Little House Living

Renovating the Farmhouse Dining Room After

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Make sure you check out the Dining Room Before Pictures here first!

The dining room really ended up being my favorite room in the house. I love the other renovations we did in the house but this room is really our new family center and I love that about it. It has a calm feel and we love enjoying meals here together! Enjoy the after pictures!

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We replaced the front door (leads from the mudroom) for this glass pane door. It lets in a lot of light from the south side of the house without letting in a lot of heat (since there is another door out in the mudroom to the outside). This is the small wall right when you come in the door that is our mail and purse station. Hubby made this simple little white stand for some pictures and I usually keep our diaper bag, ect on the bottom. We hung up the little mail slots on the wall to hold mail until we can sort it out so it doesn’t sit on the counter or table.

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Here’s the little mail sorter I found. Believe it or not I actually bought it in that color. It matched my wall color perfectly!

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From this view you can see most of the room with our table. The large white box on the north wall is actually our furnace to heat the entire house. We didn’t have many options and couldn’t afford to put in a regular furnace system with venting (over $7000!). The wall furnace runs solely off of propane so it will work even in a power outage. For the month of winter that we were in the house it was very efficient and heat the entire house (even the upstairs!) well. Since we had to redo all the propane lines when we installed the furnace it cost us about $1000 for the furnace, propane lines, venting, and the electric blower we added that makes it even more efficient.

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Now this is the reason this room took us so long to finish…the staircase! As you saw in the before pictures, the staircase was in very poor condition. It was a tiny, narrow hallway with sagging, carpeted stairs. We widened the opening between the dining room and the living room and tore out part of the wall from the hallway to create an open staircase. We then redid the stairs and created new railing. The new staircase is wider and the steps are wider. It’s still very steep but there isn’t much we can do about that, you just get a good workout going upstairs! 🙂 Hubby also created beautiful columns that frame out the separation between the dining room and the living room. We did keep the original wall on the staircase because I loved the look. It just needed to be repainted and the dents filled in. It’s actually the only original interior wall left in the house.

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This is the north side of the dining room or the side that you come down to when you walk down the stairs. You can see the door to the bathroom here.

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A view looking at the north wall. After thinking for a long time about this room I decided I wanted to tear out the window on the wall and put in a storm door that walks out to a little patio (which would be right next to my garden). I found this great door that lets in so much more light than the window did plus I can’t wait to build a little patio out the back next spring!

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It took me forever to find a buffet for this room until I spotted this piece for 70% off at Hobby Lobby. It’s such a nice solid piece and adds some great much needed storage to this room. At the moment I have it filled with some home canned goods until they find a better spot! We added a faux chalkboard (it’s a black dry erase board) in here as well because I wanted something I could change up or we could write notes to each other on.

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I’m prefer simple decor in our house to keep it from feeling and looking cluttered so I added a jar on top of the buffet and this fun chicken wire basket I found. I needed a place for my vintage cookbooks that don’t sit on a shelf very well so they made a new home in the basket.

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Oh and I can’t forget one of the funnest features in this room! When we first started the reno in here I told hubby that I loved those tin tile ceilings and would love something in here so this is what we came up with! These tiles aren’t actually tin at all but they look like it! We did a smaller section of them instead of doing the entire ceiling so it just added to the room instead of overwhelming it.

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I love decorating the table!

Before:

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After:

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So that’s our dining room!I hope you enjoyed the pictures as much as we enjoy this room. 🙂

Farmhouse Renovation Part 1: Moving On
Farmhouse Renovation Part 2: Getting Started
Renovating the Farmhouse Bathroom: Before Pictures
Renovating the Farmhouse Landing
Renovating the Farmhouse Kitchen

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merissabio

 

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Related posts:

Renovating the Farmhouse Dining Room – Before Renovating the Farmhouse Landing – Before Renovating the Farmhouse Bathroom – Before Pictures Renovating the Farmhouse Bathroom – After Pictures Renovating the Farmhouse Kitchen: After Pictures

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Comments

  2. This is beautiful–just a gorgeous result. You must be happy all of that hard work paid off. One quick thing…is your weekly newsletter a different subscription from your blog posts? I subscribe to your blog via email, and I think on Fridays, I receive a summary of the week’s posts. I love it. But is the weekly newsletter something different or is that what I am receiving already?

    Reply

  5. I love everything about it!! Great job. 🙂
    BTW – I’ve been following you for a little while now but have never commented. I just want to let you know how much I enjoy and appreciate your blog.

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  7. Oh my–the difference between the before and after is just breathtaking! No wonder it is your favorite room in the house! May you and your family experience many blessings in this room.

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  8. This turned out beautiful! I love the blue color on the walls and all of the natural light you were able to bring in to the space. What a great home you’ve made!

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  10. I have so enjoyed following your blog ….I think of you as a friend. The before and after pics make one feel right at home…..having a cup of tea or coffee with you around your nice kitchen table. I love it simple.

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  14. Oh, I can’t believe the difference!! Your farmhouse is really lovely! I have the same blue canning jar on my kitchen table filled with flowers, night scented phlox in my home 🙂 Best wishes to you and your sweet little family.
    Hannah xo
    Ferndale, MI

    Reply

  16. Beautiful!!! Is the floor refinished or new? I love all your choices, especially the glass doors that let in so much light. Btw, the before link is not working, so I am glad you included the one pic. I do like to see corresponding before pictures for each shot/camera angle, though.
    Your blog is so wonderful.

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  19. You have seriously worked a miracle on this dining room. I LOVE it! Beautiful! The stairs are wonderful.And sooo much more light. Well done!

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  22. I love the look of this room. I wouldn’t have believed it was the same room if I hadn’t seen the before pictures! The colors and details are perfect and just what I would have chosen if I had a lick of taste! The “tin” roof is perfect.
    Blessings,
    Betsy

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  23. I love the remodel. It’s beautiful! I’ve been reading your blog about a year and really enjoy your posts.

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  24. This room is gorgeous! I can see why you like it so much. I love your house. You & your husband do beautiful work. I wish I had the money & skills to make my house nice like this. It’s got such a cozy feel to it. One thing I was hoping to see is the area that leads into the kitchen….the new pantry (inside & outside). 🙂 I love pantries. It’s been a dream of mine for years to have a walk-in pantry. At this point I would settle for even just a smaller one. I’ve resorted to making one the best I can in a bedroom closet (which is half-way across my house from the kitchen)!

    Thank you once again for sharing with us! I love it! I hope to see more (& more)…. hahaha

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  28. Wow! What a transformation! Love the blue paint and white trim. It looks so light and airy. Especially after seeing the ‘Before’ pics!! The staircase and ceiling look amazing now too!

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  31. I am astounded at the difference you made in that room! I wouldn’t ever want to leave it! It is truly perfect, and I LOVE the color! I wouldn’t have ever thought about that shade, but it is just perfect.

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  36. WOW! What a great job–the “new” dining room is absolutely beautiful and light and airy! I love that you left the original wall by the staircase as well! It truly would be a room you could enjoy spending time in!

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  39. Seriously, your house needs to be featured in Better Homes and Garden or Country Living or one of those magazines! Absolutely beautiful!

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  40. It’s beautiful! That’s my favorite room in your house. I love everything about it. What color blue is on the walls?

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  41. As a couple, you have truly captured the essence of “A home is where the heart is” with a thoughtful and creative dining space. It is inviting! I also love the open stairwell. We renovated our small dated 30 yr old kitchen last year. It was a challenge to stay in budget with a functional cottage kitchen design but well worth the efforts!

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  42. LOVE IT!!!! Where did you find the dry erase board? It’s beautiful and you can’t tell it’s one at all.

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  43. What beautiful work! You and hubby are so talented and creative. You should both be VERY proud of what you have done to this home. God Bless you, your family and your lifestyle.

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  44. What I really like about watching your renovations is that the average person could do / afford this. I respect how you make a little go a long way and how you have made reasonable seem extraordinary. I would really like to see the pantry.

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  45. Oh, I am so happy for you and it is just lovely. We live in an old home and I KNOW how hard it is when you start tearing everything out. You two are fast workers. Enjoy this beautiful area and give thanks!

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  48. I really love what you have been doing to your beautiful home. Every old home just needs/ wants to be loved again. Where did you find the wall furnace? We have electric heat and would love to have propane for when the power goes out especially in the winter here in West Virginia. We also have no basement- just a crawl space under our home which we converted from a mobile home. Thanks.

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    • We bought the wall furnace from Home Depot. With the blower and the outside vent kit I think it ended up costing about $1000 but it was our only option besides paying $7000 for a full furnace. It actually works really well! Ours is a large one though…the smaller ones are much less.

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  50. I absolutely love your dining room. May I ask what brand of paint and color you used? I’ve been searching for a paint color for my dining room.

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  51. Wow! Amazing transformation! Love it! Love it! Love it!

    Am I missing it or is there not a picture with a view looking towards the kitchen?

    Reply

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