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Before and After…at the in-laws

This week I’m bringing you something a little different, I’m still working on my living room, so I thought we would head over to my in-laws house for a before and after show and tell. My in-laws have lived in this house for about 13 years and were ready for a change. Here’s the before of their dining room…as you can see it was very teal and colorful when they bought it.

A living room filled with furniture and a large window

The Mr. and I refer to this wallpaper lovingly as “the magic eye” wallpaper.

Wallpaper

You all remember those magic eye posters when you were kids, where you try to find the 3D image by staring really closely at a dizzying pattern (I could never quite find them without going cross-eyed)? This wallpaper was a little like that, just a bit too busy for this large of a space. I still liked the idea of wallpaper in this room because I love the texture it added to the space. So we found this one instead…

After formal dining room

I love the subtle trellis pattern of this one, it unfortunately didn’t photograph the best, but here is a close up so you can get a better idea.

After formal dining room

Our goal was to tame it down a bit with a more neutral pallet. They are thinking about downsizing in a few years, now that it is just the two of them. So, we were definitely thinking about resale value during this makeover.

This was fun, because our decorating styles are different –  their house, with it’s gazillion foot tall ceilings (yes, completely accurate measurements only here), is much more formal than mine. My vintage cottagey style would just not fit in here!

 Formal dining room makeover

Besides my help in picking paint colors and wallpaper, my mother in law did a lot of this makeover herself. I was more of a sounding board; a “yes this works”, or” no, let’s try something different” – consultant and I think she did a great job!

Formal dining room makeover

Their house as you can see, has a lot of warmer toned oak paneling and trim in it, and where my first instincts would normally be to paint it all white – that would be a huge undertaking. So, we worked with it, which made picking paint colors a little harder. If any of you have oak in your home you know it can tend to look orange with certain colors so ultimately we decided tones of beige would be our best bet. My mother in law then did a nice job bringing in more color through accessories and fabrics.

Like these chairs she reupholstered (yes she is crafty too!)…

Dining room makeover

A chair sitting in front of a wooden table

and these cool mirrors she found

Mirrors on a wall

One more look at a side by side comparison – A living room filled with furniture and a fireplace

I love that you really notice the beautiful windows and moulding in this room now instead of it being lost amid the darker wallpaper.

After formal dining room

I’ll be sharing more of their makeover later in the week, when we check out their not so formal anymore, formal living room redo.

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18 Comments

  1. Wow, those ceiling are really tall. Great transformation with just changing out the dark wall paper.

  2. Love how light and airy it looks! The chair fabric is beautiful and accessories pull it all together! Great ideas, Kelly!

  3. Beautiful formal dining room. I love they way that the chandy stands out in the redo and I so want to play that piano!!!! :-)

  4. Kelly it’s gorgeous! Tell your MIL that she did a wonderful job with those chairs and picking colors. She’s so blessed to have you to help her too! You guys did a great job working around all that oak that looks so orange – now it looks like it belongs!

  5. The transformation is stunning. I love the new room, with the beiges and soft touches highlighting the wood trim, which I don’t normally like. Beautiful room, gorgeous high ceilings!

  6. The woodwork looks so much like my house and I am so glad you chose not to paint it white. While I love painted wood, I also love the grain in good quality wood that was used for this house when it was built. It looks great!!

  7. Wow! That is a HUGE difference Kelly! It really looks so pretty and I’m loving the new fabric on the chairs. You are the perfect sounding board!

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