The first thing you notice when you enter our home is the dining room. There isn’t a separate entryway—our entrance flows directly into the dining area—so this space sets the tone for the whole house. With a baby on the way next month and many visitors expected, getting the room right felt especially important.
After living here for nearly four months, we finally feel like the dining room is in a great place. I partnered with Blinds.com to share the before and after photos as part of the 12 Rooms in 12 Months makeover series. Below I’ll walk through what we changed and why, and include a 20% off code for Blinds.com window coverings.
What did we do to transform the room? When we moved in the space felt very blank. The walls had a yellow-beige tone that we didn’t love, the existing light fixture wasn’t our style, and the windows were bare—letting in light but offering no privacy.
We love how much natural light floods this front room, but because we’re close to a neighbor on one side and face the street on the other, we needed a solution that preserved light while providing privacy. That’s where Blinds.com came in. After exploring options on their site and speaking with a design consultant, we ordered samples to finalize the color choice.
We chose the Light Filtering Roller Shade in Interlude Canvas. The shade’s minimal look suits our aesthetic and the light-filtering fabric keeps the room bright even with the shade lowered. Functionally it’s simple to adjust to different heights, giving us flexible privacy throughout the day.
The installation was straightforward. Blinds.com guides you through window measurements on their site, and once the shades arrived we only needed to mount a few brackets and snap the roller into place. If you’re comfortable with small DIY jobs, you can handle this install yourself.
With the shades in place we replaced the main light fixture with something that felt more like us, brought in our furniture, and repainted the walls from yellow-beige to a crisp white. The paint is Sherwin-Williams High Reflective White in a flat finish, and switching to white made a dramatic difference in how fresh and open the room feels.
My favorite elements are the new pendant we found on a recent trip to Amsterdam and our vintage dining table with mismatched chairs. We discovered the table locally and fell in love with its elongated proportions and character. It’s a special piece: built in 1959 by architect Harold Wescott, who studied under Frank Lloyd Wright. It stayed in one family until a dealer purchased it, and we bought it directly from her.
Buying such a large piece before moving in wasn’t easy—at the time we were still living in a very small apartment nearby. The table wouldn’t fit in our car, so Jeff and I ended up walking the long table back to our apartment, carrying it across a busy street. It was quite an adventure and unforgettable in its own way. The chairs are vintage Herman Miller Eames molded fiberglass side chairs, which were much easier to transport.
The credenza is a piece we’ve had for years and currently acts as a placeholder until we find its ideal replacement. The artwork is another long-time possession that has moved around the house; it lived in the master bedroom before we mounted a TV there, and now it hangs in the dining room.
We’re still deciding on a few finishing touches—maybe a rug under the table, although I like the clean look without one. I’m also considering adding a couple of items on the credenza, but Jeff prefers it minimal and uncluttered. Should we leave it as is, or add a few decorative pieces? I can’t decide.
Working on window treatments of your own? Use the code PAPERNSTITCH at Blinds.com to receive 20% off any order. (Offer expiration noted on Blinds.com.)
For more room makeovers, follow the 12 Rooms in 12 Months series.
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This post is in partnership with Blinds.com. All opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that help keep Paper and Stitch running.