:

These photos were taken the first week we moved in and were getting the place cleaned up. The previous owners left the baker’s rack and other random things, most of which we gave away to friends or just threw out if it was junk.
For some reason, I didn’t get a full before shot of the main wall (where my mantel is currently), so you will have to use your imagination.
And here it is now, with a fall vibe going on…
The truth is, we haven’t done any remodeling in this room yet. The biggest change is probably just replacing the ceiling fan with my $75 Craigslist chandelier.
In spite of this room needing work, I can’t help but perk it up with some decor for the season.
The table runner is a piece of chevron burlap fabric that I purchased, by the yard, at Walmart. 
The faux fur fabric was purchased at Jo-Ann’s, and I didn’t do anything fancy with it to cover the chairs. Just cut some squares and draped it over.
I included a bohemian style grouping in the center of the table with thrift store finds, succulents and some faux pumpkins. 
I shared a tutorial on how to make my embellished fabric pumpkins last week.
One of my struggles with getting this room made over to my liking, is that it is the “hub”of our house. The kitchen is on the opposite side of the table, the white door leads to the mudroom and basement, and the open doorway to the stairs and living room. The glass door leads to a full bathroom and laundry room. 
Things are constantly piling up on the table and furniture, just “waiting” to be put somewhere else. I would say this is the hardest room for me to deal with in my home as far as keeping cleaned and organized. On most days it is a wreck in here.
The furniture in here is whole other issue. “Eclectic” is just a nice way of saying we have a lot of old furniture and thrift store, mix-matched pieces thrown together, mostly for practical purposes. 
I loved my dining room set when I found it at an antique store. It came with five chairs and the table has three leaves so it can be huge for holidays and family gatherings. And a steal at only $175 for all of it! I had big plans for this set in making it over with gray paint, drop cloth slipcovers and stripping the top down to the natural wood and coating in wax. Since then, one chair broke when my toddler was messing around on it and fell backwards. Thankfully he was completely fine, but the chair…not so much. 
My dog basically lives in this room too, and has scratched up each of the chair cushions so they are quite tattered and destroyed. I ended up pulling some chairs in from the patio just so we had extra seating in here that wasn’t falling apart. 
The pink chair in the corner looks cute, but is actually there because I could’t find anywhere else to put it. I’ve tried it at the table, but it sits too low so won’t work there. I do love this chair though. I have always wanted a pair of bergere chairs, and when I saw this one at a sale, for only $15, I had to take it home even if we don’t have room. You know how that goes right? 
(If you are wondering what happened to the cushion cover…well let’s just say that was a pinterest diy attempt  fail.  It involved spray paint and a whole lot of hastiness on my part. Let’s not talk about it.)
Having two small children, we have two booster seats. I took one of the chairs out for some of these pics, but here is what it actually looks like if you came over on a day I had this room cleaned up:
But enough complaining! 
Here are some reasons why this room is great:
It is open to the kitchen, yet separate enough to feel like a “dining room” as opposed to just an eat-in kitchen.
My family eats together here every day. We talk. We laugh. Tell jokes. Make memories.
When we have parties and holidays, this is the gathering place where everyone hangs out eating and chatting.
It has a huge view of our backyard through the sliding patio doors.
We do a lot of creative things in here (painting, Playdoh, making crafts), and I use this space to display my kids’ artwork which always makes them feel proud. They show me where they want their pictures to go 🙂
This is the space I have started homeschool preschool with three year old, so lots of learning will be happening at this table in the year ahead.
And finally, it has a lot of potential to be something beautiful.

One thing that we really want to do in this room, is expose the brick chimney that goes up the side wall.  My husband started removing the layers of paneling, drywall and plaster a few years ago, but then we never finished. Ahh…how life goes.
This room doesn’t need that much work. I think a fresh coat of paint and some small changes and it will get there. I would like to get some new furniture at some point. I am hoping to go in a “rustic modern” look once we get some money saved for a few new pieces. 
Well, there you have it. Imperfections and all. 
You can see what is inspiring me for this space on my Pinterest boards dining room and rustic modern.
Do you have any spaces like that in your home? That don’t need a total remodel but you just haven’t gotten around to giving them a little facelift? That is definitely how it goes around this old house…
Hope you enjoyed the tour! Happy early fall!
I am excited to be heading out today to the BlogPodium Conference, in Toronto, for the weekend. I will get to meet some great blogging friends and learn a lot more about the potential that blogging has. Can’t wait to come back and share with you all!
Till next time…
~Alice W.
You might also enjoy:
Rustic Fall Mantel Vignette & a Free Printable
Embellished Fabric Pumpkins for Fall
Spring 2014 Living Room Reveal

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