Modern, Casual Living and Dining Room :: One Room Challenge Reveal!

Ahhh we made it!! For the past six weeks we’ve been working like crazy on our family and dining room and it’s finally time for the big reveal! I always love the One Room Challenge for giving us the motivation and push to complete a room (or two in this case) that we definitely wouldn’t get done as quickly without it. And I’m SO grateful to Linda for asking me to be a featured designer this round. It’s been a dream of mine for a while and I feel so honored to be able to showcase my work here for all of you and in such great company!

If you want to go back and catch up on any of our previous week’s progress – here are the links.

Week 1 :: Week 2 :: Week 3 :: Week 4 :: Week 5

And you can view our past One Room Challenge Reveals too:

Modern Navy Laundry Room Reveal || Modern Vintage Bathroom Reveal

Now let’s take a little walk down memory lane and remind you where we started with these rooms.

BEFORE

Andddd here we are today!

AFTER

Looks just a tad different huh? I’m beyond happy with how everything turned out. We’ll start on this side with our family room. There’s so much to talk about! Where do I even begin?!

Let’s jump right in with our new leather sectional from Article since it was one of the first pieces to arrive and really set the stage for this room. It’s the Nirvana Sectional in Dakota Tan and it’s glorious. I really wanted a light colored couch but it just wasn’t practical with two little kiddos so I went for leather instead which we’ve never had. I was worried about how comfortable it would be but the leather is so buttery smooth and soft and you sink right into it. It’s a little bit smaller than our old couch so that has taken some getting used to, but other than that we are absolutely loving it!

For the artwork above it I chose a piece from Boriana Mihailovska who I discovered on Etsy last year. I purchased one of her prints to hang in our bedroom next to our fireplace and knew I needed another one. Her work is so beautiful and I’m so drawn to it. I love when you find a piece of art that speaks to you and hers totally do.

I’ll link all my pillows at the end of my post but this beauty from Norwegian Wood definitely steals the show. Angie is a good friend of mine and I have lots of pillows of hers in our home. When this one arrived I was so excited and couldn’t wait to get it on our couch. It pairs so perfectly with the leather.

The coffee table is the coffee table of my dreams. I knew I wanted something a little lighter to offset all the darker wood tones in the room and this guy totally balances everything else out. Denise from Eclectic Goods hooked me up big time and had her carpenter build it for me – ya she’s amazing. He put a light stain on it that didn’t quite feel right when it arrived so I stained it down to it’s natural state and just added this finishing wax.

The round shape works great with our layout and bonus – no sharp edges for the kiddos to run into #winwin

The rug I chose for this side of the room is from Hayneedle and has the most beautiful texture. It’s slightly raised which I love, but still easy to clean and maintain. It lightens everything up in here and has a subtle pattern that isn’t too busy or takes away from the rest of the decor. It’s currently out of stock but will be back soon!

And can we talk about that chandelier from Lamps Plus?! It’s the Eurofase Rado 12 Light Chandelier and I’m in love with it’s clean and modern lines. We had a lot of space to work with with such high ceilings so I needed something that made a statement and was large enough, but also complemented the room. I’m not typically into chandelier style lights like this, but the thin arms and black and brass color made it perfect for our family room.

And now for our new entertainment center!

This thing is a BEAST and I’m obsessed. We’re a tv family so it was a must for this room, but that doesn’t mean it has to be showing 24/7 right? I fell in love with this piece from Arhaus when I got the catalog in the mail but the price tag was so not cool. So we decided to DIY it! With a LOT of help from a local lumber company, Baird Brothers. I originally just reached out to them to see if they would provide some wood for the project, but then they helped me draw up plans and offered to build the large pieces for us. Sold! Anything to make our lives easier during this challenge.

So it came to us in 3 big pieces – the bottom row of cabinets, the two tall bookshelves and the doors. Our job was to stain it all, build and add the legs, attach the barn door hardware and all the handles and pulls and create a back piece for it. It was a team effort but we are SO thankful to Baird Brothers for all their help on this. Although I’m confident that we could have built it ourselves, I know it wouldn’t have been quite as nice. Sometimes it’s ok to get help from the professionals 😉

I’ll be sharing all the details on this piece in a blog post soon so be on the look out for that! I had so much fun styling these shelves and surprisingly it only took a couple of times to get it just right.

This little custom vase from Jill Rosenwald adds about the only color in this room ha. If it was going to be anything, of course it was going to be blue. But I think it fits right in and I think it’s the cutest.

I always struggle with adding family photos to our home that fit in well with the rest of our decor so I wanted to try adding some in here. I feel like black and white always works better so I printed out this cute little photo of Eloise & Hawkins. I want to add some more eventually but I have SO many I just didn’t have time to go through them all at Walgreens because my phone was taking a century to load.

I had so much fun gathering the items for these shelves. Some are pieces I already had, some are new and some are old. One of my favorite tricks is getting hardcover books from salvation army or goodwill and taking off the cover. They’re perfect for adding height and usually only cost .25 or .50. You can’t go wrong.

Now let’s talk about the stunning hardware I used on this piece from Emtek. From the start I knew I wanted brass and for the doors I needed something that would make a statement since they were going to be so big. So I went with the Brisbane Pulls in Satin Brass on top of the Modern Pull Plates in the same finish.

To pair with those I used the Freestone Finger Pulls on the lower cabinets to keep things simple.

I love how this piece conceals our TV and is more than just an entertainment center but a beautiful piece of furniture. Even though I’m loving my shelves right now, I’m already excited to change them up in the future and decorate for the holidays.

The wood used for this was cherry plywood and I used one coat of Minwax Dark Walnut and then one coat of Minwax Provincial. I then sealed it all using wipe on Polyurethane.

And here it is open with the TV inside.

Ok now onto…the fireplace! If you missed all the details on it, you can go back and read this post all about it.

We worked with Marazzi on this, which is where we also got our floor tile. The situation before was so sad and didn’t utilize the space whatsoever. I knew we had to have this go all the way up to the ceiling and it makes SUCH a huge statement. Even though the furniture isn’t placed so it’s the focal point of the room, it still stands out beautifully while not being too in your face. By keeping everything else light and airy with the white walls, the dark concrete looking tile, which is called Influence in the color Iron, grounds the space and adds dimension with the subtle variation in each tile.

We struggled with what to do with the space to the right of the fireplace and were so close to building a large cubby to stack a ton of wood, but then I stumbled across an image on Pinterest and was inspired to build this floating wood rack. Tutorial coming soon – it was SO easy!

Our fireplace can be used as a gas or wood burning fireplace but we currently have it set up for gas and will probably keep it that way so this wood is more for decoration than actual use. I feel like it was the perfect solution for that space and doesn’t take away from the fireplace itself.

Now let’s talk about these gorgeous teak accent chairs from Eclectic Goods. Denise hooked me up again and these chairs provide the perfect amount of extra seating we needed.

The shape of them is everything and they are nice and deep so they are SO comfy. I feel like it’s hard to find a comfortable and pretty accent chair that you could actually be ok with watching a whole movie in – and these totally fit the bill.

Plus how sexy are the backs of them?! So good.

We also replaced the horrid beige track lighting that was pointing on the fireplace with a very clean, simple and black one from Hayneedle.

I thought I had a lot of photos for my past two One Room Challenge finales but doing two rooms is out of control ha. Let’s go check out the dining room!

Eek! I wanted to keep things simple over here and not overcrowd it. We don’t have a kitchen table so this will be used a lot for dinner every night. I’m so excited to finally have a nice table to eat at and not be stuck at our kitchen island!

I’m obsessed with it all. Let’s start at the top – literally. We added Metrie’s pre-painted shiplap which adds some fun character to the room. Working on a ceiling is never fun but Metrie makes it easy with this product. In the past we’ve always cut our own planks out of plywood but this was SO much easier. If we ever add more shiplap to our house – this will be the way we do it.

On to the table! If you remember, this used to look very different. My in-laws bought it when they moved into this house and we’ve been using it with a tablecloth over it pretty much since we moved in because it had mirrors on the top. Yuck. It was bad. I tried selling it but no one wanted it – go figure ha. So we decided to keep it which turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

We stripped and sanded the whole thing, removed the mirrors and added a simple pattern on each side then restained it all dark. I’ll be sharing our process in a blog post soon!

I love that we’re keeping a family piece and I hope that we’ll use it for years to come and pass it on to our children. It makes it so much more special.

And to compliment our table – let’s talk about my dream chairs! I shared an inspo pic on insta early on of similar ones and I could never get them out of my head. Denise hooked me up once again and guys…she even named these chairs after me on her site! I feel like a total celeb. So go check out the Bre Woven Leather Dining Chairs on Eclectic Goods. They’re seriously perfect no only because they’re pretty but because they are so comfortable and will be easy to clean.

I really wanted to stay away from upholstered chairs since this area will be getting a lot of use and with two very messy eaters I just can’t keep up with cleaning fabric every day.

The dark wood frame pairs perfectly with the table and the raw leather evens it all out. They’re just SO good you guys!

For our light fixture, I went with the Gymnast Pendant from Varaluz and couldn’t love it more. The coolest thing about it is that you can adjust the arms to change up the shape of it. I’m digging them all spaced out like this for now, but will definitely be changing it up in the future for a new look.

Our little floating window bench is Eloise’s favorite spot in the room. She loves to sit here and read books which is exactly what I imagined when I envisioned this space.

My mom made me a cushion for the seat out of some gorgeous fabric from Fabricut. My sewing skills are sub par so thank goodness my mom was here to help me out. She used this beautiful grey striped fabric that goes well with all the other neutrals in the space.

And you know I can’t decorate a room in our house without including a faux fiddle :-p I wanted to switch things up and try an olive tree, but couldn’t find any that looked very realistic, because you all know a real one would be dead in a week. This guy is from Hayneedle and is the perfect height for that corner.

I was on the hunt for a vintage credenza for this spot for over a month. I was searching craigslist, facebook marketplace and let it go every.singe.day. I was so close to buying a few but I didn’t love them and am glad I held out for this beauty. I had to drive to Pittsburgh to pick it up but it was worth it.

It’s a long wall so I needed something to fill it and wanted something with shelves and not just drawers so I could store some of our beer and wine glasses and plates and things.

I kept the decor on top of it simple since the piece is already so large. I didn’t want it to feel too heavy with all the other dark stained furniture in the room.

The artwork I hung above it is from Minted and was exactly what I was looking for. I’ve always been drawn to abstract art and was so happy to find two pieces from the same artist, Catilustre, I could pair together. They tie in perfectly with the other black accents in the room.

I did decide to add some simple shades to the back windows from Select Blinds but we had a little miscommunication in the ordering process and received the wrong size – oops! So those will be arriving soon and I’ll share some photos when they do.

UPDATE: Our blinds came in! They are the Premier Woven Wood Shades in the Color Quince with the cordless option.

I’m SO excited to have this space for us to share meals in and celebrate holidays. Since we don’t have a kitchen table we’ll be getting lots of use out of this room and all the natural light just makes my heart so happy. I wanted to keep things simple on the table for the reveal, but I’m thinking I might some new dinnerware because this table totally deserves it.

For the wall to the left of the window seat, I struggled a bit with what to put here. I thought I would put a little console table but didn’t want to overcrowd the space. It definitely needed something on the wall though but since there is a large pice of art to the left, I didn’t want to do more art. I may change this up eventually but for now I found some cute tin planters at Hobby Lobby and spray painted them white and threw some succulents in them.

When all else fails – just add plants right?

The last DIY project we did was our new wine rack. If you follow me on stories you know it took us a couple of tries to get it right. The first one I stained part of it and painted the rest white and it just didn’t feel right. So I had Dan make another one and I stained the whole thing and it felt much better.

I’d like to put something on the wall above it but this got finished pretty last minute and I didn’t want to just throw something up there for the sake of putting something there. I’ll probably order something online and make sure it’s the right piece.

I’ll also be sharing a tutorial for this piece so keep an eye out for that! My brother got us a couple of cases of Two Buck Chuck for our birthdays so it worked out perfectly :-p It holds 16 bottles and this is probably the only time it will be completely full ha.

I’m just so in love with everything and can’t believe how different these rooms feel. They finally feel like us and even though it took us a while to get here, it was totally worth the wait.

I hope you love these rooms as much as we do! I have to give a HUGE shout out to Dan and my FIL for all their amazing hard work and believing in all my crazy ideas and helping me make them come to life. Now I can’t wait to crash on our new couch and take a nice long nap.

I’m so excited to go check out all the other reveals so be sure to see how everyone else’s rooms turned out! It’s like Christmas morning!

And none of this would be possible without my incredible sponsors so THANK YOU!

Marazzi | Eclectic Goods | Baird Brothers | Article | Lamps Plus | Hayneedle | Varaluz | Metrie | Emtek | Select Blinds | Jill Rosenwald | Minted  | Fabricut

Now it’s time to shop! Click through to shop most of the products seen or refer to the list below.

Let me know if I missed anything or if you have any questions!

SOURCE LIST

Leather Sectional
Accent Chairs
Entertainment Center – DIY but similar to this one
Coffee Table – custom built
Artwork Above Couch
Family Room Rug
Dining Room Rug
Chandelier in Family Room
Pendant Light in Dining Room
Dining Table – DIY – Tutorial coming soon!
Leather Woven Dining Chairs
Fireplace Tile
Floor Tile – Treverkchic in Francese
Brass Hardware on Entertainment Center – Sliding Door Handles | Door Plates | Pulls
Barn Door Sliding Track
Wall Planters (spray painted white)
Throw on Couch
Basket
Throw in Basket
Pillow in Basket
Black Mudcloth Pillow 
White Mudcloth Pillow
White Knit Pillow
Grey Velvet Pillow
Brass Candle Holders on Coffee Table
Book on Coffee Table
Round Candle on Coffee Table
Floating Firewood Rack – DIY (tutorial coming soon!)
Basket on Dining Table – HomeGoods
Credenza – Vintage find from Craigslist
Vase on Credenza
Candle holders on credenza
Book on Credenza
Fabric on Window Bench Cushion
Shiplap on Ceiling
Artwork above credenza
Brass Candleholder on Shelf 
Black Track Lighting
Faux Fiddle Leaf Fig