*WARNING: Crazy good before-and-afters ahead!*

A few weeks ago, Julia contacted me wanting a little advice concerning her dining room.

{Julia’s dining room BEFORE}

 {Julia’s dining room BEFORE}

She wanted to introduce some contrast with a navy and white color scheme.  Julia mentioned painting the ceiling. She asked that the dining table, bench seating, curtains and mirror stay. She was ‘iffy’ on the pendant light and dining chairs.  Julia felt the hand-me-down rug was too small for the space as well.

I suggested that Julia first declutter the room by removing the bookshelf, wall art and kid’s table. You know I like some high contrast, so I suggested Julia paint the walls above the chair rail navy and the walls below the chair rail white.  If she really wanted to paint the ceiling, I thought a nice light gray would look nice.  While the dark velvet curtains were of high quality, I asked Julia if she would be able to relocate them to another room in her home.  The visual weight of the dark curtains would have felt heavy against navy walls.  Instead, I suggested Julia hang lighter, subtly patterned panels to pop against the navy walls and give the room a touch of pattern.  I am fond of natural seagrass or sisal in dining spaces – especially when kids are involved – as they hold up nicely against crumbs and spills. I relayed this to Julia as well.  Julia was wanting new dining chairs to contrast with her warm wood table but I told her I didn’t think new chairs were necessary since the current ones had a nice simple shape to them. If anything, she could paint them white for more contrast if she so desired.  I recommended painting the wall mirror gloss white to pop against the navy walls.  Finally, I asked Julia to DIY a nature-inspired table centerpiece by gathering a bunch of leafy branches from outside and plopping them into a vase.

Julia did exactly what I love to see people do when I offer them advice.  She took all my suggestions, interpreted them to fit her time frame and budget, and RAN with them!

Check out Julia’s warm and inviting dining room now…

The navy walls are Benjamin Moore’s Hale Navy which Julia chose herself and had color-matched in Olympic’s no VOC paint.  She painted the chair rail and walls below white to match the existing trim.  The white chair rail keeps the navy from feeling oppressive.  Julia decided against painting the ceiling gray once she saw the result of the navy walls and white chair rail together.  Julia also chose to remove the heavy velvet curtains to reveal white sheers beneath.

The chunky table and bench stayed and, to save time and money, Julia borrowed a larger 8’x10′ cream and gray rug from her living room. For now, Julia has chosen to keep her dining chairs as is. Personally, I hope they continue to grow on her.  I love ’em just the way they are, contrasting warmly with the white and navy.

Julia did a great job of decluttering and emptying the room of unnecessary furniture pieces.  She opted to keep a petite console beneath the wall mirror to ground the mirror.

The newly painted white mirror really pops against and brightens the moody navy walls.

And check out those amazing, blazing branches on display in the center of the table!  Julia clipped them from outside and brought them indoors, adding just the right amount of accent color to the room.  Gorgeous.

Even though the adjoining kitchen and sunroom are lighter in color, the new navy walls tie in nicely with Julia’s tiled kitchen backsplash and patterned throw on the back of the sofa in the sunroom. Making an effort to repeat colors – even in small doses – in each room of a home is a great way to keep things feeling cohesive.

And now for a side-by-side, before-and-after comparison because…well, because everyone likes a good before-and-after.

That’s one amazing transformation, isn’t it?!  The navy walls work well in Julia’s dining room because there are a lot of ‘breaks’ in the walls: doorways to adjoining rooms, a large window, a light-bouncing mirror and the white chair rail.

Who would have guessed that this jaw-dropping makeover only cost Julia the small price of paint and painting supplies for the navy walls?  {She used leftover white paint in her basement for the chair rail.} Yet another great example of how decluttering + a little paint can transform a ho-hum room.  Ah, the power of paint.  Not every great ‘after’ has to happen with demolition and renovation!

Thanks, Julia, for sharing your new dining room.  You did an awesome job!  I’m inspired.  And I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one.

What’s your favorite part of Julia’s dining room makeover?  I’m totally diggin’ the deep navy walls and that Mother Nature-inspired centerpiece.

FYI – To read and see more about Julia’s dining room makeover, including a few in-progress shots, click over to her Happy Happy Home blog.

images:  all courtesy of Julia from Happy Happy Home

Since I’m on a flooring kick…

…here’s the tile I’ve chosen for the mudroom/dining room/laundry nook.  This is the space I’m talking about if you need your memory jogged…

How could you forget the green carpet remnant, window A/C unit, hideous ceiling fan and dryer that vented directly into the attic?  Ick.

As I’ve mentioned already, this room has direct access to the backyard {through the sliders seen above} and to the garage {through the man door seen above} and thus will see a lot of traffic from dirty, muddy, wet shoes.  Even though keeping flooring consistent throughout a small space is essential to achieving a cohesive look, I felt that a durable tile floor {versus engineered hardwood} would better suit our family and our daily activities in this area.

In essence, this space will serve as a mudroom, extra dining space, laundry room, storage room and craft room all in one.  Whew.

So back to that tile I chose…

It’s a natural stone.  Travertine to be exact.  Also called limestone sometimes.  When considering tile for the mudroom, I was immediately drawn to natural stone tile versus ceramic/porcelain tile.  The subtle pattern and color variation of the natural stone felt and looked organic and, well, natural. Unlike all the other flooring I’ve had to choose {bathroom tile, engineered hardwood}, it took me about 20 seconds to find this tile and name it ‘the one.’  Quick, easy, painless.  All I had to do was get Handy Hubby on board.

Guess what?  He LOVED the travertine!  Yippee.  One easy, agreeable Underdog decision under our belts!

Travertine comes in several different finishes:  tumbled {like what you may see as a kitchen backsplash with lots of grooves and pits}, chiseled & brushed {which has a natural but high end look}, and honed & filled {where the naturally occurring holes and pits are filled in and the tile is given a satin finish}.  The tile I chose is honed and filled.  Why?

Because it has more of a natural matte finish and looks a lot like concrete.  Here’s an image I snapped with my phone in-store at The Tile Shop that shows a better real life perspective…

I love how each tile has its own individual color variations and patterns running throughout.  Not one stone is the same as the next.  The gray, mocha and tan tones go along with the rich Texas Brown birch {seen at bottom right in the image above} I chose for most of the rest of the house.  Rocks, mud and dirt should hide on this tile nicely!  I also like the large size of the tile.

The non-polished, satin finish gives it a rustic look.  Much like concrete.  HH and I really like this effect as we plan on DIYing concrete countertops in most of the kitchen.  Having this concrete-esque finish in the adjoining mudroom will keep things flowing nicely and feeling cohesive even with the floor changing over to wood in the kitchen.  At least, that’s how we see it.

{kitchen of Jenna Lyons – complete with concrete countertops, black lower cabinets, light walls and hardwood floors – sound familiar?}

To warm things up in the mudroom/dining room {since tile alone can lend a sterile look}, I’d like to add a small area rug and a round/oval wood table.  {I’ve secretly been hunting for a table and just found one yesterday in a surprising place!  More on that next week…}  Yes, you heard me right, a wood table.  As in a wood tone table.  No painting it white.  I told you I was feeling a little more masculine this time around.

{sadly, that’s not the table I found but it’s great, isn’t it?!}

Although we’ll most likely eat regular family meals at the future island in the future kitchen, I’d like a small table in the mudroom to serve as a craft area, sewing table, family game night table, homework surface, laundry folding surface and extra dining space.  I think a round one {that possibly extends to an oval} would be perfect for the modest room.  It can’t be too big because we’ll need to fill one wall with tons of storage.  Because a dining room that doubles as a mudroom needs storage, right?

Anyhow, it feels great to have flooring decisions made.  As overwhelmed as I felt in the beginning, it was fun to consider all the options out there.  There are soooo many!!  Getting the floors nailed down {figuratively speaking} has helped me pin an aesthetic for the Underdog.  Floors can have such an impact on a home’s style.  Have you recently made a decision on new flooring?  Do you have a favorite floor in your house already?  Are you contemplating new floors?  What’s your dream floor?  Just keep talking floors since I’m already on the subject.

Happy weekend!

images:  1) The Tile Shop  2 & 3) Dana Miller for House*Tweaking  4) The Tile Shop  5) Dana Miller for House*Tweaking  6) Ken Levenson  7) Style Homes