Dining Room Before & After

Recently I’ve been itching to make a few small changes around the house. In my opinion, when you can’t do a major overhaul, a few minor details can make a room much more appealing.
This past weekend we hosted a surprise party for my friend CK’s 30th birthday. It was great- she didn’t suspect a thing and we had a wonderful time! Needless to say when you are hosting a get-together, you want your house to look nicer than usual. The stuff that you can tolerate on a day-to-day basis doesn’t seem so insignificant when you have guests coming. So before the party, we changed the decor in the dining room to help pretty it up a bit.
The before…

Pretty bland and boring. The picture is to small for that wall on its own and the window needs some dressing up.
And after…

So much prettier!
I got the curtains at Ikea and love them because they are super long. They come 98” long with iron-on hemming tape so you can adjust the length to your windows and how high you want to hang them. $14.99 for two panels works for me.

The photo arrangement was so easy and cheap compared to buying expensive artwork or photography, which frankly just isn’t in the budget right now. I found a book about lighthouses at Barnes & Noble a while ago and it’s been sitting in the garage waiting for this very project. Believe it or not, the frames were from the Dollar Store! Up close they’ve got a couple dings and they certainly aren’t high quality but unless you really look hard, you can’t tell. I bought mattes at Michael’s and we just attached picture hangers to the back and voila! The arrangement fits the large wall much better and brings some color into the room.
The hydrangeas and tulips are from Trader Joes. I was really impressed with how many stems you can get for such a reasonable price. The vases are from Ikea and Target and were so cheap. Overall I’m really pleased with how much different the room looks with just a few cheap thrifty updates.