Dining Room Wall Makeover

Happy Tuesday y'all! I'm so excited to show you our updated dining room today. If you know me, or have been around the blog for any length of time you'll know that nothing in our house stays the same for very long. I'm the queen of the "little tweaks" here and there. all. the. time. Our dining room dictionary wall, however, has been displayed loud and proud for 8 or 9 years. That's a long time in Jessica land. Last week that reign came to an end. Check out our dining room update!

Before Christmas, I got it in my head to change this wall. Simplify it. Freshen it up. Don't get me wrong. I LOVED the dictionary wall. It was such a conversation piece...and obviously super informative. But I started to notice it was yellowing a bit. I was seeing more crinkled pages and felt like the wall needed an update.

I love it!! I'm so glad I went for it.

I thought I'd show you some old pictures of this room before I flood you with the new. First up is the wall before we even moved in. Beige and wallpapered.

To cover up the outdated wallpaper, I pasted dictionary pages over the top.

This is definitely not right after that but this is the way the dining room was introduced on the blog. Everything got a coat of white paint. The vanity and the artwork around it gave a symmetrical look.  The light fixture was a DIY with an embroidery hoop and fabric and can be read about here.

rug *aff link

Then we bought a new rug to bring a bit of color into the space and I updated the light fixture with another DIY. Read about that here.

rug *aff link

From here I felt like I wanted to bring in a bit more of a modern look. So we got new chairs (found here *aff link) and I refinished the table.

That brings us to now. I was so thankful that Spoonflower said 'YES!' when I reached out to them about their beautiful wallpaper. If you don't know about Spoonflower, let me tell you. Artists and designers and anyone can upload their own designs, then those designs can be printed out on wallpaper, fabric and lots of other goodies. I worked with them for the playroom last year and used their peel and stick. It's great quality and because anyone and everyone can upload and any design can be printed, there are so many amazing patterns to choose from. (They didn't ask me to tell you any of this but I really am a fan.)

For this wall I ordered water-activated wallpaper. The real deal. Now that I have experience hanging both, I can say that this kind was so much easier to work with. Yes, harder to take down someday but it was so forgiving and went on so smoothly and pretty...ly.

The print is called boho_tile by Holli Zollinger.  She has a lot of designs that I loved.

Lamps Plus sent me their wray black and antique brass sconces.  In my quest for simplicity, I wanted sconces to create the symmetry I love and less stuff on the walls. Not so many nail holes either.

They are so pretty. The brass accents work well with the light fixture over the table and the cabinet hardware in the kitchen.

Did you notice the new ledge I built?! To beef up the wall, I built a ledge using a 1x6 and a 1x2. I'm happy to write a tutorial if you're interested in that. You can find my picture ledge DIY here.

The ledge and the art helped me to hide the sconce cords.

The backs of the built ins got a light and bright coat too.

The art and baskets on the ledges were all thrifted but also all pulled together while shopping our house. Always shop your house first!

So that's it! It turned out exactly as I had pictured in my head. That's always a plus, right? I know the dictionary wall was a favorite but what do you think?

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 Thanks for reading, friends!

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