Our New Home Reno Series: Living and Dining Room Before and After

Sep 20

I have exciting news! Our living and dining rooms are finally finished! Today, I’ll share some before & after photos with you on these newly decorated spaces. And because the living and dining rooms are actually one big space, I’ll show you how I created two separate spaces in one.

To refresh your memory (or if you’re new around here), let’s look at the before shots and also the floor plan.

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Above is how the living/dining room looked when we first viewed our home with our realtor. It was actually empty so this furniture probably belonged to a real estate home stager I’m guessing.

The first order of business was our new wood flooring. This was installed a few days prior to us moving in. Notice the archway at the opening on the right. That leads to the kitchen and family room.

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Here is my space plan once again. I was able to use only furniture we already had for these rooms. Yay! $$$ The only new elements would be the wall moldings, a couple of painting and lighting fixtures.

Here is my lighting plan. I purchased a new chandelier for over the dining table and a lantern for over the front door (top right corner). The smaller circles represent recessed can lights and accent lights in two niches. The can lights are positioned as grids above each space individually. If you compare the furniture plan above to this you’ll see what I mean.

To further divide the spaces, I placed my area rugs in two zones. The living and dining rooms now feel separate within this large room.

From there, it was onto moulding. We also replaced our doors (six panel, solid core)and door hardware (matte black) to create the elegant coastal vibe I am going for.

Here is my concept sketch (with Paper 53 on an iPad) and then the “after” photos. And I’ve included some detailed shots of a few elements because these are the things that have the most meaning to me. Some have been in our family for many years.