You may remember this photo I posted bout a year ago. It’s a dining room designed by my blogger BFF Amber. I used this photo as a reference point when we designed our much smaller dining nook this year. 

Here’s our dining nook before. 

Bor-ing! It’s a lot different from Amber’s in size and there’s no big, beautiful window to use as a backdrop. I opted for the next best thing – a mirror. Probably could have used a bigger mirror but I had this vintage one from my mom and it’s $$$ saving to re-purpose things you already own. 

Here’s our Dining Nook after.

I think the biggest, bestest change we made was switching out the standard light fixture and replacing it with one from West Elm. It’s embarrassing how accomplished we felt after doing this. It was like the most awesome husband/wife team-building exercise ever. 

We painted the walls a soft, inviting white. I like BEHR’s White Truffle. On one wall we’ve started a frame collage (still a work in progress) and on the other wall I hung a vintage Charlie’s Angels print that my friend Deirdre gave me when she moved.

The print came in a cheesy-too-big-for-the-photo frame which always kept me from loving it. I did Jaclyn Smith a solid and liberated that bitch! I took her out of said cheesy frame and hung her on the wall with two binder clips from Staples. I affixed the binder clips in the top corners and then hung them on wall with basic hardware store nails. Have I mentioned that I love The Home Depot?  

I think it’s important to have a table to share meals out no matter how small your space. Our little nook is excellent for entertaining, like when my Dad stopped by for dinner last week.

We also have a rustic bench with two sheepskins as cushions that we bring out from the bedroom for larger dinner parties. I’m still looking for a bright, ethnic print rug to finish the space like in Amber’s original photo. This Jute one will do for now. It used to be in the living room before Mark’s parents brought us an amazing Aztec inspired rug from Texas. It’s all about re-purposing baby! Re-upholstering too but I digress. 

Leave a comment if you like this post. My friend Helen asked me to do more features on making small spaces feel like home. And come back tomorrow to get the recipe for the Orange, Olive and Avocado salad we served to mi padre!
Happy Monday.