Mood Board Monday: Nicole’s Dining Room

One of my favourite things to do is plan decorating schemes… I have spent many an hour redecorating rooms in my head while I was supposed to be paying attention to something else. I even use redecorating rooms as my own version of counting sheep as I go to bed at night. It is out of this obsession interest that I have decided to start up “Mood Board Monday” where I will post a mood, or inspiration, board for a room that I am working on or that someone has asked me for help with. These are just fun, free little projects that I like to work on – I don’t actually do this as a business in any way.

Nicole's Dining Room Collage

This week (my first week!) the mood board is one that I created for Nicole from Hold the Office . I “met” Nicole a few weeks ago through her post on a link party asking for advice on her Dining Room… She had just stained her table espresso and was looking for something to do with her chairs. She was interested in the idea of my dipped’n’striped chalk painted chairs and discussed this in her post as an idea for her dining room. Here is what she is working with…

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Nicole wants to tie the room together, add some drapes and color, and figure out how to make her chairs work with her new espresso table. I had a few ideas and suggestions for her and I created a pinterest board for this room that we both pinned ideas to it. I suggested that Nicole begin by choosing an inspiration fabric for the room- she found the floral you see in Number 5 below. The inspiration fabric will help to create  a cohesive look for the room by tying together the various elements.

Nicole's Dining Room Inspiration Board

Please hop over to my pinterest board for Nicole’s Dining room for all the fabulous sources for these images. Some of the links for the key pieces are: the baskets from Home Stories AtoZ, the grey chevron from Fabric.com, the chevron drapesby My Hoot Designs, the bulletin board by Anna Bean, the yellow chair on apartment therapy, the dipped legs by Department Chicago, the yellow vase from Target, and Nicole found her inspiration fabric in-store at Hobby Lobby.

My suggestions and ideas for Nicole (as corresponding to the numbers in the mood board):

1) Use the espresso stained table as an anchor piece in the room.

2) Paint her chairs in a fresh yellow but stain the bottom section of the legs in the same espresso tone as the table, giving the chairs a “dipped” in espresso look. She could also consider some espresso stripes on the chair seat as well.

3) Make some simple drapery panels in a grey chevron that coordinates with her inspiration fabric.

4) Buy some fun accessories in colours from her inspiration fabric, such as this pretty vase from Target. She could also rework old accessories by changing their color with a little spray paint.

5) Create a fabric cork/display board for the open area between the two parts of her large storage unit (see before picture above). This display board would be covered with Nicole’s inspiration fabric and could be used to highlight special pieces of her children’s art work and/or family photographs. The fabric could also be used to make a simple table runner and/or placemats.

6) Buy or make some numbered baskets to sit on top of the large storage cabinet. Also rework the storage inside the cabinet so that only baskets and coordinating accent pieces are visible through the glass doors. Also stage the open parts of the shelving unit with accessories and objects that have a stronger presence and connect with her scheme. Children’s art supplies could be stored in baskets inside the storage unit, replacing the need for the little moveable cart seen in the original picture.

Do you have some fun ideas for Nicole? What do you think of this scheme??

It is so much fun to plan and imagine! I can’t wait to see what Nicole actually decides to do in her dining room! And I can’t wait to tackle some more of these fun inspiration projects. You interested? Send me an email krista@thehappyhousie.com

Thanks for reading! And remember my housie friends, HOME isn’t built in a day. Enjoy the journey.

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I may link up at some of my favourite housie parties

 

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21 Comments

  1. I have some of that fabric! I bought it last year to make place-mats and napkins.. a project I haven’t finished yet hehe

    Thanks for sharing this at The DIY Dreamer… From Dream To Reality last week! Can’t wait to see what you share tomorrow evening!

  2. Krista, I love your Mood Board Monday. What a fun (& helpful) series. 🙂 Looking forward to seeing Nicole’s yellow chairs with ‘dipped’ espresso bottoms … I hope she goes for it.
    Very inspired, thanks Krista.

    1. Hi Therese! I think the espresso dipped legs with a yellow chair would look pretty fabulous, I can’t wait to see if she does it!

    1. Hi Kelly!
      Glad you like it… I can’t wait to see what she decides to go with… there are always so many great possibilities for a room:)
      Krista

    1. That is so kind of you Shelley! They do say that if you “do” your hobby as a job you won’t enjoy it as much… I wonder if that is really true?

  3. Love your ideas! Having the homeowner pic a fabric is such a great idea for figuring out a direction for the space while making sure it works with their style! When my friends ask for decorating advice, I’m going to make them pic out a fabric first from now on! 🙂

  4. I LOVE this Krista! Thank you so much for pulling this together for me. I would have never thought of the numbered baskets or the fabric board and your site is what has me inspired to do yellow for the chairs. If I can pull off the actual DIY part, I think my dining room with have such a cute facelift:)

    Oh – and the chevron gray for the drapes – LOVE it! It will allow me to make a very simple curtain since my sewing skills are rusty.

    Nicole
    HoldtheOffice.com

    1. Hi Nicole!
      You could always do no-sew panels… sort of like I did for my laundry room no-sew curtains but as full-height panels. Then just use clips to hang them on, like these ones from ikea or you can buy similar ones at Walmart and probably Target too…
      No sewing necessary – also google ‘no-sew curtain panels’ and you will find a ton of other tutorials:) So glad you like it!
      Krista

  5. This is fun Krista! 🙂 I love that you will be integrating these type of posts every Monday! I enjoyed reading and love how you explained it! Your number 2: is a great tip! I should consider this for my dining set! 🙂 I’m sure her chairs would look great in that yellow if she does it herself! The fabric cork board idea is great and functional too! I’m sure Nicole, loves what you have prepared for her! 🙂 Hope you will have a great week too!

    1. Hi Ingrid!
      Thanks so much for your sweet comments! I look forward to seeing what she decides to do with her room – it is always fun to come up with new ideas and mood boards are really fun to create too:) Thanks for your support!!
      Krista

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