Hello hello! Today, I am excited to share our dining room with you. It was a challenge to design because of its square shape. In the past, I’ve only ever had rectangular dining tables, but we didn’t want to make the room feel cramped.
We ended up choosing a large round table that seats six. As soon as we finished putting this room together, it immediately became my favorite place to work as well as hang out as a family! I love it when the missing pieces click together like this!
I couldn’t believe my luck when I stumbled upon this vintage china hutch about a month before we moved in. I found it at my favorite local antique mall (Gaslamp Too) and the seller was even in the booth and gave me a deal.
I have always admired these mid-century china cabinets, and it was perfect for this space.
Our dining room is connected to our kitchen as well as our front living room (the one where the entryway and pink sofa is). It’s the first thing you see when you walk into the home, so it was important to me to make it cozy (which is where the many framed photos came in), but also kept it light and bright so it flows with the rest of the rooms.
Originally, I wanted to paint this room a bold color or possibly wallpaper, but it felt like it was asking me to stay white. Haha—do you hear imaginary voices from your rooms talking to you. Just me?
That said, I’m curious what you think. Should it have been a bold color or pattern? If we weren’t moving, I would honestly have probably tried all three over time. I love those simple but dramatic changes you can make season to season.
Haha. Can you spot the one frame I left the store “art” in (like what it came with).
Art sources: Cactus print (color) is by Kelly Christine Sutton, Letter board/Target.
The rest of the photos are personal photos from throughout the years.
The chandelier is from Schoolhouse. It’s the Luna Cord Pendant. I’ve always wanted a light like this. It’s perfect for a mid-century space that would feel overpowered by a big brass chandelier. It’s perfect for this space! I will definitely be using these pendants more in the future!
The table we chose is really special! It’s a Decker Table from Room and Board. We chose it because it’s bigger and more sturdy than a tulip table. We chose the marble top and the white base. It’s super pretty and fits the space so well!
The Decker Table has quite a few different options for tops you can choose, including quartz, ceramic, marble and wood. For this space, we felt that marble would be really pretty. It’s perfect!!
If you have any questions about it, just ask me in the comments.
Ah! Well there you have it. Our little dining room! I’m really happy with how it turned out and how it flows with the other rooms.
Source list: Decker Table/Room & Board c/o, Chairs/IKEA, Hutch/Vintage, Light/Schoolhouse, Pink Velvet Curtains/Amazon (you can also find similar ones at West Elm).
And just because I know some of you might be curious, yes, we are taking this new table and chairs with us to our new home. :)) I’ll be sure and update you on how everything translates. We are hoping that pretty much everything will translate, since many things are brand new.
We’re actively trying not to be wasteful, though it’s obvious that moving two times in one year is not ideal. Still, I’m feeling like having our familiar things right away will be a comfort for our children and hopefully will make this next move more peaceful than our last! Wish us luck?
Sending a big hug to every one of you. Thank you for your support and love this year. It really means a lot. xx- Elsie
P.S. Check out this Living & Dining Room Transformation (Before) and the after for more inspiration!
The dining room is so comforting. What is the paint color on the wall?
Hi Elsie! This is an old post of yours so I’m not sure if you’ll respond. But I am curious, with kids in the house, do you find the Room and Board Decker table’s marble top to feel like it may tip off the base? Or does it seem quite sturdy? (I believe the top isn’t attached to the base.)
Curious as I’m considering the table too!
The china cabinet is FAB! I hope I get lucky enough to come across one similar!
The cabinet is amazing; yes I would have painted the walls to go with the cabinet, like mustard or dark red, or even blue 😉 but I have a difficult time to accept white… Thank you for sharing your house, it’s really nice.
Hi! Beautiful! Do you mind sharing what size table you got? I need one that sits 6 and yours seems to do the trick. Thanks!!
Hi! I think ours is the 54 inch top. XX!
I love the mid century China cabinet. I have one, as well. I like how you’ve mixed it in with everything else. We’ve mixed in mid century pieces in our house, but we don’t have a complete mid century look. So, it’s nice to see other examples of that.
Idk…it does look little. It’s all relative really. Elsie’s other dining room looked bigger than this one, so in that way, it is “little”. It’s hard to tell how man sq ft the rest of the house is, but again, relative to the other rooms this one could be smaller. Or…she could be using it as a term of endearment because she talked about it was important for her to make it cozy.
Semantics…amirite?
Looks awesome, Elsie! Stoked to see everything you do in the next space!
Really love this room. Always looking at blogs and the internet for decor inspiration, and want to say thank you for including some budget friendly options in this room. The use of the IKEA chairs, at under $100 a seat, make it easily recreatable for ones with a more modest budget.
It’s a very lovely room and I love how you’ve decorated. Personally I like all the white. Leaves it open for fun seasonal decor. But… “Our little dining room!”? Major eye roll. Doesn’t look that little to me. This is being typed in my 2 bedroom 700 square foot duplex with zero dining rooms. It might be helpful to have someone edit your posts because it seems like you often say something “silly” (which comes off as tone deaf).
Hi! You are correct that size is completely relative. It’s also true that this dining room is about half the size of our previous one. Should I have used the word “little”? Honestly- I don’t know. That said- I am not planning to have “someone” edit my posts for me. Being called out for things is a part of my work… I am actively working to become more open instead of more paranoid. I will always make mistakes and I will always say things that are taken the wrong way, but I am fully committed to lifelong learning and to never stop trying, growing and doing better. 🙂 Thanks!
Thank you for your honest and thoughtful reply!! And no, you should not change your business practice if you don’t want to. I think it would be valuable (for me, anyway) to have someone read my work who has a different perspective than me so they can point out any areas where I might have implicit bias. Leaving that up to your readers is a brave choice and I can’t fault you for it. I suppose my main issue with calling it “small” is that we’ve seen room tours and now your whole other house tour and trying to pass any part of these houses off as modest in size seems very inauthentic to me. Perhaps feature other spaces if you want to use these terms (fwiw I love it when ABM features different spaces other than just Elsie, Emma, and Laura’s. It adds more variety! Though it’s probably harder to do during shelter in place).
Hi! I understand that. It’s totally ok with me if people call out how they see things differently. It’s pretty normal, especially with house stuff. Rooms can look completely different sizes depending on which camera lens you use.
If I tasked someone on our team with checking my posts for things that may be offensive or tone deaf to someone I don’t think they would always get it right (there’s so many comments that still surprise us) and I’m afraid it would result in over-sanitizing our content to a point where it’s much less relatable than what it is now.
There were many years in the past where I tailored our content to try to avoid critical feedback and mean comments, but it never worked. I honestly don’t believe it’s possible. So while I am always (!!) going to work to educate myself, be more sensitive and do better I also believe that the only way for me to be authentic is to continue to be imperfect. It’s something I will always struggle with, but I feel more comfortable finally owning that as a part of my work rather than trying to “fix” something that I will never be successful fixing.
So feel free to call me out anytime- I truly am open and listening. I’m also going to continue being myself and writing from the only perspective I truly can, my own. :))
Love your take on this, Elsie! I struggle with self-censorship and you’re like breathe of fresh air and bravery. Also, at first I thought the green glassware was plants in the hutch at first, which I was totally into, haha.
P. S. By “someone” I meant a professional that is part of your team, not just a random stranger, sorry if it came off that way. I agree, that would be weird ?
Hi, how does the marble tabletop hold up with kids? Spilled spaghetti sauce, water rings, scratches etc. I’m nervous my 4 kids will ruin a marble top.
Which blush curtains did you get at Amazon; is there a link because my search pulled up too many to choose from? It looks like you’re either using drapery hooks or curtain rings but I could not tell from the photograph, which? Thank you, Elsie. Looking forward to seeing everything in the new house. The vintage hutch is the bomb with the glass cutout sides!
Hi Sunny! Here’s a link- https://amzn.to/2EpRo3r
So light and airy! I love the feel of it and all of the pieces work together so perfectly! I’ve been thinking about those Ikea chairs for my dining room eventually. I think you sold me on them! I would maybe paint the ceiling a pretty blue, green, pink or yellow, but other than that, I love the room as is.
Thank you! I really love the chairs, by the way, they seem way more expensive than they really are! 🙂
You have so many beautiful things in your home, but I’ve never been so jealous of anything as I am about that hutch.
It’s beautiful just the way it is. And so much light! I would hang out there too 🙂
The room looks great! I will say I would have liked to see a pop of color somewhere (either wallpaper or a rug) but let’s be honest… This is the year we are all treading water and taking it one day at a time. It looks perfectly lovely as is.
May have just missed the link in the post, but where are the chairs from?
IKEA. There’s a link at the end of the post if you don’t want to go searching. 🙂
Yep. See it now. Gonna blame that one on pregnancy brain 🙂
Paint or wallpaper the ceiling! (as long as it’s in closed on all four sides, which it looks like it is from the pictures.) I do this a lot with clients who want white walls but also something interesting. I think it would look fab!
I love this room!!! I’m dying for a final video tour of this finished “Brady Bunch” house like the one you did in the “Virgin Suicides” house. (Just gonna keep referring to your houses in pop culture terms. ?)
I know things moved pretty fast with the transition to your newest home, but if you end up having a video, I can’t wait to see! Also kudos for blogging with kids at home. ??
Hi! We didn’t end up doing a final video tour. But we had quite a few pics at the end. 🙂 Thanks for asking- and I love the nicknames!!!
Hey whats up its Lilly,
i commented yesterday because i subscribed to your blog i love it and can’t wait to read more