So, you may be wondering what making lemonade has to do with the dining room makeover. Stick with me here for a minute and it will make sense. Remember that SUV full of IKEA boxes I shared on Instagram? Well, some of them were a floating BESTA system that we were going to set up as a console table in our entry way. We were SO excited to finally be working on the entry. We even bought two chairs to stain, one for each side of the console. Imagine my horror when Corey opened the first box and said the wood was lighter than he remembered. I took one look and knew it was wrong! Normally, this would just be an inconvenience and we’d go switch out the boxes and go about our day. Except that IKEA is just over FOUR HOURS away!
So, I pouted. I tried to convince Corey it was a good idea to get in the car and drive back to Texas, make the exchange, and drive back the same day.
He wasn’t so convinced that was the best idea 🙂 So I schemed and planned and schemed some more. Looking at the calendar, it was going to be mid-July before we could get back to do the exchange. And I’m just not that patient. Instead, I started carrying a piece of the cabinet around the house. After a few tries, I ended up in the dining room. If I tilted my head, and squinted my eyes just right I could envision the BESTA cabinet working as a side table in the dining room!
There you have it. I took my lemon of bringing the wrong cabinet home into the lemonade of doing a mini-makeover of the dining room! We choose to leave the upper shelf open instead of installing the drawer units that we bought when it was going to be an entry table, but that was the only adjustment we needed.
Now that you’ve read the long-winded back story, it’s time for the fun part!
Here is a before shot from Christmas. The bones of the room were great, it was just a little boring. The stand on the left was just there for Christmas because we needed somewhere for the nativity scene. And the giant poinsettia was just there because I won it at a Christmas party 🙂 The rest of the time both corners were empty.
Before
Here are the after shots! I’ll add a source list at the bottom so you can just enjoy the pictures for a moment!
After
Some of you wondered what we were going to do with the giant Jackie when you noticed her missing from our office makeover before & afters. Once we installed the new console, we realized Jackie would work great in the dining room since the BESTA series is more modern that most of our furnishing and Jackie needs a swanky modern space.
In addition to bringing Jackie in, I painted the silver mirror black and added a few accessories we had picked up in thrift/antique stores lately. The bar cart was added in the spring after months of stalking it at Target waiting for it to go on clearance. I also re-framed some photos with clearance frames from Hobby Lobby for the right side wall.
Source List:
Bar Cart : Target (Clearance – woot woot)
Ice Bucket: Oh Joy for Target Spring Collection
Horse Print: Artist Anthony Grant (purchased at local art festival)
Console: IKEA BESTA ($120 total)
Pieces needed to match our side table set up:
1 – BESTA shelf unit/height extension unit47 1/4 x 15 3/4 x 25 1/4 ($70)
2 – BESTA VARA doors 23 5/8 x 15″ ($5 each)
2 – BESTA Suspension Rails 23 5/8 ($10 each)
1 – BESTA top panel in gloss white 47 1/4 x 15 3/4 ($20)
Oh yeah, the color of the console in the photos is Medium Brown. They also come in white & BLACK-BROWN, which is what we intended to buy. In our defense, the aisle we were in had about two million boxes labeled either white or brown. I can’t tell you how many times we checked every box to make sure it said brown and not white. So tricky that there must have been another aisle with the darker brown!
For a room makeover that started with a BIG box picking mistake at IKEA, I am in love with the way it turned out.
If you love room reveals, make sure you check out the kitchen tour!
Post linked up at: Take a Look Tuesday, DIY’ers, Do Tell Tuesday, The Makers, Whimsy Wednesday, Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Inspiration Gallery, The Pin Junkie, Craft Frenzy Friday, Remodelaholic, Work It Wednesday, Link It or Lump It, Thrifty Decor Chick
Katie @ Addicted 2 DIY says
I love it in there! Great job on making it work in another room! It looks like it was meant to go there in the first place, which is always a bonus:)
Carmody says
I love this dining room! Before we had an Ikea in Charlotte we would travel to Atlanta to shop. I remembering opening up a box containing parts of our new wardrobe and discovering it was damaged. 4 hour drive,,,, Your dining room turned out great.
Julie says
This really does look good in your dining room. I love that it is suspended on the wall and doesn’t sit all the way on the floor. And Jackie adds a nice pop of color in there 🙂
Melissa George says
Thank you Julie! I was terrified I would hate it once we drilled all the holes in the wall to hang it up. It was such a relief when I stepped back and realized it actually worked well in the room.
the cape on the corner says
i love how you are using that unit for wine glass storage. and i love that it’s on the wall, too.
Tracy says
What a brilliant idea .will you buy more for the hall or is there a new plan
Melissa George says
Thanks Tracy! The entry hall is sadly back on hold. We almost ordered more right away, then came back to the reality that we had already gone over budget with home decor/furnishings this month. Maybe in the fall we’ll take a trip back down!
Corey @ Tinysidekick says
I love this. What a way to transform the space and make it so much fun! And Jackie found a new home!!! Thanks for partying with us at The Makers this week!
Paige says
I love, love, love everything about your dining room. You have great style!
DOROTHY b says
i LOVE THIS! i WISH I COULD COPY THIS FOR MY DINING ROOM, BUT MY GRANDMA’S QUEEN ANNE DINING ROOM TABLE AND CHARISWOULDN’T BE GOOD PARTNERS FOR IT, I GUESS. aND JACKIE! ! ADORE HER; SHE *ALWYAS** DESERVES A PROMINENT PLACE; I’M COVETING HER TOO.
Melissa George says
Thank you Dorothy! We were lucky that our existing furniture was just transitional enough that it wasn’t totally awkward to combine the styles.
Tina says
The horse print is perfect and really brings out the colors of both the print and the IKEA unit. Perfect place for it in the dining room too! Will be handy as a sideboard. Great designing!
Melissa George says
Thanks so much Tina! We bought the horse print way before we knew we were going to update the dining room, then last week I found the frame on clearance for $8 at Hobby Lobby and it was perfect for the horse! Then the print & the frame ended up perfect in the room. I was SO SO SO disappointed when that IKEA unit was wrong, but I should have known everything would work out in the end!
Emily says
love the space! Super Cute! Thanks for sharing with us at Your Designs This Time!
Shelly says
I’m drooling over that Target bar cart! Way to make décor “lemonade” with your IKEA oops! It turned out to be something good instead of an oops!
Melissa George says
Thanks Shelly! I am SO relieved I can smile every time I walk past the dining room instead of being bummed about our mistake!
Elisa says
What a great makeover! This post gave me some ideas on how to decorate our dining room 🙂
Melissa George says
Yeah! That makes me smile 🙂 The dining room makeover is making me want to go through and add modern touches to the rest of the house as well.