I no longer decorate a room without doing a mood board first! Mood boards help me see everything together, what works and what doesn’t. The biggest reason why I love mood boards is because it saves me money. I don’t just buy items I “think” will work, I more so know they will work because of the board! Our dining room has always been a little tricky because it is smaller, right by our sliding patio door and we do use it everyday whether it’s the girls coloring or eating dinner. I’ve been envisioning a lighter wood table in this area with chairs that have a lighter, less traditional feel to them. The chairs we have now are heavy and clunky and with not a ton of space to work with, they aren’t super great for this specific spot in our home.

Dining Room

This is the new feel I want in our dining room! To see what it looks like now you can go here. I found this wood table at a great price; it’s solid wood and I just love the look of it so much. It will coincide with our new kitchen so much better than the darker wood. It’s back ordered so who knows when it will show up?! Hopefully this year! 🙂

We’ve had this settee bench now for many years and I plan on keeping it. The price has gone WAY up since when I purchased it years and years ago, has more than tripled. I love having this for seating in the dining room. Since there’s no room for a buffet table (tried to make that work and it was super duper tight) I love having the seating right up against the wall. We also can fit lots of little kids on this thing which is an added bonus. We just used a hook and swaged the cord for the chandelier so it hits above the center of the table.

I am keeping the chandelier we already have in here, this one is similar. As well as all of our wall decor-the floating shelves and chalkboard; those are all staying.

My sister has these chairs in her dining room and they are SO good; totally copying her! VERY comfortable, lightweight and you can throw the pads in the washer which is a plus. You can find them here.

This rug is so gorgeous, love the vintage vibes it has. I’m not sure I am going to purchase this; it’s kind of been nice not having a rug in the dining room. With our patio door right off of the dining room the rug gets trampled on by kids and animals and dirties up quite quickly. We will see though… it is SO pretty!!

In the past I used to do elaborate tablescapes but as the years have gone on, I have realized it’s just not worth it with 4 little kids. Coloring, crafts, homework, snacks, etc. are all done at this table on a daily basis and I would rather have it cleared off for the girls to easily use then have stuff strewn all over it. I thought something like this centerpiece would be really pretty and simple! Not planning on actually buying this item (I think I can get a similar look for less money) but it is my inspiration piece for the area.

Hopefully the table takes less than a few months and I can show you all soon!!