No Longer a Dining Room!

We moved into our home in January.  I was very excited as this was the largest home we had owned.  It is not huge by any means, but it was large for us!  There was one room in the house that I knew was going to need to be re-thought........the dining room.  We love to have guests, but really our kitchen was big enough for our large table that seats at least 8...........so, what do to with the dining room?  Keep it as a dining room and let it collect dust?  No......

Or maybe, just use it for storage?  Ha!  Not when it is one of the first rooms you see when you walk into the house!  It actually did look like this for a month or two.  :0)

Nope, we decided to turn it into a library!  I found all kinds of inspiration online and came up with a look that fit us.

For the color we decided to be brave and do black. Well, not exactly black. It actually has quite a bit of brown in it.  The paint color is called Stealth Jet by Behr.  We really think it adds a unique elegance.  We painted the shelving the exact same color to simulate the built-in shelving look.

After searching and searching for fabric, I finally found what I wanted for our curtains.  To my surprise they were at Lowes.


Frame wall.....more to come on this in a later post.

Books galore...........

....... and a chandelier, of course!

Reupholstered chairs fit nicely in the corners, then when we are ready to play a game we pull them up to the table.

Here's the full view.   It's no longer a boring dining room, but an elegant and useful library.  We love it!  We play games, read books, and do homework in here.

How about you?  Have you completely changed the function of one of your rooms?

Note:  Here is how we made the curtain rods for under $5.  Also, another post about the secret to making the built-in shelves.

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