Let the Home Tour Begin – The Dining Room

It’s time. We are unpacked. We have hung stuff on the walls. We have moved in. And now it’s time for the #newtoushouse home tour to begin!

I thought I’d introduce you to our home room-by-room, rather than throw a slew of pictures at you all at once. I want to tell the story of how I created each room and why I chose what I did. I hope that, by doing that, it tells you more about me and our home, as well as gives you some inspiration for decorating your home.

I’ve decided to start with the room that gave me the most trouble in our old house and yet was the easiest to decorate in the new-to-us house: the dining room.

If you want to read about my dining room adventures in our old house, click here. And here. And here. (Ugh.)

In the old house, I had trouble getting the wall color how I wanted it. In our new house, the walls had been painted beige, with crisp, gloss white trim. I’m fine with that – the beige walls let the decor take center stage. Plus, that color seems right for a 1929 Tudor bungalow like this.

This room is in the center of our home, so it had to be special. And I knew that exposed brick was the star of the show. It’s an old chimney from the original footprint of the home.

The previous owners had already drilled screws into it to hang a mirror, so I just put our mirror there, too. I love the contrast of the rustic brick and the sleek and more modern mirror.

In the corner adjacent to the brick, I put a chest of drawers that I had purchased at a consignment store when we bought this house.

It was a bargain for solid wood and dovetail joints. And I love the little locks on each drawer. I store serving pieces in there.

On top of the chest, I wanted to be able to show off my grandmother’s china.

Rather than add bulky shelves or a hutch to the room, I simply placed stacks of the china on top of art books. My grandmother painted, so it’s a tribute to her to have her china stacked on books about art.

Plus, the books came from my mother, so I’ve got all the generations covered here.

If you follow me on Instagram (click here to follow Dogs Don’t Eat Pizza on Instagram), then you know that I took out the old tapered candelabra bulbs and put in globe bulbs instead.

I like taking something more traditional and adding something different, modern, and funky to it. I love playing with contrasts that way (brick with wood, shiny with rough, etc. You get the idea.).

We had the fork, knife, and spoon print (right) and the fork and spoon (left) in our old house. The only difference is that I mounted the fork and spoon to a burlap-covered old drawer front to make it easier to hang (testy plaster walls).

I love the windows throughout our home, but especially in the dining room. These are original to the house, and you can see the waviness in the glass from the side. They let in a ton of light; during the day, I rarely need the lights on in there.

And there you have it. The dining room, all done.

Yes, I see that the window with the plates and my wedding bouquet looks like a creepy face. I fixed that quickly!!

Welcome to our new-to-us home! To see the rest of our 1929 home, click HERE!

To see how I updated the dining room later, click HERE.

To see how I upholstered the parsons chairs, click HERE.