Guest Post: Pretty, Cheery Dining Room Tour by Ashley from Bigger Than The Three Of Us

We are SO EXCITED to welcome our very first non-relative guest poster today!  We are big fans of Bigger Than The Three of Us, a blog by Ashley filled with modern DIY projects and home renovation tales.  When she agreed to do a room tour as a guest post for us we were thrilled.

One of the things that we love about Ashley is that she tells the whole truth about her home and projects, not just the perfect stuff.  She writes occasional posts sharing what is going on behind the scenes of the pretty pictures of her home, and just has a real, straight-forward tone.  She also gets up to some hardcore projects, like installing drywall, building a mid-century inspired bed, or learning how to use fiberglass to make her own bullet planter (did you even know you can do that?!).

Check out her pretty, modern, and happy formal dining room tour below, and then go check out her blog for more awesome content!

Hi! I’m Ashley and I blog over at Bigger Than The Three Of Us where I share lots of modern DIY projects, house renovation trials and successes, and room makeovers that evolve over time. I love thrifting, mid-century modern, making my house feel like it fits our family and all of those things just naturally fell in place to create Bigger Than The Three Of Us.

I’m huge on sharing the process of how we got to where we are and also the “ugly truths” behind the pretty pictures. Today, I want to share our formal dining room with you. It’s not a finalized room reveal, but we have made some progress and it feels like us. When you’re decorating and DIYing, it’s so important to realize and enjoy when you have made progress. Sometimes, it’s easy to see all the the little things that aren’t done but when you can step back and enjoy the things that are done… it makes the whole process feel more rewarding and enjoyable.

Ready to get to it?Guest Post: Pretty, Cheery Dining Room Tour by Ashley from Bigger Than The Three Of Us

Here’s the before (like right after move-in).

When we moved in to our house three years ago, I hated the formal dining room space. The built-in was definitely not my style nor was the wall coloring. I painted the walls gray first thing. Next, I tackled all the trim and the built-in. They both got a coat of bright white. I found a vintage credenza on Craigslist as well as some mid-century chairs. I paired those with an old table that we had and some garden chairs. Instantly the room had life. I kept adding more layers to make it my own. My husband painted the ikat painting for me and that helped anchor the space.

The dining room didn’t make any changes from the above for quite some time. Over the course of a year, I thrifted another table and put that in there. I scored some West Elm chairs on a a great sale. They weren’t originally meant for the dining room but I loved them in there. Then, again the dining room stayed the same for a while.

Fast forward to about six months ago and we get neck deep into our kitchen renovation. We decided to take half of the wall down that separates the dining room from the kitchen. That changed the room layout.

I had to get rid of the mid-century dresser and relocate the bar cart to another wall. As we renovate, I try to keep the surrounding spaces as clean and nice feeling as possible. So, this room has gotten some new decor pieces and an air plant or two to help it feel cohesive and warm.

The room feels inviting, but it definitely needs some work. You have to look for it, but it needs some DIY love here and there.

If you look closely in the above photograph, you can see a strange line on the carpet to the right of the bar cart. Yep, we cut the carpet there. We needed the access when we were taking part of that wall down (you can see the half wall to the right). We plan to replace the carpet with hardwood flooring at the first of the year. Another thing, is that baseboard totally doesn’t match the rest of the baseboards in the room and it’s not even tacked in. Ha. I’m cutting corners to make it prettier. Actually, I just ask myself, why should I tack a baseboard in when I’m replacing the floors in three months time?

I’m not one of those people who just get rooms right the first time. I’ve found that I have to slowly decorate a space over time to really make it fit.

I hope you’ve enjoyed our room tour and the evolution of how we got to where we’re at. I’d love for you to stop by my blog and see more!

Isn’t that great?  It is so fun to see rooms change and grow over time, and this one has definitely turned out beautifully.  It is hard to use color while keeping the space feeling calm, but this room totally pulls that off.  We love the pretty details grounded by more masculine pieces, like the solid wood table and high contrast rug.  Naomi’s favorite is the cool swivel chairs with the awesome stripes.  Sage’s favorite is that ikat painting — could my husband please paint me something like that?!?

You should totally check out her blog for more!  To get you started, here are a few of our favorite projects:

(I know it will be hard to contain yourself given how awesome they are, but if you want to pin or share these images, please visit Ashley’s site to pin from the original source!)

First up, this awesome mid-century inspired teardrop planter.  This should go in every room, ever.

Next, you won’t believe how little she paid to DIY this light.  It looks like it should cost $700 from a high-end boutique!

Finally, we love her calm, modern bedroom:

So cool, right?!  Thank you for sharing your home with us, Ashley!