While most of the furniture and decor remain the same, this dining room update in a beautiful 1895 home reflects the unique beauty of the family living here. When we first visited this home, it was inspiring to hear our clients talk about the pieces they wanted to keep throughout the house, from family heirlooms to treasures they thoughtfully collected. Though its contents remain hidden, the dining room hutch is full of wonderful objects. The antique chandelier is a piece they found; if you look closely at the after photos, you can see other stunning lighting in the kitchen. A few other unique pieces in this room include a vintage barber chair in the “bar serving corner,” a grenade launcher above the door when you enter, and a lamp our client made out of old electrical circuits.

Incorporating Family Heirlooms and Treasured Pieces

In this post, we are mainly focusing on the dining room and one piece from the living room, as shown in the after photos. Below are a few angles of the dining room when we arrived for our first consultation. Their wonderful dog Bullet kept us company on our site visits.

Reworking Furniture Placement and Storage

There was a clear design aesthetic to meet, and we also needed to rework furniture placement and storage between the rooms. We moved the art storage from this room into an unused corner of their kitchen and made a proper place for their child to do artwork. This included decorative hanging storage baskets on the wall for easy access and a large paper roll hung with leather straps.

Shopping for Unique Pieces

We had a ton of fun shopping for unique pieces that would blend seamlessly. Here are a few toy storage options we considered for their living room. Most of the shopping was at antique stores, vintage shops, and flea markets, but the chosen toy storage was acquired from a local boutique using it as product storage. Trunks were one option we looked at, as they are low for kids to access. However, we were worried about usability due to the age of the trunks and safety for a young child. The retro storage cubes were hard to pass up, but we wanted more concealed storage, as the room already had lots of open storage.

Chandelier Placement and Finishing Touches

The dining room has only a few new pieces—the seating and some styling accessories. The main changes in this room include the chandelier placement, adding picture frame molding, painting, and refinishing furniture. The first photo shows the electrical changes and the walls being skim-coated. The second shows the picture frame molding being installed.

Final Transformation

Now, the stunning library desk they use as a dining room table is a statement piece surrounded by modern chrome seating (linked in the finished photos). All of these small changes made a huge impact on this dining room update. Please reach out if you have any questions.