5 Hour Dining Room Makeover Under $300

So, I did something completely crazy the other day. My mom went out of town, and I thought I would surprise her with redoing her dining room. We've talked about a few things in the past, but never actually said that we were going to do anything. I planned on having the weekend, 2 days to complete the transformation by myself. Well, my 2 days turned into 5 hours. I didn't know until the Friday before that she was coming home early on Saturday instead of late Sunday. I still wanted to do something, so I gave a swing at it and this is what happened :) You can also find a video at the bottom to check out the hour by hour coverage!

Here's the before of her dining room.

 Her house has gone through quite the transformation already since she bought it. The dining room was one of them. The dining room used to be twice this size. She put a dividing wall down the middle to create a bedroom on the other side. She then carved out a hole (which you'll see below) to make it more open concept through the converted garage/living room. She always felt that the dining room just looked like a huge hole in the wall...which, it kind of was. So, we decided we needed to add more character to tie it in with the rest of the space.

Here's the list I wanted to get done:
Add square board and batten to the back wall
Change out baseboards
Refinish and add a new top to the existing table
Decorate -new rug, curtains, chairs, wall art, and accessories 
Add board and batten 2/3 up the two adjacent walls
Trim window

I was hopeful that all of this was going to get done, but I decided to prioritize the list just in case I couldn't do it all. So, I placed the most important and impactful things first.

So, first was moving the furniture and that huge mirror off the wall, which was quite a feat in itself. Once that was done, I removed the old baseboards. This did take some time since they were stuck in the wall with 3 " nails. Kid you not. Getting those out was quite the adventure :)

I then started painting the back wall. I chose Linen White by Glidden, but used Behrs full coverage paint. More expensive, but saved time on coats.

 I didn't get any real good pictures of the process of putting up the board and batten since I was super tight on time and my mind was on just getting it done. But, you can see my full square board and batten tutorial here. I used the same method.

Once I finished the board and batten on the back wall, I tackled the table. I'll put up a full tutorial on how I did the table soon. It was super simple and pretty quick. I did run into some problems with the trim staying on, but I remedied that after the reveal. 

 Once the table was done and the back wall was done. My mom was 40 minutes away. I knew I couldn't do the other things. Which was too bad, but luckily the decor and those two things made a huge difference!

 For the chairs, I used some of mine I had hanging around and thought they would look so cute in here. I also used a bench I made that she had moved out of her entryway into storage. I think moving out those big chairs made a big difference in the illusion of the size of this space.

I just love this beam on the entrance of this room. And can we talk about the brick wall that's peaking through in the mirror? I can't wait to get my hands a hold of that room next!

 I found this gorgeous vase for a steal of $13! My wanted a cottage feel, so I figured this was a good way to tie some cottage and farmhouse elements.

 I knew she loved this mirror, and that she wanted to keep it. But, hanging it back up was no joke! It was at this time that my brother came home and was able to help me put it back up. This was the only help I got through this process. I could not get it straight, so it literally took like half an hour trying to get this thing to look decent.

 Here's the 'hole in the wall'. There's actually two steps down from this into the living room.

 Here's the space afterwards. It's just amazing what a little paint and new decor can do to a space!

If you look closely you can see that I totally space putting up the other side of baseboards :) Oops! 

After making this table, I decided that the apron needed to be a bit larger. So, I actually went back to her house and redid the table and added the board and batten on the other walls. I'll share that full reveal with you all soon :)

 As for this carpet...can we just talk about it? I'm not sure what the style was back in the day, but this is purple-pink berber carpet. I just don't get it. I've been telling my mom to change it for years now and yet, here it still sits :) I know she is waiting to do hardwood, so until that's in the budget, this awesome purple carpet stays!

Here's the cost breakdown for this portion of the reveal:
Back wall, paint and boards: $100
Curtains: Target, clearance $16
Rug: Rugs USA $50
Wall art: Hobby Lobby $17
Lamp: $30
Vase and cotton stems: $20
Chairs: Gifted (found here on Amazon)
Table; $45
Total: $258

 Once again, I did go back and finish the walls and everything else I wanted to do. I'll have that reveal soon! :)

I decided it would be fun to document this whole thing, so here's a pretty rough video of the hour by hour footage :) And the reveal for my mom!

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