Porch House // Dining Room Before + After
THE PORCH HOUSE Even though we bought the Porch House a year ago (an entire year!) and have already sold it, there are still a ton of spaces we haven't gotten to on the blog yet. There's the living room, the entire upstairs, the kitchen, the exterior, and the dining room. Phew! I'm chomping at the bit to share these, so today we're going to look at the dining room.
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Believe it or not, this dining room saw quite a bit of renovation work even though we didn't have to do any major changes. This was one of those rooms that just needed to be cleaned up and left alone as much as possible. Here's what the dining room looked like when we first bought the Porch House.
This room had great bones: original moldings, hardwood floors, a large window, and a built-in hutch. It was so good that we didn't need a design plan, we just needed to bring it into the 21st century. And indeed, besides the ceiling fan, baseboard heater, and floors - which were all of the wrong era or in too rough of shape to salvage - we saved everything else.
Even with our small design agenda, there was still a fair amount of work to do: electrical, heating, paint, lighting, fixing up the old hutch, plaster repair, and of course the new hardwood floors. This room wasn't part of our 16-day HGTV pilot, Master Plan, so we had the luxury of time to finish this room.
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Most of you know that we sold the Porch House to Garrett's parents so we never had to stage this space, but I did bring in the couch and table from the sunroom to give you a bit of scale. In hindsight I wish I had taken more photos of this room finished, like of the window and the opposite vantage point. Ugh. At the end of an extensive renovation like this one, we're always so busy with the punch list and super eager to pack up and be done that sometimes (read: almost always) photos are the lowest priority. More often than not, I find myself wishing I had taken more photos when I finally get around to downloading them. But so it goes in the glamorous life of DIY renovators ;)
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One thing I love in this dining room is the light fixture. It's far more modern than I usually select for our spaces, but it's sculptural, bright, and focal - everything we needed in here. We opted to leave the fixture high instead of dropping it over the table, because we didn't know where the future owners would put the table or even if they'd use this space as a dining room.
I'd love to know where you stand on the modern-light-in-an-old-house look, championed by Old Home Love among others. It was definitely an uncharacteristic move for me, but I'm surprised by just how much I love it!
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Sources: wall paint - BM Simply White // trim paint - C2 Vex // chandelier // velvet pillows // latch on hutch // vase (similar) // table and couch vintage (from Craigslist) //
Related Posts: Porch House hardwood floors // Porch House floor plan // We're Filming a Pilot for HGTV // Dexter House Backyard //