There was a point in my blogging journey, not so long ago, where I had the hardest time defining my style. The fact of the matter was that I desperately craved an old New England Farmhouse, much like the ones I grew up around (and right down the road from our development), but didn’t think the style made sense with our 1980s colonial.
BEFORE
Well, it all makes sense to me now! While there may not be chickens in our suburban backyard (yet), our dining room now looks very much like it belongs in an old farmhouse, and I could not be happier!
I’ll direct you back briefly to the inspiration board for this room. We stuck pretty close to the plan. (If you are interested in having me put together an E-Design like this for you, you can learn more here!)
Mack proposed this project a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, which we were hosting two events for, and we’ve never completed a project so quickly.
I absolutely love the look of the planked wall. However, I’m glad we compromised and only did a half-plank around the rest of the room (I was in favor of all planked walls, Mack thought it would be too much) because all of the nail hole filling and painting of planks was a lot of work.
I shared the dining room all dressed up for Christmas in my Holiday Housewalk, putting the cart ahead of the horse a bit. I received quite a few emails at that point asking for a tutorial on the planking, which I will share soon.
To be honest, I’m sharing this a bit later than I had hoped because Mack and I became completely burnt out by DIY after Christmas. Between this project, finishing the flooring project, decorating for holidays, hosting holidays, hosting birthdays, completing the breakfast nook (coming soon!) and normal life- we needed to take a big step back. The good news is that I am back to work on sharing all of our projects, and updating old ones!
I will be sharing the very easy tutorial for this little farmhouse bench soon. I wanted to break up all of the wood of the dining room set a bit, and this build was an simple solution! The chalkboard was also a DIY, with a tutorial coming as well!
Another important thing to mention- Mack had the idea to turn the table. For some reason this had never occurred to me, and I had it stuck in my head that the room was rectangular. Actually, the room is perfectly square- and turning the table made a huge difference in lighting!
A couple more things about this room. It’s basically a gallery of my grandfather Norman Royle’s paintings (he displays his work in this gallery, but as of right now you can’t purchase his paintings online. I need to get on that!). All of the artwork you see was painted by him. You may remember his painting from our Powder Room Makeover.
This particular paining is one of my absolute favorites. I love the sheep, and it fit this room perfectly!
I also wanted to give you a closeup of the half-wall planking treatment. I will give more details in the planking tutorial!
Isn’t this pig bell adorable? It was a gift from my mom a couple of years ago, and it worked perfectly in this room.
And this is Molly (although I reserve the right to change her name if we ever get another dog).
Since it seems silly to have such a pretty room that we only eat in for holidays, we have discussed doing a family dinner every Sunday. We both feel like it’s important for the kids to know table manners, and we would get more use out of the room.
Paint Colors: Walls- Benjamin Moore Edgecomb Gray lightened by 50% Planking/Trim- Benjamin Moore Simply White Eggshell
Source List:
Buffet (similar, ours was discontinued)
Boxwood Topiaries (Homegoods)
Pitchers (Homegoods)
Candlesticks
Plates
Rattan Chargers
Rug (Bleached)
Nina! You totally hit the nail on the head with the New England style! Beautiful job!
Very nice! I love the plank wall! Where did you find your chandelier?
Can I just say that I want to move into your farmhouse? Seriously, you’ve done a brilliant job!
Where did you get the dining table and chairs?
This looks great! I love the planked walls with the table and that bench. You’ve done a great job!
Love the makeover. A great room to have family dinners!
The room is beautiful! It’s warm and welcoming. I might love your grandfather’s artwork most of all.
Love this room especially the paintings by your grandfather!
I LOVE the rug. It is exactly what I am looking for to put under our farmhouse table. I saw that you got the Natural color but when I went to the website to order, it appears much darker than in your picture. The Bleached color looks more like the color you have.
Is your rug a lot lighter in pictures and darker in person?
Hi Meaghan! We did get the bleached, thank you for brining that to my attention! We got the natural at the same time for my office and it mixed me up. I apologize!
Beautiful what did you use for the boards for planking and what color of paint and how did you do the boards from start to finish.
Hi Vickie,
I will be doing a tutorial on the planking sometime soon, you can subscribe to our emails here if you’d like to be notified when it goes live!
So, so beautiful! I love every inch!
you did an amazing job Nina! I love all of it! Your paint color is so pretty too – I may have to try that on our flip house we’re currently doing. I also love the font in your logo – would you mind sharing what it is? I’m a total fontaholic, lol :)
Thank you so much, Christy! It’s called “Isabella”. :)
I love all the animal details around the dining space :)
Thank you so much, Nicol!
We are kindred spirits in our taste of chandeliers. I bought the exact same one before we retired from the military and dragged it around with us through several moves until we bought our home. Before we moved in our furniture and pulled carpet or anything, I had hubby install it in our living room. We also had purchased the smaller version and installed it in our master bath. I did spray paint it the dark brown because, at the time, PB was only selling it with the rustic gold color. It was the steal of the century especially when PB posted the price incorrectly on-line and I had a discount code :) Your entire house is absolutely stunning!
We have the same kind of ceilings with that textured/swivel look. To drywall and/or chip off the ceiling texture in the entire house is just not an option. You are experienced with a lot of different painting products/techniques. Can you suggest one to use to minimize the look? I can only dream that there is a product that would make the ceiling texture flat…if that description makes sense…you know what I mean.
~thanks bunches~
Hi, Mary! Too funny about the chandeliers! We really love it. Thank you so much for the kind words!
Yes, the ceilings are not my favorite, and we also discovered they can’t be chipped off. We found repainting the ceiling with Benjamin Moore flat white ceiling paint helps (we haven’t done it in the dining room yet, but we recently painted the ceiling in the kitchen). That’s my best advice until the happy day when we can cover it up with something else. Best of luck!