A dining room makeover | Featuring Laura Ashley

I mentioned a couple of week’s ago that I was planning a dining room makeover.

I’d put together a little mood-board, picked out the wall-paint and chosen a couple of bits and pieces to give the room a bit of a refresh.

The room was OK before — not hideous — but it was all a little bit bland and mismatched. The carpets were old and tatty, the paint was scuffed and the lights and chair cushions had certainly seen better days.

The biggest thing that needed to be done though was painting the dining room table and chairs.

I decided to freshen it up and get rid of the fagnolia cream finish that it had had since we bought it, in favour of a cotton white shade from Laura Ashley.

In the past I’ve used Annie Sloan chalk paint but decided to try something new; Laura Ashley’s decorative furniture paint was fabulous. Really easy to work with and gave a lovely chalky finish.

It was quite a big task as the table is fairly large and there are 8 chairs; all with lots and lots of surface area.

I took the rattan seats off the chairs, gave all the surfaces a light sand with medium grade sandpaper then set to work with the paint.

It goes on really well and gives a lovely coverage and *might* have just taken the top spot for favourite furniture paint! ;)

It took a couple of weekends; sanding, painting, waiting for the coats to dry — in between looking after two little three year olds! I daresay, if you didn’t have any other distractions, you could probably paint a large dining set in a weekend.

Teamed with fresh white and duck-egg blue checked seat pads, the painted dining room table and chairs looked so much better.

The rest of the room took slightly longer — painting the walls and the woodwork plus waiting for a qualified electrician to install the lights*

*I may be a fearless DIYer but I’m not stupid. The first rule of home improvements is

‘Know your limits.’

And electricity is definitely not to be messed with!! ;)

I’d chosen some gorgeous fisherman style wall lights that were really similar to a little side lamp we have up in one of the guest rooms. Very simple but very lovely — and so much more stylish than the up-lighters that we inherited with the house.

(Sorry up-lighters.)

So there we have it!

A few little changes and one tired — shabby but not chic — dining room, given a little makeover and looking so much better!!

Not a million miles away from how it used to be but cleaner, fresher and with a little bit of added jshoosh (is that even a word?).

Still no pictures on the wall or knick-knacks on the shelves or fireplace yet; but I made the decision from the start that I didn’t want to rush in and put everything back the way it was to start with.

I’d perhaps like to find some pretty tiles for the hearth plus I’d like some blinds — or curtains — for the windows and maybe a lovely mirror for over the fireplace.

Anyway.

There’s plenty of time to make decisions on that and I don’t want to rush things. After all that painting, this is the nice bit. Time to relax for a bit!

Huge thanks to the lovely folk at Laura Ashley who collaborated — very patiently — with me on this dining room makeover! :)

All photos, thoughts and words — as ever — are entirely my own.