Dining Room Reveal
Earlier this year I shared one of my 2023 resolutions on Instagram. It was to finish the last few plans I had for the dining area in our home. When we completed our kitchen renovation (read about that design process here- Part 1 and Part 2) in 2021 we opened up the wall between the kitchen and the dining room to create a larger kitchen and eat-in dining area. At the time of the kitchen renovation I decided to not move forward with the wall paneling for the room to save costs (when I asked for an estimate for the simplest board and batten treatment I was given a quote for $4000). Not wanting to add the extra expense at the time I decided that this was something we could tackle at a later date. Following the kitchen renovation I went back and forth with many options for finishing the dining area but I kept coming back to a 3/4 wall board and batten.
Dining Design Concept- Julia DeDecker Interiors
Tired of looking at my white walls I did finalize a design plan for the dining area. Creating a design board is a process I use with clients to make sure we are visualizing the same concept, but I use it for my own projects as well, as it provides a physical reference for the ultimate design goal. There are always times throughout a process that you have to make a decision on what best meets your design vision. You may be faced with choosing which colour, pattern, profile, wood tone, furniture design will meet your design goals best? That is when you reference your design board. By doing so you know every decision is based on achieving the same goal, and every decision brings you one step closer to that cohesive and thoughtful design that you envisioned.
source: ourfauxfarmhouse
A few weeks after committing to finishing my dining room I had finished my design board and confirmed the style of board and batten I wanted to use. I was inspired by this photo I found on Pinterest from Our Faux Farmhouse. I loved the reeded look and decided to apply that same look to my more traditional- style of paneling.
Below you can see the final dining area. Scroll though to see the dining room following the kitchen renovation with our mostly white walls and intermediary gallery wall and then again to see the dining room before any renovation (from the house listing photos). Wall colours are Benjamin Moore. Top part of wall and bench seat, trim and ceiling are all Cloud White CC-40, the board and batten paneling is painted Stormy Sky 1616. Furniture, lamps and art were either previously owned by us or purchased from marketplace online or from antique marketplaces over the last few years. For the pieces that were recently purchased and available I will share links to them or similar items at the bottom of this blog post.
The finished appearance isn’t the only fantastic part of this dining room design, although I have to say this space looks much more cozy and the design is definitely more intentional than it was a few months ago. I also love how I improved the function of this small space. This area is used for all of our meals, but also crafts, homework, a drop zone from the patio door that leads to our backyard and sometimes as my office. We already had storage in the custom bench that we use for more clunky items such as large appliances and kid’s “stuff” like the “Playdough oven”. But with intentional and well-planned design I now have storage for books, kid’s markers and computer cords as well as all the shoes and blankets and toys that we gather at our patio door. Scroll through some more photos of this space below, what is your favourite part of the new design?
Links: Fabric (bench cushion, roman shade) and off-white pillow and pillow inserts: Tonic Living, Floral Pillow: Danielle Oakey, Large Basket (shoe storage): Canadian Tire, Small hanging basket: H&M Home (similar one linked), Serving Stoneware: PotteryBarn.ca; Plate hanging hardware: Canadian Tire, White faux hydrangeas: J.D. Lighting (hydrangeas not available now, but other greenery available).
