Foyer + Dining Room Updates

Home Improvement

Like many people this year, we have been using the extra time at home to work on improving our space. Even though we’ve been here for two years, we are still making small changes and improvements.

Before

I’ve never loved this foyer area – we’ve thought about putting up a wall to separate the dining area and maybe creating a drop zone, but I’m worried we’ll lose the light coming in. For now, we replaced the jute rug that was falling apart with a slightly smaller jute rug with tassels and a pop of color. Then, we painted the front door (it looked more orange in person) with a gray-blue color – Sherwin Williams Bracing Blue. We also had sticky privacy shields on the 3 windows on the door, and we removed those for more light. I can’t wait until we are finished with the baby gate (but also don’t want Avery to grow up).

After

We also moved the white cabinet that was there to a wall in the dining area and bought a foyer table – the Everett table from World Market. The last thing we are hoping to do is rearrange the gallery wall with some much bigger pictures so that it doesn’t look so wimpy on the big white wall. It’s taking us forever to decide what should go there!

Before

The foyer and dining area are kind of one big room. The mirrored cabinet was way too small for the wall on the right, so we moved that to the corner where the plant is and use it as a bar now.

After

And we bought a giant framed print from Minted for the big white wall above the cabinet (I think we’re planning to hang it). I love the artist, Julia Contacessi!

In the dining area, we wanted to define the space a bit and break up the stark white walls with some texture, so we had board and batten added the big wall beside our dining table while we were at the beach last week:

I LOVE how it turned out! I’d put wood detailing in every inch of my house if I could!

Before

And finally, we had our table sanded down (by a local painter) to the original wood color so that it would match our Riveria chars and look a little bit more modern farmhouse. It’s a couple of shades lighter and you can see all the details of the wood now!

After

What you do think? Can you tell much of a difference?

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  • Lindsay
    December 2, 2020 at 8:52 am

    Looks great! One of my husbands pet peeves, and something I’ve started to notice too, is when furniture and artwork are too undersized for the space. So you made the right decision to put that bigger cabinet and a bigger piece of art in the dining room space!

    • Laura
      December 15, 2020 at 2:58 pm

      I’ve starting to notice that too!!

  • Kath
    December 2, 2020 at 9:26 am

    I LOVE the paneling! I think our dining-room-that-isn’t-a-room would benefit from something similar. Luckily I live with a carpenter, so maybe I can convince him to do it! The new foyer rug and paint look great too.

  • K~
    December 2, 2020 at 10:46 am

    I like what you did to the foyer, the stripe in the carpet pulls the eye in. Love your home.
    I am a plant lover, I would have left that gorgeous greenery in your dining room. The pop of nature is soothing and good for breathing. The tassels on your cunrtains are so neat.

    • Laura
      December 15, 2020 at 2:57 pm

      Thanks! We moved it to another area:)

  • Holly
    December 2, 2020 at 11:22 am

    I love the wood detailing on the dining room wall!

    • Laura
      December 15, 2020 at 2:57 pm

      Thanks!