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At The Picket Fence with Vanessa Hunt

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September 8, 2015

Before and After Dining Room Makeover

Well, friends, this is the final installment of the home makeover series we’ve been sharing for the past few days. Or, more accurately, this is the final installment…for now!

farmhouse dining room with bench seating

 

Because Kara and Caleb have more plans for their home and we are going to get the privilege of coming along on the journey. It might be a little while before they tackle the next few rooms. Frankly, they need some time to recover! But there is planning and dreaming and saving in the works and I, for one, cannot wait to see what’s next for them.

Until then, let’s take a look at the beautiful dining room transformation.

Here is how it looked BEFORE

dining room before

And here it is AFTER

Farmhouse style dining room atthepicketfence.com

You can see from this view looking into the old kitchen that there was a wall separating this room from the dining room.

farmhouse kitchen before photo1

Most of that wall was removed and the space reconfigured to create a much more open flow between the rooms.

kitchen looking towards dining room

Now Kara might feel like a short-order cook sometimes but she really didn’t want her kitchen and dining room to look like a diner so the little opening in the wall (in the below photo) just had to go. Order up! šŸ˜‰

Here is is BEFORE.

dining room and kitchen wall before

And here it is AFTER.

farmhouse style dining room off of kitchen

Kara has always wanted a built-in corner china cabinet and this corner provided the perfect opportunity to have that wish come true.

BEFORE

dining room corner before

AFTER

built in corner china cabinet in dining room atthepicketfence.com

Doesn’t the cabinet feel as though it has always been there?

While their house was built in 1972, Kara and Caleb really wanted to update the home and yet still have the feel of a home that has been around for much longer.

farmhouse table centerpiece atthepicketfence.com

They want it to look like a home that has seen many generations grow up and yet will withstand the wear and tear of many generations to come.

They want to seamlessly blend the past with the present all the while making it very much their own.

farmhouse style dining room chandelier

And they would be the first to say that they couldn’t have made it happen without the incredible talent of Tyler Kolb of Tyler Kolb Construction and Martha Anderson of Nest Residential Design who were both able to take their vision and make it a beautiful reality.

If you’ve missed seeing the previous rooms featured or just want to go and drool over them again, here are the links:

Front Door and Entry

Red farmhouse front door atthepicketfence.com

Kitchen Makeover

Farmhouse Cottage Style Kitchen makeover atthepicketfence.com

Family RoomĀ 

built in kitchen cabinet to look like furniture atthepicketfence.com

And as always, thanks for joining us at the fence!

11 Comments Filed Under: Decorating, Home Tour, Parade of Homes Tagged With: decor, decorating, home tour

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Previous Post: « Kitchen and Family Room Makeover
Next Post: Simple Fall Entry Decor »

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Comments

  1. Hope Williams says

    September 8, 2015 at 2:49 AM

    Good morning all! I am just wanting to know her colors. They are just beautiful! These are my colors too! Waiting impatiently as I’m ready to do mine now.
    Have a blessed day everyone, Hope

    Reply
    • At The Picket Fence says

      September 8, 2015 at 7:08 AM

      Hi Hope! I think Kara replied in a previous comment but just in case you didn’t see it here are the colors: The cabinets and the plank wall in the kitchen, as well as the trim throughout are cream (Sherwin Williams Summer White) and the opposite wall with the blue hutch and desk is yellow (Behr Charismatic). The counters are actually a dark brown granite, though without light shining directly on them, they do look more black.

      šŸ™‚

      Reply
  2. june says

    September 8, 2015 at 6:58 AM

    LOVELY! Especially all the touches of red. In the past year we have taken out part of a wall between our kitchen and dining room. It’s been a budget work in progress because I have totally redone my kitchen and the main floor of our home. Wood floors go in this week and I cannot wait. How ironic that my new go to accent is red:)

    Beautiful job!

    Reply
  3. Deborah says

    September 8, 2015 at 3:17 PM

    Seriously breathtaking!!!! Speechless.

    Reply
  4. Doreen says

    September 8, 2015 at 3:28 PM

    What a beautiful transformation!! Well done!

    Reply
  5. Rose L. says

    September 8, 2015 at 6:12 PM

    nice changes! I am struggling to pick a new color for my front door!! I have a hard time making decisions.

    Reply
  6. pamela says

    September 10, 2015 at 1:19 PM

    Your house make over is just beautiful!
    Enjoy!
    Have a great day!

    Reply
  7. Pink Camellias says

    September 10, 2015 at 7:19 PM

    I always love seeing a before and after to see the potential in a space! Well done!

    Reply
  8. martina says

    September 11, 2015 at 4:53 PM

    GORGEOUS!!!!

    Reply
  9. Loni says

    September 17, 2015 at 3:06 PM

    May I inquire what the style name/number of your chandelier and where you purchased it?

    Reply
  10. Loretta says

    September 1, 2016 at 5:17 AM

    How did you make the corner cabinet/china cabinet in your re-done dining room?

    Reply

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I've been watching our cherry trees bloom for 12 y I've been watching our cherry trees bloom for 12 years now and every year I ohhhh and ahhhh over the blossoms like it's the first time I've ever seen them. I gush and I take photos (that look exactly like the ones I took the year before and the year before that) and I make my family come outside and look at them with me which you know they just LOVE to do. šŸ˜‰ I think that is one of the main reasons why I love spring so much. On the one hand, it's predictable and yet, on the other hand, it still feels like such a surprise after the long months of barren branches.

And yesterday, as I was staring at the gorgeous blossoms for the umpteenth time, I couldn't help but think that I hope this is how I feel when our lives return to some semblance of normalcy.

I hope that the predictable feels special and that the typical feels anything but. I hope that I ohhh and ahhh over the simple things I've realized I've taken for granted. And, most of all, I hope that feeling doesn't go away for a very, very long time! šŸ’—
Are you living with great expectation friends? Bec Are you living with great expectation friends? Because He is risen!

Happy Easter from my home to yours!
Lemon bars all ready for tomorrow! It’s going to Lemon bars all ready for tomorrow! It’s going to be a different kind of Easter for sure but some things don’t change. Have you been baking and getting ready for tomorrow? What’s one thing on your menu that you have to have every year?
If this is Good Friday, why doesn’t it feel so ā€œgoodā€? It all seems backward doesn’t it?

What could be good about the unspeakable pain he suffered? What could be good about the shame and betrayal?

Easter Sunday is so joyful, bright and cheery. Shouldn’t that be the day we call ā€œgoodā€? It just feels so much better!

But, I don’t know how to rejoice over His resurrection, unless I have felt the pain of His death. I have realized that in life the sweetest victories are the ones which were realized after a pain-filled journey.

And, so it is with Good Friday. I know there will be victory over death, but I can’t skip ahead in the story.

Jesus knew what was coming. He knew what he would experience. And he knew why he would go through it. He did it for me. He did it for you.

Do you know that? Have you felt it down in the very core of your soul? 
Sometimes it makes me squirm a bit. Why would anyone do that for me?

Well, because, I can’t do it for myself!

There is nothing I can do to earn that kind of love and mercy.

That is why it is called GRACE.

His grace is freely given. We don’t have to pay for it. He paid the price for us already.

Do you remember that movie from years ago called ā€œRansomā€? A couple’s young son was kidnapped and the parents went to hell and back trying to find him and pay the ā€œransomā€ demanded by the kidnappers.

Well, Jesus is our ā€œransomā€. (1 Timothy 2:6) His life was the payment.

Why is it called ā€œGood Fridayā€? Because that wasn’t the end of the story….
.
…It was just the beginning!
Raise your hand if there’s a table in your house Raise your hand if there’s a table in your house that’s become the landing zone for ALL THE THINGS! šŸ™‹šŸ»ā€ā™€ļøšŸ¤Ŗ I’ve never been more thankful for our rarely used dining room table as it’s become command central for school books and laptops and games.

Where are things collecting in your house right now?
ā€œSighing, tears, frustration, anger.ā€ Every si ā€œSighing, tears, frustration, anger.ā€ Every single one of these emotions has made their way through our home in recent days and, my guess is, they have in your home too.

I SO needed this reminder today from the new book ā€˜Adore’ by @sarahagertywrites.

Adoration isn’t just sitting at His feet gazing longingly with stars in my eyes. It’s bringing my fears and my sorrows and gray roots in my hair that desperately needs to be colored and my messy house and all of the things that threaten to send me over the edge right now and laying them down before Him, soaking up His word and His presence so that when I stand back up, I am changed for having spent the time adoring the ONE who is... Healer, comforter, peace-giver, deliverer, redeemer.

What do you need to bring to Him today? I’ll share mine in the comments and I’d love to hear from you too!
I’ve always loved evenings, but since this whole I’ve always loved evenings, but since this whole lockdown thing began, I’ve come to appreciate this time of day even more.

It feels the most...normal. Daytime is strange and foreign right now. My husband has taken over our home office, I’m suddenly taking over the responsibility of managing my kids’ distance learning and let me just say that teaching 7th grade algebra to my daughter is hugely ironic since I struggled with math all the way through school. I’m trying to do my own work but it feels utterly futile with the constant interruptions which take precedence right now. In the daytime, I’m constantly reminded of how upside down life feels.

But, in the evening, I cook dinner like I’ve always done and we gather around the table like we’ve always done and we laugh and tell stories and then clean up and play games or go on a walk or watch a show. And that feels SO gloriously normal.

So now I love evenings even more than I ever did before and I’m so grateful for this little chunk of time where the rhythms we established years ago are helping to sustain us now when so much of life feels outside of our control.

What feels ā€˜normal’ to you right now? Whatever it is, keep doing it. 🌿
When I was in college I would frequently call home When I was in college I would frequently call home and pour my heart out to my mom, sharing with her all that was happening in my life in that completely unfiltered way that you can talk with the person who potty trained you. These phone calls usually took place at night and my mom would patiently listen as I vented frustrations about professors, roommates, boyfriends and the food in the cafeteria. And, inevitably, they would end with my mom saying, ā€œEverything seems worse when you’re tired. Try not to overthink things or make any major decisions tonight, especially when you are feeling emotional.ā€ Dear friends, may I pass along this advice to you today?

If you don’t absolutely HAVE to make a decision right now, I want to encourage you to wait until life gets back to normal. If you are finding yourself over-analyzing relationships and family dynamics, I want to encourage you to remember that everything seems more dramatic when looked at under a microscope. And, let’s face it, being homebound with our loved ones non-stop makes us all feel like lab rats in an experiment.

If you are tempted to quit a job, start a business, start homeschooling permanently, stop homeschooling permanently, move to a new city, buy a farm, quit pursuing your dream, join a commune or make any other major life decision just…wait. Because, if it is in fact the right decision, it will be made even clearer once our lives return to their ā€˜regularly scheduled programming’. Instead, in this strange season, let’s all just take a deep, collective breath and let it out slowly, releasing the anxiety that threatens to overtake us. Let’s help each other maintain some perspective and not slip into a posture of over-thinking every little thing in our lives. Let’s remember that the enemy of our souls would love nothing more than to use this time when things feel dark to manipulate us into thinking that aspects of our lives are worse than they actually are.

My prayer for you in these days is that you will have the clarity to know what is true and that you will be filled with peace even while we live in this season of so many unknowns.
Raise your hand if you’re doing more baking thes Raise your hand if you’re doing more baking these days! šŸ™‹šŸ»ā€ā™€ļø I’m trying to avoid gaining the #corona15 but my daughter and I LOVE baking together and it does help to pass the time plus it counts as a science lesson right?

If you’re able to find flour in the stores (for the love people please stop overbuying!) and you’re doing more baking at your house too you need to add this apricot bread to your list of new recipes to try!

Normally I’d point you to my blog for the directions but I’m going to do you a solid and leave the full recipe in the comments.

What have you baked so far during this time of social distancing? I’d love some new ideas!
There are a LOT of people out walking in our neigh There are a LOT of people out walking in our neighborhood right now (but still social distancing!) and she decided that she wanted to bring them some joy and put a smile on their face when they pass by our house. Also, the square with ā€˜say no to coronavirus’ is priceless. šŸ˜‚ I just love her so much!
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