Before and After: A Practically Zero-Dollar Dining Room Redo
This sweet, sunny dining room has been totally refreshed for just $0. How?!? Dive in to see how a clever DIYer literally turned her sister’s dining room into a totally new one.
The concept behind this refresh is a great one: Kristine of The Painted Hive was determined to update her sister’s dining room using only the profits from the sale of the old dining room pieces. She sold the table, chairs, and pendant light for a total of $200, giving her a quite tight budget to work with—which makes these oh-so-pretty results even more impressive.
I love how both the table and the $40 chairs are two-toned, without being matchy-matchy. The dipped chair legs have a playful look, while the painted backs float dreamily above. The $8 table, meanwhile, was cobbled together from two pieces, and painting the base white kept the whole thing light and airy and saved it from the too-much-wood look that can sometimes occur.
Let’s be real: This was a very nice, sun-soaked dining room before, though the heftier rectangular table interrupted the flow of the room more. The light fixture was perfectly fine, but didn’t add a lot of beauty to the space.
The new table is actually larger, apparently, but its round shape and lighter base make it seem much less intrusive. The space flows around it. And if you’re interested in paint dipping your own chairs, The Painted Hive has a handy tutorial.
The new gold frames do a good job of drawing the gold of the new chandelier down into the seating space. The mini-gallery wall—$23 worth of art and frames—is a trick to add lots of personality as well as flexibility: Pieces can be added and swapped out without being too precious about it.
Speaking of that $72 chandelier (featuring $27 worth of Edison bulbs), I think it works really well in this space. It adds a jolt of color to the predominantly white upper portion of the room, and though it has plenty of shine and beauty, it doesn’t dominate. I just included this photo because I wanted you to be able to see how the dining room related to the kitchen. Physically, the two spaces are close enough to be extremely convenient without feeling crowded, and stylistically they really work together. The white base of the table links it to the kitchen, while the rest of the blue and brown furniture stands out against the kitchen’s white, clearly setting the dining area apart as a separate room.
And for those of you keeping track, Kristine was able to complete this makeover for just $205! So technically, it cost $5. Not mentioned yet were the paint stripper and clear sealer, which cost $35, but the white and blue paints were ones she already owned. For more information on sourcing, The Painted Hive has the details.
Thank you, Kristine of The Painted Hive!