DIY Dining Room Decorating Ideas

I'll admit it, when we bought our first house we got along with it our very first dining room. I had no idea what to do with that room. For the first year it was my absolute least favorite room in my house, which was such a sad thing since we ate all our meals there! It was where the whole family hung out and spent time together and I didn't love the room...yet.

We also entertain pretty often and it was always a bummer since I wasn't proud of that room. It just felt so drab, totally unlike the rest of our funky, bright and colorful house. To make matters worse? Our dining room is the first room you see when you walk into our house! Unfortuately, we were totally broke from all the million other things that came before being able to purchase a new dining room table or anything like that. So I need to make changes on a budget. Sigh.

So I got to work and my dining room is still a work in progress but I'm loving it more and more with the completion of each job. Isn't that the way it goes?

All of these projects below are how-to guides that you can adapt to your own personal style!

Sew a Dining Room Tablecloth
To change the look of my space quickly, I decided to sew a few tablecloths. Afterall, my table was just a plain brown boring flat surface and was one of the first things you see upon walking into my home. With two kids though I knew it needed to be wipeable but didn't could find anything pre-made that suited my style.

So with the help of a little laminated cotton and double fold bias tape, I now have amazingly unique tablecloths on the cheap and they are wipeable and washable!

Paint & Recover Your Dining Room Chairs
Can you believe I found these at the side of the road, just down the street from our home? Sure, they were ugly at first (dark green with yellow cushions) but they sure were sturdy and I knew they had so much potential!

Here is a complete guide to painting and recovering the cushions of dining room chairs. We use our painted dining set daily (with two kids and pets!) and they have held up wonderfully. This particular tutorial uses spray paint, which worked out great for chairs.

Revamp Your China Hutch
Here is a guide to giving a facelift to your old china hutch. This can totally change the look of your room, especially if it is a dark one like mine used to be and you want to add more light in the room! Mine went from drab to fab (am I seriously using cheesy phrases like this now?) just with paint.

This particular piece was distressed and glazed to show all the details in the wood and I share my step by step process for great results. I also love how it inspired me to really create a nice display inside.

Whatever your decorating style may be, I hope you find some inspiration here to make this room one that you love! Especially if you actually eat in your dining room (apparently many people do not) I hope that you will enjoy the space more with a few DIY projects! And of course if you don't use the space, perhaps if you make it a room that you love you will start migrating there for your meals!